8 Tips to Keep Your Customers for More Than a Season

The busy season is here. And like most pest control companies, you're spending time, money, and effort selling new services and marketing to new customers. That’s growth. Yet, one of the biggest opportunities for growth is right in front of you - your existing customers.

They already trust you. You’ve invested time in getting to know them, understand what services they need, and trust you. Adding new services, providing convenience, and making it easy for them to communicate with you takes half the amount of time and effort. Here are 8 tips to help you retain customers during the busy season and beyond.

• Make it easy to do business with you. Customers love convenience. They use customer portals in every aspect of their daily lives. From paying bills online, scheduling services, to receiving service reminders via text or email, a customer portal keeps you connected to your customers and your customers connected to you.
• Keep your promises. Your technicians, your staff, everyone plays a part in delivering great customer service. It’s how you build trust. Show them the money. Reward technicians and sales reps for retaining customers. Track, review, and bonus them for both retention and adding new services. You’ll get the benefit of keeping both your customers and your technicians.
• Power 5-star reviews. Empower your technicians and staff with the ability to ask for reviews right after service is completed. There’s no time like the present. Your customers will love that you're putting their name in light and those ratings and reviews will help you attract new customers.
• Proactively communicate. Use your customer portal to regularly communicate with customers beyond the busy season. Staying top of mind with personal messages, promotions, and reminders keeps your company top of mind.
• Be human, be personable. Technology enables you to run your pest control company efficiently, but it’s also easy to hide behind the screen. Encourage your technicians and staff to use a customer’s first name and reference previous service history as a way to develop a more personal relationship.
• Time matters. We live in an “instant” world. Customers expect fast responses. Leverage technology, mobile apps, and text messages to acknowledge and respond quickly to customers.
• Bring back old friends. Run reports on customers who left and create a plan to reconnect. Inform them of new services and new staff. It’s a simple way to stay connected, and when they are ready, they’ll buy from you, again. 

The bottom line? Retaining existing customers can be far more valuable than leads and sales. Beyond the busy season, focusing on customer retention throughout the year is the key to profitable growth.

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