It is an accepted fact that acquiring a new customer costs anywhere between five to seven times more than maintaining a current customer relationship. The expense of conducting market research, lead generation, sale closing, trust-building and informing a newly-acquired customer of your company's current products or services will take months to years to recoup. Why is it, then, that it seems the vast majority of companies focus so much of their effort on discovering new business opportunities instead of taking the time to maintain their current client base? If it's because they mistakenly think spending their resources on current customer involvement will cost too much without an immediate reward, then they need to reevaluate their objectives.

Lets look at one easy step you can take to show your customers that their continued patronage is valued by you and your company: attention to detail, or in business-speak, CRM. The word "customer relationship management" conjures up ideas of lofty, complex, expensive software products that most marketing books will tell you that you have to have. Truth is, while the first thing you think of may be software-related, any business is fully capable of managing customer information on a simple piece of notebook paper. You don't have to front a massive initial cost in order to keep track of your customers' preferences, birthdays, frequent orders or kid's first name; you can begin by just writing down the essential facts on paper. This will get you in the habit of acquiring customer information and keeping track of what they're asking for. If your paper list starts getting too complex, just plug your data into the spreadsheet application you probably already have on your computer. Maybe down the road, you'll see the value in a custom software application, but the first action to take is to start acquiring that information and detecting trends while at the same time making your customers feel like you really know them.

For example, take your local coffee shop that you visit every morning before work. Do they remember that you always take two sugars in your Columbian Roast coffee, or do you have to explain your order every day? Wouldn't you prefer to patronize a coffee shop that remembers you? What if the same coffee shop was "taking notes" on all its customers and realized that no one was using the artificial sweetener in their coffee? They could cut costs by ordering less and less sweetener to help them reduce wasted product and lower their overhead. What if this coffee shop was able to predict when they were almost out of your Columbian Roast whole bean take-home coffee and alerted you to stop by their shop on your way home to pick up one of the few remaining bags? Pretty nifty stuff, huh? These scenarios are just a drop in the bucket in terms of the doors CRM will open for you and your business once you get the hang of it.

Another way to show customers you care about their business is by arranging periodic giveaways or contests. The decision between visiting your shop and your competitors could be as simple as knowing that they have a chance to win something by going to yours. The easiest way to get a contest going is by collecting customers' names and tossing them in a hat for a monthly drawing. What can you give away? Well, what business are you in? You could offer a free coffee mug if you're a coffee shop, a ream of specialty printing paper if you're a print shop, a free on-site consultation if you're in the consulting industry, a free month of service if you're a subscription-based company. You could also implement a gift card program and give those away as the reward. Everybody loves gift cards, and you'll garner more interest in the contest if you're giving away something that can be used to buy anything in your store. By implementing gift cards, you're also sure to increase your overall sales along with offering your customers a way to bring in new clients for you.

The third thing you can do to keep customers coming back for more is by not making it difficult for them to pay you, otherwise referred to as offering flexible payment options. If you've been subsisting in a cash-only world, you'll be disappointed to learn that cash is on its way out. Some day in the not-so-distant future, we'll be migrating to a cashless society. What does this mean for you cash-only businesses out there? It means you're going to have to adapt or become obsolete. There are many avenues you can take to start accepting credit cards, debit cards and checks (these services can be set up for you by a merchant services company, or MSP). But the important thing to take away from this in regards to customer loyalty is that no matter how great your company's products or services are, I guarantee you that if you're only taking cash payments, your current customers can easily be pulled out from under you by a competitor that doesn't make them do somersaults and visit ATMs in order to pay them.

The fourth and final way you can connect with your customers and build relationships with them is through social media. Do you have a sale going on to promote your ½-price Sunday Ice Cream Sundae Spectacular Sale? How are you going to tell your patrons about the sale? Do you expect them to come to you in order to find out about it? Are you going to spend a thousand bucks sending them a direct mail postcard telling them about Sunday Sundaes? Are you going to call them? Probably not. Lets get you and your business riding the social media wave of the future! All you have to do to connect with your customers online is to use their contact information (that you should already have by now if you've followed my "Step One" advice) to find them on Facebook or Twitter. Start by searching for them by name and email address. When you find them, add them as your friend or follow them. Start talking to them about their everyday lives and take the time to learn what's important to them. Treat them like good friends; don't always try to be selling them something. Offer them helpful information if you can, and then when you do have a special promotion going on, you'll have an eager base of happy clients to take advantage of your store's offerings. Social media only costs you time yet it enables you to reach an immense amount of people. It's a very powerful yet affordable tool in your relationship-building arsenal.

A general rule of thumb when attempting to make your customers love you is by giving them what they expect from you...and then give them more. Over-appease them to the point that they become your raving fans, telling everyone they know about how great your business is. Word-of-mouth advertising is a wonderful free way to attract new, quality customers, and you can achieve it by building up the relationships you already have with your current client base. Building lifelong customer relationships is a great, affordable investment in your businesses and offers you an incomparably excellent return.