3 Steps to Recession Proof Your Business
During a recession it is important to focus of the 3 R’s of your business.
1. Retention – Keeping your existing customers by making sure that their experience is phenomenal. I was able to create a fabulous experience for my customers of the telephone company. I targeted people who had been disconnected before and were not used to getting great service. I made it fun for them. They line up to pay their bills each month in order to play the promotional games like Spin the Wheel – for money off of their invoices, or enter to win a plasma television.
2. Reactivation – Your easiest customer to sell is one that was a previous client. Reach out to your old customers and win their business again. I send out an “apology letter” to old clients to say – I am sorry for anything that went wrong. I would like to win your business back – tell me how! I continue to win back 17.3% of my previous customers.
3. Referral – Focus on getting great referrals. My favorite is I run a referral contest and offer free activations to all of my clients family and friends. For each referral, my client is rewarded with a gift… $20 off their monthly invoice, free cell phone charger and if they refer 10 people, they receive a plasma television. The cost of the television is only $800 and I received over 230 new clients. The best, only one client actually reached the 10 referrals but many referred 3 – 5 and received gifts costing less than $10.
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KCCP on April 10th, 2010
I think that the 3 R’s are a wonderful concept no matter what type of business you have. I currently am the Executive Director of KCCP http://www.kccponline.org, a nonprofit organization and many nonprofits don’t use this concept.
Great job explaning it.