Does it ever seem like you work hard to generate leads but never seem to get past a certain plateau in your revenue?
One of the differences between companies that grow and those that don’t is how well they can retain their customers. If you’re losing as many customers as you attract each month, then your business will stay afloat, but your sales won’t really increase.
It’s critical to keep those hard-won clients as long as possible while you continue adding more.
Retaining your MSP customers also gives you new sales opportunities for selling new products or services. It’s easier to sell to existing clients than it is to people who are just learning about your company.
The probability of selling a service/product to an existing customer is between 60-70%, and the probability of selling to a new lead is 5-20%.
Too many companies focus their attention on new lead acquisition instead of customer retention, which makes it difficult for them to grow in the way they’d like.
Learning some customer retention strategies and working those into your everyday business operations can improve your customer relationships and help you retain more of your MSP clients.
Strategies for Retaining Your Customers to Fuel Growth
Let Customers Know You Care
The #1 reason that customers leave a company is that they think its team doesn’t care about them. This is the reason that 68% of surveyed people give for jumping ship with a vendor or retailer.
Customers need to know that you care about them and not just their money, so take the time to add personal touches to your customer service outreach. These can be things as simple as:
- Sending birthday and thank you cards
- Inviting the client to lunch at least annually
- Calling the client quarterly to see how their IT is doing and if they need anything
Actively Listen to What Customers Say About You
Listening to your customers means being aware of the conversation about your company online and when they contact you. What do customers say in reviews? Do they bring up certain issues in their emails or calls to you?
Look for patterns that might give you clues for areas that need improvement. For example, if you see more than one person mention that your service is great, but it takes a long time to get someone on-site, that’s an indicator to work on your response time to avoid losing clients.
Use Email Automation to Build a Connection
When providing remote MSP services to clients, weeks can pass where you’re taking care of their IT, but not really interfacing with a person. You want to maintain an active connection with your customers.
Many customers leave a company because they only hear from them during the sales process, then once they’re a client, the company never reaches out. The customer feels forgotten.
You can regularly reach out to your existing customers without it taking up a lot of time by automating emails. For example, you could send an email two months after a new customer signs up for your services asking how everything is going.
Emails can trigger from multiple ticket or quote events as well using a system like Syncro. For example, set an email trigger for three days after a client service ticket has been closed to check in to see if all is going well.
That one small communication can go a long way towards making a client feel appreciated and well cared for.
Reward Larger Customers
Customers that make up a big percentage of your revenue are definitely those you want to keep happy, so they don’t leave and look for greener pastures.
With these types of clients, come up with ways that you can reward them and add value to the relationship. This could be allowing them free trials, samples, or discounts for new products or services that you’re offering only to “VIP clients.”
If you tag these clients in your CRM platform, it will make it easier for you to give them some additional “TLC” to keep them well taken care of, so they stick with you.
Keep Your Promises
People remember if you promised to have a job finished by Tuesday, and it took until Friday. They also remember if you always get the job done on or before the promised date. If you miss a deadline or fall short on a promise made to a client, they may not say it’s “okay” at the time, but it can end up being factored into a decision to leave later.
In business, it’s always best to under-promise and over-deliver. If you make a promise as to a deadline or how a particular IT service will be customized, stay true to your word.
Using the Right RMM/PSA Can Mean Higher Customer Retention
Using an RMM/PSA platform that keeps things running smoothly helps your team deliver IT services more efficiently, which improves customer retention. Syncro is an RMM/PSA platform that helps your IT business shine.
Contact us today to schedule a free demo and a 30-day free trial. Call 856-579-6276 or start your trial online.
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