As a small business, customers are your livelihood. Customer satisfaction is what keeps them coming back and, at the end of the day, what keeps your business afloat.

It often takes a large amount of effort to gain a customer, but you can lose them in a second and sometimes without you even noticing.

With Valentines Day coming up this week, let’s take a look at how you can show love to your existing customers and keep them coming back for more.

Make Your Customer Feel Important

In any relationship, people want to feel like they are important. This is the same for your customers, who want to feel special and not like just another number. You can do this in little ways such as remembering their name and their likes or dislikes. You could also send them an email on their birthday or a discount on Mother’s Day if you know they are a mother. These little things add up to make a big impression on a customer.

Stop Them From Looking Elsewhere

It is quite common for many businesses that a certain core group of customers provide the majority of their income. It happens far too often that businesses continue to offer special promotions for new customers. You can also safely assume that your competitors are trying to woo your customers with their amazing offers too. If you don’t give them a reason to stick with you, they will soon start looking elsewhere and may end up choosing to give their business to someone else.

Promote all of Your Products and Services

Chances are even your best or most regular customers won’t know everything you can do. They might know some of your serveices but not realise the other things that you do. If they don’t know what you offer they might look elsewhere for a product that you already provide.

Wow Your Customers Regularly

Whether they admit it or not the way your customers behave is influenced strongly by their environment. This applies to both online and bricks and mortar businesses. It includes what your website looks like, whether it is up to date, how easy it is to navigate. For those with a shop front it includes what your shop looks like, smells like, and sounds like. It also includes the staff you hire, their presentation and their customer service. Customers shouldn’t be treated like ‘just a regular’ – everyone should leave your site or shop having had a great experience.

Don’t Let Them Forget About You

People lead busy lives, and chances are they aren’t thinking about your business so it’s up to you to keep yourself front of mind.

One easy way to keep in touch with your customers is to set up a monthly email marketing campaign. This means you are definitely contacting your customers at least once a month. In these emails you could inform them of any recent product news, share some case studies, and give details of some of the other services you offer. Another great thing to do in this monthly email is link to some of the blog articles you have written as a way to drive your customers back to your website.

Set a program of regular communication and your customer retention will improve dramatically.

Don’t Ignore Social Media

Social media is a great tool for tracking and maintaining customer satisfaction. You can have a look at who is mentioning your brand, identify key influencers and answer any customer support questions. We live in a world of instant gratification, which means people have shorter attention spans and want responses straight away. Social media is one way that you can communicate with your customers promptly which is what they want.