Landing a new customer demands a lot of time and effort. After hours of cold calling, meetings, and follow-ups, you finally land the customer. Now what? Sit back and relax? Not quite! Landing the customer is only half the battle. Now you have to get them to stay.
The Importance of Customer Retention
Even those who are skilled at finding and landing new customers will admit, the process is lengthy, time-consuming, and at times frustrating. While you can’t avoid it altogether, you can make it easier by working hard to retain and maximize your current customer relationships.
The longer you have a customer, the more secure your business is. It takes time to build relationships and trust with new customers, and you have no way of knowing if they will stay with you. Cultivating strong relationships with current customers allows you to be less reliant on the unknown.
How to Gain Customer Retention
When you secure a new customer, it’s important to cultivate a relationship and build trust by delivering on your promises and providing stellar customer service. Be sure to keep constant and concise communication with your customers and make sure they are always on the same page when it comes to shipments and deliveries. Once you prove yourself to be reliable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy you give your customers no reason to leave.
The Benefit of Customer Retention for Your Business
Aside from social media or news outlets, how do you typically hear about products, technology, or really, anything? Word of mouth! As a Freight Agent, you have the benefit of talking to your target customer demographic every day. The people they interact with could be your potential customers. If you’re doing a great job for your customer, the next time they hear of someone in need of a Freight Agent, guess whose name will be at the top of the list? Say goodbye to cold calling and endless follow-ups! You have a revenue-generating market within your customer base.
Another way your business can benefit through customer retention is by maximizing the amount of business you’re doing for your customers. If you’re only managing a small portion of your customer’s freight, come up with a strategy you can present to your customer on why it would benefit them to have all their freight overseen by you. By doing this, you increase your business and make it easier for your customer. Instead of having to communicate with multiple Freight Agents, they now have one. As for you, instead of spending time and resources on recruiting new customers, you simply increase the amount of business you’re doing with your current customer base.
When you review your business and customers, think about how much time you’re investing in each one. Are they satisfied with your work? Is there anything more you can do for them? Before thinking it’s time to secure a new customer, see if you can maximize your business with current customers. It takes a lot less time and saves money.
If you are interested in becoming an Independent Freight Agent for Kopf, click here or give us a call at 574.349.5600