What was that mistake? I was so busy looking for new customers, I forgot about the ones I already had. Once I built a solid book of business, I should have been focusing on nurturing, appreciating, and continuing to serve the customers I worked so hard to gain. Many business owners make this mistake, and this week’s blog is to share a few tips and tricks to balance customer acquisition and retention.

Here are a couple of tips I wish I had in the early days of business.

Tip #1. Be intentional and proactive with your time. Be sure to schedule time for prospecting and sales (new customer acquisition) as well as nurturing and marketing (retention). There are only so many hours in the day, and many days as an entrepreneur you will come home still feeling the pressure and amount of items that require your business’ attention. I created a short video coaching series called Take Your Time Back, where I share a simple system I created to take control of my calendar and tasks. Click here to check it out.

Tip #2. Determine the life cycle of your customer and when they will use your services again. When wet paint the exterior of a customer’s home, they may not need us out again for 7-10 years. However, they may need interior painting, or other services we offer. Understanding how and when your customers will initially purchase from you will become important as you continue to market to them.

Tip #3. Determine how much time you need to spend acquiring vs. nurturing, and plan accordingly. In the early days of a business, many business owners will spend more time on acquisition than retention. As you company grows, this time allocation can and should change.

Tip #4. Will there ever be a time when you do not need to take on new clients? Some businesses will continue to grow from a base number of clients they gain, and the repetitive services and products they purchase. This is not the case with all companies, but may be so with yours. Keep this in mind, and if this is the case for your company, decide and determine when you will stop bringing in new clients and focus 100% of your efforts on retention.

Tip #5. When you meet your customer for the first time, be sure you collect all their contact information such as name, cell phone, email, address, birthdate, and any other applicable pieces of data that you can pull from in the future.

Tip #6. Get a CRM (customer relationship management) system early on in your business. There are so many to choose from, but ensure that your CRM can do the following:

• Store client info and tag/categorize them (based on whatever services or offerings you have). These tags and categories should be easily able to be searched and grouped.
• Has the ability to email them, and that you can create drip email campaigns that send emails on a reoccurring schedule.
• Has the ability to text message customers as well set up a drip campaign.
• Has the ability to notify you when a client comes due for a next or new service.
• Many times these CRMs will be built specifically for your industry, and will have industry specific templates, campaigns, etc.

Tip #7. Remember important days and milestones in your client’s life such as birthdays, anniversaries, house closing date, etc. Be sure to reach out, send a message, a card, text, or email to let them know you are thinking about them. A great CRM should help you organize this.

Tip #8. Consider the 80/20 rule. This rule states that 80% of your business and referrals will come from 20% of your customers. There is also 20% of those 20% (so 4%) that will be your champions and raving fans. Identify who these people are as soon as you can and ensure you market to them with a little extra nurturing and attention. A great book to read about this topic is from my great friend Mike Michalowicz, titled Pumpkin Plan.

Tip #9. Always remember it is less costly to retain a customer than to gain a new one.

Once you consider these tips, make a plan when it comes to engaging with new and existing customers, and go out and get to work!

For more free tools on how to grow your business and advance your leadership, click here.