How to Attract New Clients to Your Field Service Business and Retain Them

Did you know that increasing your customer retention rate by just 5% can increase profits by a colossal 25-95%? Therefore, to thrive in a post-pandemic world, companies will need to consider innovative ways to attract new business and turn one-time patrons into loyal customers.

Nevertheless, to enjoy the benefits that long-term customers bring to your business, you first need to know how to attract them. Fortunately, customer attraction and retention needn’t be challenging when you have the right technology in place to delight your customers.

In this article, we’ll explore the value of repeat customers before sharing some top tips on how to attract new clients and retain them. Plus, we’ll discuss how technology can make attraction and retention more straightforward.

What is the Value of Repeat Customers?

Often, when business leaders consider ways to grow their company, they focus on acquiring new customers. But, it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. As such, you must have a strategy in place to retain your customer base, which we will explore in more detail later in the article. 

Repeat customers are particularly valuable because they are typically:

Easier to Sell to Again:

If customers are satisfied with your services, it’s usually easier to win more business from them in the future. In reality, there is a 60-70% chance that repeat customers will use your company again. 

Likely to Spend More:

On average, repeat customers spend around 67% more than new customers, so it’s worth spending time focusing on how you will keep them engaged and coming back to your business for more.

Your Biggest Advocates:

Repeat customers commonly refer 50% more people to your company than new ones, making it one of the most cost-effective methods of marketing your business.

Before you can focus your attention on maintaining your client base, however, you need to ensure that you have enough customers in the first place. Unfortunately, customer attraction can be challenging if you don’t have the know-how or the right technology, so how do you bring in more clients?

How to Attract New Clients

Although 82% of companies agree that customer retention is cheaper than acquisition, it doesn’t mean you should ignore potential clients altogether. The larger your client base, the more customers you’re likely to retain. So, you must deliver a service that will make you stand out against your competitors.

Here are the top three ways to attract new clients to your business:

1. Have Knowledgeable Employees 

Unsurprisingly, 46% of people will abandon a brand if they’re not knowledgeable. Subsequently, you must ensure that your office and field-based employees have all the necessary information to deliver outstanding service.

Only problem is, it can be tricky to ensure that everyone is on the same page when you rely on multiple systems, paper-based documents and spreadsheets to manage your operations. Vital information can become lost, incorrectly recorded, or duplicated, making it tricky to know which is the most up-to-date version.

Fortunately, thanks to modern technology, you can equip your staff with everything they need to know in one easy-to-use platform – from appointment booking details to invoices and payments. With access to accurate, real-time data, your back-office team will always be ready to answer enquiries and provide regular job status updates for your customers. 

Most modern workforce management platforms also come with an app that your engineers can use on their mobile devices whilst at customer sites. Your engineers will never have to arrive at a job again feeling unprepared as they can access all the case management notes in seconds and ensure that they’re fulfilling all of the customers’ requirements. 

2. Provide a Great Customer Experience and an Effective Solution 

Companies that prioritise their customer experience outperform those that don’t by an astonishing 80%. In a world of instant gratification and seamless, online processes, people have come to demand more convenience when dealing with businesses, from taxi services to pizza delivery.

So, why would they expect any less from your organisation?

Fortunately, with a modern field service management system in place, your business can stay ahead of the curve and delight clients simultaneously. 

Customers can book and reschedule appointments at the touch of a button via a user-friendly self-service portal, which then alerts your back-office team. Your employees can use the booking information to schedule and dispatch a worker in minutes, based on availability, location and job type, before sending an update to your customer.

Your engineers will arrive at their customers’ locations with all the correct gear they need to complete the jobs on the same day since your back-office team can assign equipment directly to projects. Finally, the engineers can send essential documents and invoices to customers from their mobile devices for speedy online payments once the work is complete. 

By providing your clients with a straightforward experience and solving their problems quickly, you’ll find that your reputation will skyrocket, and more customers will come knocking on your door. 

To learn more about how to deliver a seamless customer experience, click here.

3. Word of Mouth

Word-of-mouth relies on using your existing customers to recruit new ones. But, it is one of the most effective forms of marketing, with 92% of customers trusting direct recommendations above all other forms of advertising. 

As we explained in the previous point, providing an excellent customer experience will make your clients more inclined to spread the word about your services to their friends, family and professional networks. Yet, you can’t rely on all your customers to advertise your business completely unprompted.

