5 Reasons Why You Lose Clients And How To Solve It

The easiest way to grow your customer base is to not lose any customers

I know, pretty obvious, right? Still it’s so easy to just focus on new possible customers and take the ones you already have for granted.

The importance of holding on to your current customers can’t be pointed out enough.
Whether your coaching company focuses on endurance sports, corporate wellness or nutritional planning, it’s the same for everyone.

This article discusses why you could be losing your customers and what to do when a customer is unhappy.

5 reasons why you lose customers

This list can without a doubt be made twice as long here. Individual clients can leave for a numerous of reasons. But let’s focus on the most common ones.

1. Attracting the wrong kind of customer

You might think that you want to attract all possible customers. But this is actually not the case. You only want to attract the right kind of customers, or the other way around, deter the wrong kind of customers.

Spending valuable time and resources on nurturing relationships that won’t go anywhere is simply bad for your business. Wrong kind of customers require several times more time investment than other ones, and they’ll probably not be satisfied anyway. And let’s not even mention the emotional exhaust it takes handling this.

Attracting the wrong kind of customers can fairly easily be avoided by clear communication. Which leads us to the second reason why customers could be leaving.

2. Your description of your service does not match the service you offer

It’s pretty simple, if you’re not receiving the service you expected, you’re going to be unhappy. When describing your products and services, be clear with what it contains. Don’t try to over- promise things, it will just come back haunting you.

If you find out that the customer misunderstood your service, try to solve it as quick as possible. It doesn’t have to mean that you automatically lose the client, even if that might be the case.

Try to align expectations with your customers on a regular basis.

3. Customers motivation

For a person to do something, there need to be some kind of motivation behind the doings. Since we are coaching people, they need to have motivation to continue doing what you prescribe them.

Probably the person had motivation when deciding to hire you. But motivation can and will change. Motivation changes typically occur after either significant life events or extended periods of the same daily activities.

Coaching remotely can make it increasingly hard to identify a discouraged client. As a coach you should try to give motivational support through communication. Talk with your clients and ask them what forms of communication help motivate them and connect with you the best.

Sometimes, clients hire coaches out of fear instead of inspiration, and in this case you shouldn’t blame yourself for not being able to create the motivation they need.
Know the reasons behind why they hired you, and work with and around that.

4. Not nurturing the relationship

This reason is probably the most common one. At the very beginning of the relationship, when you are just getting started, coaches usually put in large efforts getting that prospect to be a customer. But after a while, the attention and the efforts provided to the customer slowly fades away, because there are new prospects that needs it more.

This is a bit ironic, since the effort it takes to replace a customer is far more demanding than retaining a current one.

Usually, when a customer is about to leave, there is very little contact between customer and coach. Customers who don’t take contact are usually the ones that are unhappy. As a coach you need to be alert to these people. You’ll be surprised how little effort it actually takes retaining these customers. A text message once a week or a phone call here and there takes you a long way.

Try to keep a clear and honest communication with the customer and ask for feedback about your service. A lot of people won’t give you feedback unless you ask them to. Especially if it’s more of a non-positive kind of feedback.

5. Changes in the customers life

Changes happen and peoples life situations changes. Some things you just can’t do anything about. You might have done everything the right way but you still lose the customer.

Maybe you did such a great job that you aren’t needed anymore?

And if you did a great job, the customer will surely return to you if your services are once again needed.

How to act when a customer is unhappy

Quite often dissatisfied customers don’t complain. They just walk away, and you’re left wondering why. So if a client expresses their unhappiness to you whilst they are still your customer, you’re in luck.

Customers that leaves either don’t know how to complain, don’t bother to do it, are too frightened to do it or then just don’t believe that a complaint makes any difference.

A customer that leaves without telling you why is a big problem. Even if they aren’t telling you, they will surely tell someone else. And here is where the real damage can occur.

With having social media as such a big part of our lives, it’s so easy to spread a complaint. And even if you would have one hundred great reviews, a single bad review often tends to be more contagious and can also drive other unhappy clients to react as well.

Great customer service protects your business from negative mentions.

We mentioned that you are lucky if a customer expresses their unhappiness to you. That’s because now you really have a chance to make a difference.

Unhappy customers provides honest information about your business, information you need if you want to improve and stand out from your competition. There is no better way to improve your services than by the feedback from the ones who are actually using them.

Make sure that you give the customer time to talk, and remember to listen! Don’t start to disagree with them, that will never have a good outcome. Ask the customer what they think would be a fair solution. Show them that you really care.
If you are willing to do what ever it takes to make it up to your customer, they will probably realise it and your unhappy client might even convert into being one of your most vocal advocate.

Don’t hesitate to give them a reduction of your price. A reduction on one billing is far much better than loosing the opportunity to bill them at all.

