The loyal client?

If the so called 80/20 rule is anything to go by (and 80% of the time it seems to be), then your business is probably heavily reliant on around one in five of your clients for the vast majority of your work. These are sometimes what you might call your ‘loyal clients’. Given their importance, are you treating them with the sort of attention you might lavish on a new client?

Loyalty in business is a lovely idea but in practice, we are increasingly living in a competitive market where loyalties can be hard to maintain. Not only cost pressures from competitors but changing expectations of services and demands for new approaches or innovations can all conspire to convert your loyal clients into your competitors’ clients. And much like a relationship breakdown, it usually comes as a shock when it happens. The post break up analysis can reveal just why this happened but “if only I’d seen the signs” probably features on the list.

So just as important as working on securing new business, it’s very useful to focus on your existing customers. Don’t take them for granted as ‘loyal’ but treat them as a client which is entitled to go elsewhere if you aren’t doing what you can to look after them.

So how do you do that? A few simple ideas might be worth thinking about:

Communicate. Are you maintaining a regular line of communication? If your B2B communication efforts are mainly directed at winning new business, you could benefit from focussing some of it on your established clients.

Survey. I am a big fan of understanding your customers and potential customers. But sometimes we focus our efforts on surveying the broad market of potential clients at the expense of asking different questions of existing clients. People who have already dealt with you in business are the best placed to give you feedback, so why not ask for it?

Make time for one on one meetings. Nothing quite beats a one on one meeting just to touch base with your customers and listen to what’s going on in their business. This could reveal opportunities but more important, it firms your relationship and demonstrates your interest. And be sure to do so more than once a year. There’s no point saying “Yeah sure, so and so knows us really well, I catch up with them once a year.” Your competition is probably doing so more often than that.

Keep a close eye on the accounts department. It’s amazing how quickly a good B2B alliance can be crushed on the rocks once the accounts department gets involved. The last thing you want is your accounts nazi (and we all need them) giving grief to your best customers over invoices or payments or terms. Accountants aren’t strong on the PR side of things. You need to make sure that all points of contact from your business are treating your best clients with the sort of respect they deserve. Be prepared to intervene if need be and do so demonstrably so that your client knows you’re looking after them.

Share internally. A lot of your staff, including frontline people (reception for example) won’t know which clients are more important than others, unless you tell them. Sharing that bit of intel around internally can inspire a more collective approach. It can also mean that the B2B relationship doesn’t just rely on you, but also on a number of your team. Which makes for a stronger bond.

Invite their views on your business. If you’re working on some innovations or new ideas, why not share them with a few of your better clients? Ask their opinions. Do they have any suggestions for you? Even invite their views on how you can grow your business. They’ll probably appreciate being asked especially if you treat their views with respect.

Engage beyond work. Some clients enjoy social networking outside of business. But some don’t. It’s a good idea to understand their likes and dislikes. Little point always asking them to a box at a football game if they’re not interested in football and prefer fishing. It’s also to my mind why putting all your eggs into expensive things like corporate season boxes makes no sense because you’re only going to appeal to a segment of your clients. Along with your own self-interest, no doubt.

These are just a few top of mind thoughts. The important thing is to establish a discipline around client retention just as much as you establish a discipline around acquiring new clients. If you put things in the diary, it’s at least more likely to happen. The cost of forgetting can be high.