With those statistics in mind, your ability to keep clients happy and engaged can clearly save (and make) you a huge amount of money in the long run. This is particularly relevant in industries that have regular or repeat clients, like accounting or marketing.

To save on expenses and increase your revenue, it’s important to learn how to read your clients. Being able to spot the warning signs that a client is unhappy gives you a heads-up that they may be thinking about leaving your business. To improve your retention rate, keep an eye out for the following five behaviors that may mean a client is on their way out the door. In these cases, you’ll need to act fast to retain their business before they leave for good.

1. Radio Silence

Rather than deal with an awkward breakup conversation, many clients will go completely silent as they start to distance themselves. This might mean failing to respond to your emails, not picking up your calls, or even skipping meetings.

Sudden radio silence from a regular client is a huge red flag that indicates a dire need for client re-engagement. You should reach out quickly to attempt to address the client’s concerns and restore your working relationship. Simply opening up the lines of communication may be enough to restore dedication to your company. If not, you may need to offer other incentives, like discounts or package deals, to rebuild your client’s loyalty.

2. Decreased Spending

Clients who are on the fence may start to slowly test out offerings from your competitors before leaving your business altogether. This gradual replacement process allows them to confirm that other options will meet their needs just as well as your solutions do.

One way to detect this behavior is to keep an eye out for spending decreases among your regular accounts. For example, you might notice that a client who used to employ your agency to run their blog and social media accounts has suddenly stopped requesting new blog posts. Upon identifying accounts that are spending less, focus on promoting the ways in which your services can benefit those clients specifically.

3. Contract Disputes

If your client is suddenly asking a lot of questions about the terms and conditions on your contracts, it’s a sign that all may not be well in your relationship. Contract concerns may seem innocuous at first, but they can indicate a deeper problem with client commitment.

Whether the client has concerns about project scope, service value, or timelines, don’t just dismiss them with a canned response. Instead, dedicate some time to truly understanding and addressing whatever is causing their hesitation. If your client doesn’t feel that their voice is being heard, they may begin researching alternatives to your services.

4. Discount Inquiries

To be fair, everyone loves a good discount, so it’s not unreasonable for regular clients to inquire about them from time to time. However, these requests can indicate that your client is questioning the value of your products and services. If a client asks for a discount, they may also be trying to divert some of their budget toward testing new options without impacting their current operations.

While discounts can be a great tool for client retention, it’s better for them to be offered rather than requested. In cases where the client is asking for a price reduction, note the request as a potential red flag and look for other opportunities to build brand loyalty.

5. Payment Snafus

Beginning to question the value of your services can result in financial mistakes such as missed payments or canceled checks. Whether they’re intentional or not, these slip-ups suggest that your business is no longer top of mind.

Although there may be a simple explanation like a vacation or an expired credit card, check in with the client to see if there are any underlying issues. If so, allow the client to voice their concerns and strive to resolve the problem as soon as possible. Once you get your relationship with the client back on solid ground, the payment problems will likely disappear.

How to Optimize Your Customer Service to Win Clients Back

If you notice any of these warning signs, you’ll want to respond quickly with your best client retention tactics to preserve the account. Using client management software is an excellent strategy for salvaging relationships, not to mention building strong ones in the first place. With this software, your team can:

• Maintain a 360-degree view of each client’s history with your business. This allows every employee to provide superb customer service even if they’re not personally familiar with the client.
• Document any client issues by creating detailed records of every meeting, phone call, and email.
• Identify clients who have not made any recent purchases.
• Schedule reminders to follow up with clients who are waiting on updates or resolutions.
• Use past purchase data to identify other products or services that may better suit the client’s needs.

And even as you use technology to help manage your client relationships, keep in mind that your clients are people and want to be treated as such. Empathy, listening skills, and willingness to admit mistakes can all go a long way towards fostering lasting relationships with your clients.

Take a Smarter Approach to Client Retention

While client management software can do some of the heavy lifting involved in maintaining client relationships, it can’t do everything. Watching for the five warning signs above will help you determine how your clients are truly feeling about your business. In the end, it all comes down to tracking and responding to each client’s unique needs in order to keep them satisfied with the value of your services.

The post 5 Signs That Your Client is Unhappy (And How to Keep Them Around!) appeared first on Method.

Why? Well, all the heavy lifting is already done – you’ve established a relationship, shown them how great your product or service is, and earned their trust. Why not build on that existing relationship to create further business?

Here are a few ways you can help to foster new business from existing customers.

1. Anticipate Customer Needs

What kind of product or service does your company offer? Chances are it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  We’ve talked before about anticipating the needs of customers, but there are plenty more ways to consider.

For example, as a single dad of a toddler I don’t have much time to clean to my standards, so once a month I employ the services of a local cleaning company. However, the company doesn’t deal strictly in cleaning: they also employ repair personnel, plumbers, and even provide furniture-building services if you don’t feel like putting together that IKEA shelving unit. The company gets the word out to existing customers about these additional services by leaving pamphlets at the end of cleaning sessions and through regular email blasts to existing customers. This is a great way for them to position themselves in the long term by anticipating their needs in advance.

Pro Tip:

If your product performs best when serviced after 4 months of use (e.g. an appliance), schedule an activity for the customer in Method when that product is purchased to make sure you anticipate the service needed ahead of time.

2. Provide Loyalty Incentives

A customer that feels important is more likely to provide return business (and also to recommend your product or service to potential leads!). Don’t feel bad about providing some preferential treatment to your loyal customers.

Here’s one you’ll be familiar with. Many coffee shop chains offer a variety of “keep coming back” promotions, like “buy nine coffees and the tenth is free”.  Also consider the popularity of “members-only” reward clubs wherein customers earn points towards future purchases – long-term rewards can often translate into consistent return business!

Pro Tip:

Create a custom field in the Contacts Table in Method to document when a contact has referred a new customer. After your contact has referred three new customers, send them an email via Mailchimp offering a complimentary service! (Tweet this)

3. Be Accountable

Ultimately, what keeps customers coming back is their satisfaction with your company. However, even a bad experience can be spun into return business if it’s handled properly. As a customer, my impression of a business isn’t just determined by how well they do their job – it’s also how they deal with screw-ups on their end.

A few years ago I bought a pair of boots from MooShoes in New York. The store wasn’t the manufacturer of the defective product, but when I emailed them to request a refund, their

team made themselves accountable for my issue. Their turnaround time was exemplary, and they guided me step-by-step through the return and refund process – even comping the shipping costs for the return! I won’t buy that brand of boots again, but I definitely recommend MooShoes as a retailer because of the way they turned a frustrating experience into a satisfying conclusion almost overnight.

Pro Tip:

Track customer concerns as Cases in Method. This makes it easy for your support team to quickly prioritize customer service activities, and keep everyone in-the-know about every customer issue. (Tweet this)

It might be tempting to think of generating additional business from existing customers as milking a stone, but that’s just not the case – instead, you should think about it in terms of the old fairy tale about the goose who laid golden eggs. If you treat your customers the way you always have (with respect, with great service, and with products and services they can rely on), they will continue to support your business for a long time to come.

What are your strategies for bringing business back? Leave them in the comments, or drop us a tweet!

The post 3 Ways to Generate New Business from Existing Customers appeared first on Method.