The tactics above should hopefully give you some fresh ideas for approaching unhappy clients. But do remember, your products and services will do most of the heavy lifting in keeping your customers loyal, and there are no shortcuts for that.

Are you interested in knowing more about this topic? 

Why don’t you send us a mail!

10 Ideas On How To Retain Your Clients

As a coach, clients don’t grow on trees. Keeping the ones you have is crucial for creating a profitable business.

This article is the second part of an article series about customer retention. In the first part, we gave you five reasons why you could be losing your customers and how to solve the situation.

Why retaining clients is a good idea

When running a business you need to think about the company’s revenue. Coaching businesses are no different. Retaining clients cost less than acquiring them, and selling to existing clients is easier than new ones.

Keep in mind that revenue doesn’t care where it comes from, earned or saved.

There is no need to spend a lot of money on promotion when your clients are progressing, enjoying success, and speaking your praises. They will do the marketing for you.

Coaching quality and retention of clients goes hand in hand. Offering high quality coaching is easier when doing it to someone you already know. No need to spend time gathering information and finding out what they like and want, because you already have that knowledge.

Reactivating customers who already know you and your coaching is one of the easiest and quickest ways to increase your revenue, and might lead to some of your best and most loyal customers.

How to retain your clients

So now we know why it’s a good idea for coaches to retain their customers. But how do you actually do it?

At Coach4Pro, we’re all about building relationships with customers, but we also believe that great customer service, engagement and education are more than just the right thing to do – they’re also good for business.

To help you increase your own retention rates, we’ve compiled a list of 10 ideas on how coaches can retain customers.

1. Do a good job.

This one’s a no brainer. If you honestly think that you’re doing a good job, then you probably are.

2. Give extra value.

When time and money allows it, try to give some extra love to your customers. What do you think your customers would appreciate? If you don’t know, ask them!

3. Contact your customers.

Keeping contact with customers is important. And easy. But don’t think of it like something you do when you have spare time or when you suddenly remember it. You should schedule meetings and calls and make sure that they happen. Or even better, create a contacting automation process that helps you out.

4. Putting in effort when the off-season hits.

Almost all markets have off and on seasons. If you’re coaching an athlete, then the off-season is easy to recognise. If your clients aren’t athletes, then it might be a bit more difficult to recognise the off-season. In this case, think about when their on-season is. Maybe after New Year’s Eve or when summer is closing in or when the summer holiday has ended.

You need to be ready when the on-season starts, which means you need to put in some preparatory work during the off-season.

5. Reward your most profitable customers.

Make your loyal customers feel special. By doing the little extra for them, you ensure that they keep purchasing at the same level or even more. Rewards can be anything from discounts to special events or simply just a personal email saying thank you.

6. Be passionate and engaged.

Having a coach that loves his or her job and shows it can be a real motivational boost for a client A positive coach often create positive clients.

7. Say thank you, show appreciation.

By telling how much the client is worth to you and showing gratitude can create a stronger relationship. And we all know that a strong relationship between the coach and the client is a must have.

8. Be active yourself, be a role model.

Lead by example. Being a coach doesn’t mean that you have to be a great athlete, but to follow what you preach yourself creates a feeling of trust for your clients.

9. Active on social media.

Being a coach today pretty much means that you need to be on social media. Social media is a great marketplace to showcase your customers, share how much fun you and your clients are having and to display your expertise.

10. Ask for constructive feedback.

Try to create such an environment that the customer feels that he or she dares to complain. The best way to improve your services is by the feedback you get from the ones who are actually using them. Be responsive to their needs and proactive in bringing new ideas to the table.

So there you have it. What are you waiting for? Go retain your clients!

Or read How To Provide Personal Coaching Online For Large Amounts Of People.

Are you interested in knowing more about this topic?

Why don’t you send us a mail!

Coach4Pro launches mobile application for Kisakallio Sports Institute

 

The Kisakallio App is a coaching platform for Kisakallio mentors, coaches and their clients.

Aki-matti Alanen, leading specialist at Kisakallio, says that the application brings extra value and new possibilities for their domestic and international customers.
– Kisakallio Sport Institute has a long history in health, sport and education and we want to develop our services all the time. We have been collaborating with Coach4Pro for several years now and the next step was to use their expertise to create an application for our clients.

– Digitalisation is the topic right now and we want to be able to serve our customers also when they are not physically in our location. The application helps our coaches and mentors to be in touch with their clients 24/7 and gives freedom to both parties.
Leading specialist Alanen says that the app helps to create new services based on their clients needs and that it makes it easy to communicate and share their expertise.

Mikko Koskela, CEO at Coach4Pro, is delighted about the collaboration with Kisakallio.
– We are happy to provide digital solutions for Kisakallio to use in their work towards making people healthier and happier. Depending on the situation, we are able to deliver tailor-made solutions very quickly. Our powerful platform and development team allows us to finish new projects within a few weeks from order, CEO Mikko Koskela states.