How to increase your revenue per customer
Obviously, every business wants an increase in its customer base. However, one of the fundamental mistakes many businesses make is focusing on acquiring new leads rather than paying attention to existing customers. This approach not only alienates and encourages your existing customers to look elsewhere, but research has also shown that it is more expensive.
Here are some easy but effective ways to maximise the amount of revenue you can get from each of your existing customers without limiting your options for winning over new ones.
Cross-selling
This is the act of attaching other services or products from your business at the checkout stage for each customer. It is not meant to replace the main product; rather, the new offer or product complements the main purchase.
For example, for a business like Namecheap, while a customer is paying for a new domain name and hosting privileges, cross-selling can be used to include an SSL certificate (which is necessary) or a personalized email service. This leaves the customer no choice but to take the extra offer, which increases the transaction size and revenue for Namecheap.
Retail giants such as Amazon and eBay regularly boost their revenue by using this technique at the end of a customer’s product purchase.
Takeaway: Analyse your business offerings. Then, brainstorm necessities that complement these, which you can cross-sell to your customers.
Up-selling
Up-selling is a marketing technique that involves pushing customers to go for a more expensive package or offer, or promising more value. A marketer or salesperson can influence a customer into buying the latest version of an item instead of the less-expensive current model by highlighting the new features on the latest version and displaying the latest product pages.
Up-selling might sound selfish, but at the end, you’ll have happier, more satisfied customers. According to sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer, “Up-selling helps your customers win since you’re delivering more value.”
This technique is often used by SaaS companies, such as Buffer, Godaddy and other brands offering consumables.
Takeaway: Understand your product; timing determines everything. Up-sell your customer at the point of purchase, offering a detailed demonstration to show the benefit of the upgrade.
Personalise your customer service
Today, customers not only want to be treated specially but also expect a lot from customer service representatives as well.
According to research by Media Post, “Seventy-one per cent of consumers have ended a relationship due to a poor customer service experience.
Today, offering personalized customer service isn’t difficult. All that is required is a system that captures customers’ information in one place. A help desk software like Zendesk, or customer relationship management (CRM) software, enables you to gain and keep comprehensive records about customers. This can include their past interactions with your business, their names, phone number, social media profiles, interests, etc.
Ensuring that you give your customers individual experiences is an important part of making them feel special and loyal to your brand. It may be hard to scale, but if you care about your customers, individual experiences are vital part of winning them over.
Takeaway: There’s a lot of difference between receiving an automated email with a “DO-NOT-REPLY” subject versus an email from “Jane” that says, “Hey John, thank you for your purchase today!” Keep in mind, also, that loyal customers are a great deal less sensitive to higher prices than irregular or entirely new customers.
Surprise and delight your customers
Depending on your product and services, sending little gifts of appreciation with elements of surprise and delight to your best customers can be a superb means of telling them to come back.
Everyone loves a good surprise. Giving your customers an unexpected gift also plays to the social rule of reciprocity, which describes the instinct to respond to a positive action with another positive action.
You can use this to your advantage by sending your best customers small unexpected gifts. This gives them the impression that you went the extra mile for them because they are important to you.
Takeaway: A simple gesture can go a long way. Take a look at the coverage a simple gesture got for Jimyz Automotive an auto-body shop probably few people previously knew about. They went viral by simply sending a thoughtful handwritten note. A customer appreciation gesture like this one has the capacity to produce enormous results. You can do something similar with only a small investment by taking your time to get the cards, write and send them.
Referral system
You can also use your current customers as a great source for getting new customers. Since people are inclined to professionally and personally connect with others like them, giving existing customers a strong referral incentive can be a big win for your business.
