It’s the one fear of most business owners: losing business. More than half of all businesses fail in their first year, and you don’t want to be a part of that statistic. Losing customers to your competitors is not the way to go – the point is increasing your customer base not shrinking it.
Without your customers, you wouldn’t have a business at all. Customers pay for your services and your products, which means that they are the ones paying your bills! So, if you start to lose them, you need to figure out why.
Plenty of entrepreneurs try to figure out why their customers are leaving in droves, but let’s dive in and take a look at five different ways you could be losing your customers – and your profits – to other businesses.
Honestly, a big reason for customers being lost is that your customer service just isn’t up to scratch. You need to ensure that you are offering the best training possible to your employees so that they can pass that expertise onto their customers.
You need to make sure that you are offering the best possible service for your customers both old and new!
You may be working on your customer service, but you need to listen to your customers when they tell you what the problem is. Meeting their expectations is important, and if your customers are crying out for something specific, you should think about meeting that need. Otherwise, they go elsewhere.
You need to consider how good your website is. If it’s glitchy, the cost of website downtime isn’t just financial; it’s in your customer losses. People give you around 30 seconds of their attention before deciding that your website is rubbish and moving onto another company.
The website you have is the one thing that you need to invest in in this digital world, and you should consider that a bad website can really affect your business.
People stick with what they know, but they can only do that if you stick to what they know. Customers aren’t a fan of change, so don’t change too much. Introduce new products, sure, but do it slowly instead of all at once so that they stay looking at your brand.
If people are complaining and you aren’t responding fast enough, that’s when your business is killed! People will be vocal on social media and on review websites, and if you’re the type of company who doesn’t respond fast enough to complaints, then it’s time to fix up!
Your conflict resolution needs to be fast enough to make an impression. If people know that they can have their problems solved quickly, they will continue to use the brand over and over again.
Don’t lose customers when there is no reason to! Get your ducks in a row as a business and you won’t have to worry about any of this!
