To increase sales, you need a constant supply of leads and new clients. Of course, getting shiny new clients is beneficial, but is that the only way to grow your agency? What about the current batch of clients that you have already?
At Make Do we always strive for long term partnership relationships with our clients utilising professional support packages and service plans that position us as part of our clients team.
NEW verses OLD
You can attract and convert new clients, but what about keeping and maturing your old clients? Clients who have been with you for a while are just as important. If a client has been with you for years, they are most likely to stick with you. But they can still definitely be lured away by a better offer or a better deal.
Here are seven things you can do to increase client retention at your WordPress agency:
1. Have a Cutting Edge Team
First of all, your team needs to grow and be resilient enough to respond to the shifting technological landscape. Offer opportunities for team members to learn new skills and stay up-to-date with industry developments. In WordPress this includes new technologies like Gutenberg, the use of REACT and recent improvements to Full Site Editing.
You also have to dedicate R&D time to any new WordPress tools and plugins that can improve efficiency and effectiveness for your clients or your agency as a whole. For example, the recent Performance Lab Plugin is a great example of something that will benefit a client’s WordPress website.
By implementing these strategies your WordPress development team will be equipped with the skills and resources to remain competitive and provide top-notch services to existing (and new) clients.
2. Top Quality Support & SLAs
Some clients need you 24/7 so having top quality WordPress support packages that include dedicated service availability and response and resolution times are essential.
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is an important tool for ensuring that both the agency and the client are clear on expectations, and it can help to maintain a high level of service delivery and satisfaction.
No one wants to give up on a client or to part ways and so WordPress agencies need to give special care to these types of clients because in doing so you become an essential part of their business. It can be difficult to maintain and balance but you also need to make sure these clients get the support that they need.
3. Appreciate & Thank Your Clients
Show your appreciation. You need to show clients that you appreciate their business, especially if they’ve been with you for a long period of time. You can thank your clients on social media or send them a personal note.
Having a face-to-face? A handwritten thank you card can go a long way to letting a client know you care.
Of course, the absolute BEST way to appreciate a client is to simply go above and beyond to deliver exceptional service and exceed their expectations!
4. Offer Continual Improvements
Websites need to change and get better with age. At Make Do we don’t deal with static websites 100% of our clients have complex CMS-driven websites that change and evolve all of the time.
For this reason, we offer a dedicated ‘Continual Improvement’ budget with all of our WordPress support and retainer services. This is the process of continuously updating and optimising a WordPress website and system to meet changing needs, improve performance, and enhance the overall experience to keep the client website current, relevant and effective.
5. Offer Incentives
Offer incentives for referrals to other like-minded clients. Make sure you show them you know their best clients and are grateful they’ve done business with your agency. (They may even reward you with a referral as well!).
6. Let Them Know How You Are Doing
Keep your clients in the loop with updates on growth, new service offerings and other agency news that you feel is important to them. This can be a great way to show your clients you’re serious about your agency.
At Make Do we aim to have regular quarterly check ups with our clients and inform them how we’re doing, what our plans are and inform them of any changes at the agency.
By utilising this approach you can help educate your clients about your agency and build stronger relationships.
7. Get to Know Them
You may communicate or meet with your clients on a regular basis but how often do you really get under the skin of their business and discuss their strategy and plans? Get to know your clients better by scheduling a specific meeting to discuss their business, challenges and goals. This can be a real eye opener and lead to a beneficial understanding and fresh perspective that can lead to new ideas and a stronger business relationship.
Doing your research is also a must. Spend time looking into the client’s industry, their competition and target market to gain a better understanding of their business environment.
Always aim to better understand the client’s business needs and objectives. These are important to ensure you are seen as not just a ‘supplier’ rather an essential partner who is crucial to their success and stability.
Bonus, GET FEEDBACK
Here is one extra WordPress agency client retention tip – GET FEEDBACK. This should be a given, but so many agencies do not ask for feedback on delivery, process, services, and overall performance. You need to do this on a regular basis so you can use this feedback to improve your offerings and better meet the client’s needs.
Some clients can be hesitant to offer this type of feedback but push hard, the BEST thing we ever did at Make Do was implement a 10-step process of basic service feedback questions for our high-level clients. The feedback we received changed our process and workflow making for a happier client and team.
Remember to follow up with clients to let them know what action has been taken based on their feedback and to demonstrate that their feedback is valued and acted upon.
Why Client Retention is Important to WordPress agencies
Client retention is important for any WordPress agency for a few key reasons:
- It leads to Repeat Business: Retaining clients leads to repeat business and long-term revenue as opposed to continually having to acquire new clients. Your BEST sales should come from the clients you already have.
- It’s more Cost Effective: It is generally less expensive to retain existing clients than it is to acquire new ones, as it takes less resources to maintain an existing relationship than to build a new one from scratch.
- It results in Better Understanding: The longer a client is with an agency the better they understands their needs, preferences, and challenges, which can help to provide better and more customised and partner-led service.
Take our advice. By retaining clients with robust service plans and retainers WordPress agencies can benefit from long-term revenue growth, lower marketing costs, improved customer satisfaction and a competitive advantage.
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