As business owners and salespeople, we spend much of our time bringing in new business. It doesn’t matter if you are a B2C or B2B company, you have the same goal. You want to grow your business, so you use marketing strategies and your CRM to attract qualified leads.
Once a lead becomes a customer, what happens next? This is what we want to consider in this article. Do you forget about your customers after they purchase and continue to pursue new business? Do you think about them from time to time? Do you employ strategies to include them in growing your business?
Attracting new business is important, but retaining customers is just as important. According to Zippia.com:
- Boosting customer retention by 5% increases profits by 25-95%.
- Companies have a 60-70% chance of selling to an existing customer vs. a 5-20% chance of selling to a new customer.
- 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers.
- It costs six to seven times more to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones.
As you can see, what you do with leads after they become customers can help you sell more with less effort. Let’s say you are a company that supplies cleaning and restroom products to office buildings. You use Google Adwords and other advertising channels to attract new customers who fill out a lead generation form on your website or call a phone number. The lead generation form and the phone record start the lead interaction in your CRM. Using your CRM, you automate drip campaigns, send out quotes, schedule appointments, and the list goes on to convert leads to customers. Once they become a customer, they have a contract with you for monthly services over the next two years.
The question is, once they become a customer, how can you, as a supply company, use your CRM to continue to nurture your customers? After all, according to the statistics, this will increase your profits and increase your chances of closing more sales.
Create an email drip campaign
One of the best ways to stay engaged with your customers after their initial purchase is to create a drip campaign in your CRM. When the lead becomes a customer, they are added to a dynamic list and trigger the email drip campaign. The triggered emails can contain information that keeps your customers informed. A drip campaign sequence for your supply company could include the following:
- Email #1: Welcome
- Email #2: What to expect with your monthly services
- Email #3: Tips for a cleaner office
- Email #4: Other services that we provide
- Email #5: Ask for referrals
Drip campaigns help you stay engaged without having to remember to follow up.
Automate and segment messages based on customer criteria
Automation and segmentation can help you engage with customers on a personal level. Using your CRM, you can add personal criteria that triggers messages through email or text to your customer. Criteria can include the following:
- Scheduled reminders based on the customers delivery/pickup date
- Holiday messages based on the holidays your customers observe
- Birthdays
- Offers and deals based on office specs (type of business, square footage, number of employees)
Request customer feedback and reviews
Customer feedback and reviews are a great way to learn how you are doing and what you can do better to meet the needs of your customers. After a lead becomes a customer, use your CRM to request feedback and reviews by doing the following:
- Create a feedback form in your CRM that you can send to a new customer after they sign a contract. You can also send feedback forms after each service call so you can ensure that your drivers are providing great customer service.
- Create a link to your review sites (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) through your CRM and send it the customer. You can automate the process, so that if they do not click on a review link after a specific timeframe, you can re-send it to them.
Conclusion
You do not want to forget your customers whether you are a supply company or another product and service company. You want to continue to engage with them even after they sign a contract. When your customers are valued, they stay, continue to buy, and refer. A CRM is an important tool to help you maintain and grow your relationship with your customers.
X2CRM is a powerful, open-source CRM that gives you the tools to grow business and retain customers. Contact us to schedule a demo of X2CRM and learn you can use it to increase sales and profit while reducing Follow Up Fatigue.
