Keeping your clients as an entrepreneur
Customer care is a crucial part of business success. Every contact your customers have with you is an opportunity for you to improve your reputation with them and increase the likelihood of further patronage.
From your telephone manner to the efficiency of your orderfulfilment systems, almost every aspect of your business affects the way your customers view your business. But there are also specific things you can do to increase your level of customer care.
An event planner, Oluwadamilola Olugboji, CEO of Events by DMK explains how she keeps her customers. “What I have done in the last two years is that if a bride gets married, at their one year anniversary, I buy them a gift. The gift must not be expensive. For one of my bride-turned friend, I bought a lovely apron and inscribed her name on it. For another, I gave a marriage frame with her wedding picture on it. It makes it personal. I don’t do it for all my clients but for the top clients of the year,” Olugboji explained.
Abiodun Adeosun, who sells kitchen and household wares, explains her way of keeping her customers. “Once they come the first time, I continue to keep in touch to know if they are getting the desired performance from the product. I do that by calling them, “Adeosun says.
Safiya Abubakar, a dealer in children’s wares and caterer explains how she retains her customers. “I keep in touch with my customers by sending them emails and text messagesbulk SMS.
“I call them to get feedback on what I sold to them. If there is anything they did not like, they will tell me so I can improve on it,” Safiya, Abubakarsaid.
Good customer relation
“Good customer relationship matters,” Ogbonna Obasi of Godez Collections says. For you to do this, he said, “you have to make sacrifices. For instance, if we sell a product and a customer comes back with a complain, we will collect it and ask them to take another one. We take that as our loss and give him/her another one. This will make a customer happy and make them come again to buy more items,” Obasi explains.
Make your customer happy
Ronke Usaka, C.E.O of Ronnie’s Salon, Abuja, whose business is eight years old explains how she has been keeping her customers. “The first is the help of God. Without him, there can’t be any success. Secondly, it’s the service we render. We are nice to our customers; we give them what they want. Personally, if a customer is unhappy, I follow the person up to make sure he or she get the best service and is happy,” she explains.
Quality service matters
For Ihuoma Ufouma, manager of Omni Vision Eye Clinic, a good relationship between any organisation and its clients and offering quality service can sustain the business over time.
“What service do you give out to your clients? Are you giving them what they want? Are you giving quality service? Or do they go back home feeling bad about the service you rendered? You have to make your customers happy and want to come back,” Ufouma said.