Recession Does Not Have to Mean the End of Your Customers

Recession Does Not Have to Mean the End of Your Customers

Keys to maintaining them

by Stephanie R Burns

During this recession, people are counting their pennies, making different choices, and not spending as much. It is important that during this time you work hard on retaining your customers. The keys to doing so are:

1.) Stay in touch - You must stay in touch with your customers even if they are not buying right now. You should not take the chance that your customers will come back when the money comes rolling in because other businesses are looking for the right opportunity to win over YOUR customer’s business. Your customers are most likely to stay with you (they want to stay with people they can trust) if you just reach out to them.

2.) Get in the Spirit of Giving – We are always asking our customers to spend, to read, to shop, to buy so why not try giving to them. Send them a card, (email cards are very affordable), Have a “customer of the month” contest where they can win prizes, exclusive shopping, become VIP for the day or highlight their stories in your blogs.

3.) Don’t Panic – Your customers take cues from you. If your marketing tactics are salesy, panicky, or desperate in tone, they are going to back away. As much as you would like for them to care enough about your business to want to see you survive, fear tactics only make them ask the question: if you are having problems, then so are we, right?

4.) Use Humor – or other clever tactics. We all need to laugh at something. Make light of the situation, get them laughing. In lieu of the recession, have rollback prices. Prices from the ’70s or ’80s.

Here are few marketing messages we found (some old and some new) that are fitting for this recession:

Yes, our prices have outlasted two presidential elections, global warming, and the end of Friends!
“Tomorrow’s climate Today’s challenge.”
“When It Rains It Pours”
“Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!”

5.) Step into Social Media – Online blogs, email marketing, video ads, Facebook, Twitter, are just a few ways to stay in touch with your customers at a fraction of the cost…so explore Social Media and see what works for your company.

Don’t let this recession get you down or take your customers away.