50 Recommendations to Build Long-Term Customer Relationship

Long-term customer relationship just means that you work on building a relationship with your customers to create high-level loyalty for your company. That’s the best that your business can get on the road to success.

Long-term customer relationship can boost your sales, increase the number of customers and improve your overall business potential energy. So, you need to start implementing strategic decisions when it comes to building a long-term customer relationship. Here I will share my 50 recommendations related to this topic. You can use them all at once, or start implementing them one by one.

It is much easier and cost-effective to sell to existing customers than to bring new one as a first and then sell to them. Probably you already spend a lot of money to bring new customers into your sales funnel. So, why you put all your efforts to maintain them as customers and use them to grow your customer base.

If your business has a large customer base, and you keep them as customers, then they will become more and more profitable for your company. That is something that will bring the exponential growth of your small business. Think for the moment about the possibility one customer can bring to your company if you have a long-term relationship with him. For example, that one customer trusts you and start recommending your brand, products, and services. Let’s say that he can bring three additional customers to your small business. If you continue to build the long-term relationship with them, and the results of such a process are the same as from your first customer, you will get nine new customers. If you continue with the same math, you will understand why I say that you will achieve exponential growth.

So, here are my 50 recommendations for long-term customer relationship.

1. As a first, put yourself in their position.
2. Design long-term plan and strategy for building customer’s loyalty.
3. Start implementing the plan and the strategy.
4. Work on continuous improvement of that plans and strategies.
5. Don’t expect to sell them something from the first time you meet with them.
6. Don’t construct a static offer, give them options to choose.
7. Be patient.
8. Be honest as much as possible with them.
9. Become their friend.
10. Inform them in real-time about most important things.
11. Implement two-way communication channels in all your communication tools.
12. Use social media to talk with potential customers.
13. Ask for ideas about possible improvements to your products and services. Customers have their secrets, and if you don’t ask them, they will not tell you.
14. Start using surveys to get feedback from your customers.
15. Use contact or feedback form on your website.
16. Use the database to track what customers tell you about your business.
17. Tell him about your improvements that come from their mouth.
18. Tell him about everything that is improved and ask for their feedback.
19. Be one of them.
20. Build your business on strong trust.
21. Contact them regularly.
22. Use personal language when you contact them.
23. Be human, not a business, for the moment.
24. Be yourself.
25. Ask them for help when you need it.
26. Be focused on most profitable customers.
27. Use 80/20 Rule to identify the most critical customers.
28. Show your respect for most important customers.
29. Reward the most critical customers.
30. Don’t tell them, educate them about differences between your business and competitors.
31. Listening is the mother of building the long-term relationship.
32. Respect them.
33. Understand them.
34. Let’s your business be a real problem solver.
35. Solve real problems, not the symptoms.
36. Educate your staff about different relationships with your customers.
37. Invest in people who are the best.
38. Equip your employees adequately to do their jobs.
39. In conversation with them start to answer with Yes and then explanations. Never begin with No as an answer.
40. Use customer satisfaction policy to provide quick ways for a solution of their problems.
41. Ask them to participate in product development.
42. Add value to each contact point with them.
43. Redesign all your marketing campaigns to be more customer friendly.
44. Be consistent in everything that you are doing.
45. Keep learning everything about them.
46. When you promise something, always deliver what you have promised to them.
47. Always thanks them for their purchases.
48. Share your knowledge with them.
49. Always think how you and your business can be more useful for them.
50. Always think strategically to build long-term customer relationships.