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Top three ways to keep clients
Most of us blithely spend most of our time and energy chasing down new clients. We think up new and different marketing ideas, advertise all over the place, network like mad, are always on the hunt for new clients. After all, gaining new clients is how we grow our practice, right?
Should you spend more of your marketing dollars on gaining new patients or on keeping the ones you've got (client retention)?
Traditionally marketers have spent more time, money and energy on acquiring new customers rather than on retention simply because it's what we've been taught to do. It's what we've always done.
But, did you know it costs eight times more to gain a new customer than it does to keep an existing one? Another important statistic proven over and over again is that once someone buys something from you once, they are much more likely to buy from you again - to become a repeat customer.
And remember the old 80/20 rule? It applies to marketing just as much as anything else; 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients.
Let's take a quick look at customer retention and evaluate some of the top things we can do to keep the clients we've worked hard to get.
According to a recent study by Target Marketing Magazine, the top three marketing methods with the strongest ROI for customer retention are:
- Email. This can be something as simple as infrequent updates and personal hellos to an electronic newsletter you send on a consistent basis. Inexpensive and easy to automate, email is an easy way to keep your name in front of existing clients, to keep them informed of new services and other ways you can serve them, and keep them updated on industry trends and practices.
- Direct mail. This can be something as simple as post cards you send quarterly or sales letters you send on a less frequent basis. Not everyone rushes to check their email 50 times a day like I do. Direct mail is a different; a tangible way to touch your existing clients.
- Outbound telemarketing. Larger companies may hire someone to do this, or you could have the front desk make calls in their spare time. They can call simply to check in with people that haven't been in for a while and see how they are doing. A personal phone call goes a long, long way with people. The personal phone call goes even farther when it’s from the physician.
The bottom line is marketers are realizing that it's more important to keep in contact on a regular basis with people who have already bought from you more so than chasing after new clients. You've already won the business. Your job now is to keep it - which should be much less expensive if done right.
Do you utilize any of these steps to keep in touch with your existing patients? What steps do you have in place in your practice to keep the patients you've got?
(c) 2007, A Marketing Connection
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