While business growth through the acquisition of new customers is important, we understand that as a wellness business owner, generating new leads is no walk in the park. Plus, once you’ve acquired a new lead, you’re then often faced with a subsequent challenge of having to convert them into clients. This in itself is a reason that you should value each and every existing client you have that walks through your door and uses your service. 

If this doesn’t convince you enough have a run through the following statistics. Results from surveys by Invesp Consulting found that acquiring a new customer is 5 times more costly than retaining an existing customer. In addition to this, they found that by simply increasing customer retention rates by 5%, profitability increases by 25% to up to 95%. While many companies tend to put a greater focus on customer acquisition, these numbers are a clear indicator of the importance of customer retention in any business. Now you know the importance of retaining your existing clients, let’s go through some simple ways that you can go about doing this!

Personalised customer service 

If you’re an independent wellness professional or small business owner, chances are that your business also runs on a smaller scale. Use this to your advantage by getting to personally know each and every one of your clients and fostering strong relationships with them. Personalised customer service done on a consistent basis sets a standard that your clients will appreciate which will, in turn, cultivate customer loyalty. 

Not only does offering personalised service make your customer feel valued, but it also becomes a factor that can set you apart from your competitors. When customers are looking for a service that you offer, they have the decision to come to you or one of the hundreds of other professionals or businesses offering the same service. For more customers than not, a superior level of customer service is enough to sway their decision in your favour.

Implement loyalty programs 

If you haven’t already, consider implementing loyalty programs for your clients. Loyalty programs are designed to incentivise and encourage repeat business by rewarding participating customers with rewards that aren’t available to non-participating customers. 

When people think of loyalty programs, they often think of the kind that many F&B businesses offer - something along the lines of buy 9 coffees and get the 10th one free. While this could work for some wellness businesses, there may be other loyalty program ideas that would be more suitable. For example, chiropractic patients or acupuncture clients may have the tendency to skip final appointments in a series, particularly if they feel that they are better. You could create a loyalty program that encourages clients to come for those last visits by offering discounts for them. 

Discounts aren’t the only way that you can go about designing a loyalty program. You could also consider partnering with other businesses and rewarding patients for healthy behaviours. When you partner with other businesses, you can allow customers to earn and accumulate points with one business, and use the points to spend at another! This is a mutually beneficial program that will help both businesses involved to simultaneously grow and retain existing clients! 

There are many ways you can design loyalty programs, so be creative!

Pamper your most profitable (VIP) customers 

If you don’t have the resources to incentivise all your existing clients, use what you have to reward your most profitable clients (VIPs) to further increase their loyalty. Your VIP customers are the ones that you really want to retain, and it’ll be more efficient to allocate and invest more of your time and resources to them. Making these VIP clients feel extra special naturally instills customer loyalty in them. The more loyal a customer is to your wellness business, the more likely you are to be able to secure sales through cross- or up-selling, as well as get their word-of-mouth referrals. 

Communicate, engage and offer great content 

The same way relationships with friends or family would deteriorate without communication for extended periods of time, the same can happen with your customers. Keep in close contact with your customers by staying in touch and engaging with them through email newsletters or on social media. 

Don’t just send out email newsletters or share unintentional posts for the purpose of being in touch with your customers - chances are you’re likely to go straight into the receiver's junk mail. You should consistently share content that your audience would want to engage with. Value add to your audience by providing them with great and educational content through your communication channels. This phenomenon also helps your wellness business stay top-of-mind in your customers, which is important, particularly in the wellness space. If your customers (or any of their friends and family) feel that they need or want a service you offer, you’ll do extremely well if your business is the first one they think of! 

Core Collective is building centres of excellence where the top fitness and wellness professionals collaborate to deliver better service and results for our customers, all under one roof. We help fitness and wellness professionals and businesses grow by providing best-in-class support services and facilities, and by fostering collaboration and professional development opportunities. 

If you’re a wellness professional or business owner looking for a space to conduct, relocate or expand your business, click here to book a tour of our space.