Keep it Sticky, Stupid!

So much of expansion stage business-building is focused on acquiring customers that entrepreneurs may forget that keeping those new customers is just as important! With the web making the marketplace more accessible/transparent and lookalikes popping up all over the place, what can you do to keep your customers loyal and happy?

Whether yours is an enterprise model with three-year deals or a SaaS offering with month-to-month contracts, it is all about the service.

Here a few tips to keep clients coming back for more:

– Be a problem-solver: Create a sense of confidence within your customer base, assuring them that you will be there to handle issues/problems.

– Keep in touch: Send targeted and relevant letters/emails to customers to keep them engaged and make them aware that you are thinking about their success.

– Offer renewal discounts: Give customers a way to save a buck and give your business a cash flow boost by offering a discount on an annual subscription renewal (e.g. rather than $1,200 over 12 months at a $100 ASP, offer customers the full year for $1,000 upfront).

– Innovate: Continue to iterate on your offering based on customer feedback through the product management process. This will let users know that you are listening and improve the offering more generally.

At OpenView Venture Partners, we work with our portfolio companies to refine these customer service best practices and maintain long-term business relationships. In fact, we recently held a Customer Service Forum with Bill Price, author of The Best Service is No Service, to develop a 90 day plan of attack for improving the client experience.

What are some of the ways that you keep your users excited about your product?