Does your business rely on repeat business? Is your primary referral source your past or existing customers? If so, you are probably committing the biggest marketing mistake of all (other than doing nothing).
The biggest marketing mistake of all is not marketing to your past customers. Statistics reveal that it costs 500 percent more to gain a new client than to keep an existing one. Did you also know that without consistent marketing, many of your clients would forget about you and eventually end up using someone else? It’s a hard fact to swallow, but it’s true.
A few years ago I participated in a home show with some service industry associates. After surveying a good portion of the attending homeowners, we discovered that they could not remember the name of the service company they had recently used—even though they were thrilled with the work—even when the service had been just two weeks prior! The company did a good job, but will never be in that home again unless they correct this HUGE mistake.
A multi-industry study by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania revealed that companies who increased their customer retention rate by a mere 5 to 11 percentage points actually increased their profits by an astounding 25 to 75 percent, depending on the industry!
It is my belief (and experience) that you can double your business in the next 12 months without actually adding a single customer. In 1999 I proved the theory in my service company by simply increasing my mailing frequency from quarterly to monthly. Eight additional months of mailing to past clients over a one year period cost about $16,000 in printing and postage, but the return was over $200,000 in trackable additional business!
Are you tracking your repeat business? Are you tracking your referrals? Are you tracking the returns on your advertising dollars? If you aren’t, I can guarantee you are leaving money on the table. We’ll talk about that in Phenomenal Administration Systems.