Sometimes, you have to nudge them in the right direction.  

Thankfully, using the latest CRM (customer relationship management) system, obtaining customer referrals has never been simpler. As soon as your technicians have completed the work, you can send clients a satisfaction survey at the touch of a button. 

Not only will the surveys enable you to continue tailoring your products or services to customer requirements, but they also ensure that your customers are satisfied with the work. If they are not, you will be able to address any issues early on. 

Once you’ve confirmed that your customers are satisfied, you can use your CRM system to send them company-branded emails. The CRM pulls client data into the templates to give all your communications a professional, personalised look. 

You can use the emails as an opportunity to follow up with customers and ask them to refer you to others, possibly in exchange for a small discount next time they use your services. In doing so, you’re likely to attract a host of new customers and retain your existing ones at the same time. Win-win. 

How to Retain Your Clients

Once you’ve built up a substantial customer base, you need to put in the work to retain your newly acquired clients. Fortunately, the success rate of selling again to a customer you already have is 60-70%, so you’re already at an advantage. However, some methods are more successful than others.

If you’re wondering what your current customer retention rate is, here’s a simple calculation:

1. Determine how many customers you have at the end of a given period (e.g. a quarter)
2. Subtract the number of new customers you acquired during that time
3. Divide by the number of customers you had at the beginning of that period
4. Multiply by one hundred

Not happy with the number? Read on to find out how to retain your clients and reduce your churn rate.

1. Make Your Customers Feel Valued

According to Google Econsultancy, 89% of successful businesses say anticipating customer needs and providing assistive experiences along the customer journey are critical to growth. An excellent customer experience (CX) is more likely to make your customers feel valued and want to use your business again in the future.

With a state-of-the-art CRM system in place, you can manage the customer journey end-to-end for a seamless experience. Anticipate your customers’ needs by giving them the power to book and reschedule their appointments via an online portal. Provide them with regular, real-time job status updates. Then, schedule and dispatch technicians to promptly resolve their issues.

Once the groundwork is complete, your engineers can arrive at the location on time with all the equipment they need and complete the job the first time. They can then instantly complete all the paperwork, obtain customers’ signatures and complete the payment process straight from their mobile devices. No longer will your customers have to wait several days for a paper invoice in the mail.

Instead, they’ll be impressed that you considered their needs and delivered a stellar service.

2. Maintain Consistent Communication

Communication is the key to retaining your existing customer base. In fact, top-performing companies are 50% more likely than their peers to have well-designed user journeys that facilitate clear correspondence. 

Using a modern CRM (customer relationship management) system, you can use real-time data to provide your customers with job status updates. For example, once your team has scheduled and dispatched a technician, they can automatically send a text message notification to your client via the platform, so they know what time to expect the worker to arrive. 

Plus, many modern CRMs provide company-branded templates that allow you to pull through pre-existing customer details and create personalised email communications. As a result, you can send satisfaction surveys and regular email updates to your customer base once the work is complete to keep your business at the forefront of their minds.

Routine communication not only builds trust with your customers but also boosts engagement with your services, meaning that customers who have already purchased your products or services are more likely to do so again in the future.

3. Make a Good Impression

In today’s digital world, customers expect straightforward, convenient processes. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 70% of customers believe that speed of service matters most. Consequently, you’ll need to streamline your workflows to ensure that customers are satisfied. 

By using BigChange’s advanced job management system, you can eliminate the inefficiencies that create a slow service. For example, you can set up an easy-to-use client portal, where customers can book and reschedule appointments at the touch of a button. 

Your back-office staff can simply assign and dispatch workers to the customers’ jobs based on location, availability and skill set. 

You can also equip your field technicians with all the information they need upfront to complete the job the first time through the accompanying mobile workforce app. Then, they can instantly send paperwork to the customers from their mobile devices for a quick and straightforward payment process. 

As a result, your customers will be impressed by the rapidity of your service and satisfied with the quality of work. When they need similar services in the future, they’re more likely to use your business over your competitors. 

Experience the Value of Repeat Customers with BigChange

Some systems manage relationships. BigChange helps you master them with our market leading Job Management Software.

Our fully integrated CRM system gives you a 360˚ view of every account, contact site and contract. Deliver positive customer experiences at every level thanks to an array of dynamic product features.

Want to find out more?

Discover how BigChange can make your business grow stronger here and arrange a free demo today.