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CAPITAL IDEAS UPCOMING FEB. 26: HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR BUSINESS BIGGER AND BETTER? A monthly panel discussion hosted by Capital Ideas ■ When: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ■ Where: Glenbow Museum (130 9th Ave. SE) ■ Admission: Free. Register at capitalideas3.eventbrite.com
FINANCIAL POST
CA LG A RY H E R A L D
COMMUNITY QUESTION
HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMERS COMING BACK FOR MORE? Entrepreneurs share how they get repeat business “Provide exceptional quality in a friendly, personalized manner. This combination creates fundamental differentiation from your competitors and is authentic.” Dr. Dale Macdonald, director of Elite Sport Performance, elitesportperformance.com
MAR. 17: BIZCONNECT A monthly event hosted by The Business Link to meet, mingle and network with fellow entrepreneurs and professionals ■ When: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ■ Where: MNP LLP, MNP Training Room (640 5th Ave. SW) ■ Admission: Free. Register at meetup.com/BusinessLink-Calgary
“For me, it boils down to being able to deliver on your promises and build good relationships. Communicating honestly with your customers about your abilities and their expectations right from the beginning, and then doing what you say you will do, goes a long way to building a great relationship … If you take a more personal interest in your customers, provide them a product or service with good value, and make it easy for them to do business with you, they will be more likely to come back and refer you to others.” Karen McClelland, owner of Pink Paperclip, pinkpaperclip.ca
For more great events, visit capitalideascalgary.com/ calgaryevents.
C A P I TA L QUESTION
How do you decide when to expand into new markets?
Ria Pacheco, CEO of RIA Media (ria-media.com), says the key to her success is being able to understand her clients’ issues. “This helps them know that we’re on this journey together, and even after we fix the initial problems, we can accomplish a lot more together … This is the most important part of business, where engagement converts to relationship-building.” PHOTO SUPPLIED BY: RIA PACHECO
“I create fun and engaging content that leads my customers to implement it into their daily activities. I am always fine-tuning and revamping my offerings, as well as staying in touch with the needs of my clients. I enjoy providing solutions to their challenges.”
“We keep our customers coming back by delivering all the extras. Business owners and customers are busy people, so it’s our job to take the ideas, thoughts or even one-liners a customer might ask for and turn them into a complete project. That means filling in the blanks, thinking ahead about potential customer needs, and going above and beyond to deliver a product or service that is seamless from end to end. Customers come back for more when all they need to do is make a call or send off an email and their request comes back neatly packaged, before the deadline, and at a fair price.” Nick Suche, creative director of talonX Creative Agency, talonx.com
“Relationship! Gone are the days where entrepreneurs expect customers to come to them. Having a product or service is not enough; being a student of my customers’ needs and wants allows me to serve and add incredible value. It takes the guessing out of it, and I am able to lead with clarity and precision. Keeping the dialogue going and using a servant leadership approach only strengthens our relationship.” Justin Flunder, founder of The Flundonian Group Leadership Development Company, justinflunder.com
Amanda MacIntyre, founder and holistic health coach Rebel Health Coach, rebelhealthcoach.com
“Return customers are an important element to growing my business. Their health and wellness is important to me, and as a result, not only do we address their chief issues when they come in, but we do assessments and give them important self-care to take away between appointments … Having had a client recently give me a card with a thank you for going the extra mile and genuinely caring about them was confirmation that I am doing something right. As a business owner, I continue to strive for each client to feel that way.” Shannon Gordon, owner of Zone One Wellness, zoneonewellness.com
A business has to grow to succeed, but timing is everything, and a lot of factors go into making the decision to expand. That’s why Wellington Holbrook, executive vice-president of ATB Business, is curious to hear from you: How do you decide when to expand into new markets? You can answer the question in two ways: Open today’s Capital Ideas email if you’re a member or visit capitalideascalgary.com. We’ll publish the best answers, along with your business name and website address, on Feb. 26. For more great information on what business owners in Alberta think, visit atb.com/businessbeat.
“It’s important to be customer-focused. The more you know about your customer, the easier it is to recommend products or services to alleviate their pain points. Email marketing has also proved to be very successful in helping us to increase sales. We promote our member offerings five days a week. By doing this, it keeps your buyers aware of new product or service offerings. Social media is another great way to keep product and service offerings or news top-of-mind for your customers.” Nelson Liem, founder and president of eXmerce Barter Inc., exmerce.com
“Always be thinking about solving your customer’s pressing challenges and offering great value in the process … I focus less on how to keep them coming back and more on how I can support them in moving forward with their next empowering step. This is a subtle yet powerful distinction in the value equation.” Paula Onysko, owner of Paula Onysko Coaching & Consulting, paulaonysko.com
“For some companies, their customers come back for more because of convenience, be it location, price or both. As a business coach, I’m neither close nor cheap. The No. 1 reason my clients stay with me is the mutual confidence that I can help them achieve measurable results. They believe I am an asset to them and their businesses.” Vince Fowler, head coach at Vested Interest Group, vestedinterestgroup.com
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“The best way to keep clients coming back is to deliver results with exceptional service. We offer a variety of services that grow with the growth of our clients. By delivering results and providing flexible service, we ensure that our clients want to keep working with us. The customers that have been with us the longest are those that are our raving fans.”
they arise.”
“We keep our current customers coming back for more by listening to their needs and providing them with top quality service. We also keep up-to-date with what’s happening in our industry, and present our clients with new opportunities that may benefit their business as
Kita Eserve, digital marketing expert at Metrik Marketing, metrikmarketing.com
“Our customers sometimes take a semester break, summer break, or a short vacation from our education and language services. During these gaps, it works well to stay in contact and provide them with the resources they need. Examples of such contact would be birthday wishes, general well-wishing, personalized emails with study tips, and even newsletters. With contact like that, we remain top-of-mind so when they do need our services, they remember us.” Sara Dasko, CEO of Free Mind, freemindls.com
“As a leader, you should always be fine-tuning the solutions to your customers’ problems … Look towards your own internal goals of what you would like to accomplish with your company, then steer your company’s offerings towards those goals based on the needs of your customers. If you are having trouble keeping your customers interested, it might be the right time to re-evaluate your product line and focus.” Bruno Steppuhn, operations director at Solid Site Inc., asolidsite.com
“By keeping the ordering and re-ordering process simple! Cheque Print has always had a very high repeat order rate, because we not only keep database records of all customers and their orders, but we keep hard files for all of our business customers as well. This way they can reorder by email, fax, mail or phone. Our philosophy is to keep it simple, allow for multiple ways to reorder and have real people available to talk to the customer!” John Kittell, owner of Cheque Print, chequeprint.ca
“My business is built on word-of-mouth, so my ability to keep clients coming back and referring me is pivotal. I never take a client for granted and continually work hard to earn their business so they know how much I value them. I communicate with them regularly so I can continually adapt to their needs as their business evolves. This continues to grow the relationship and cross-sell services so I become their go-to marketing professional.” Amanda Schewaga, marketing consultant at The Marketing Girl Inc., themarketinggirl.com
Nancy Seeger, CEO of Seeger Consulting Inc., seegerconsultinginc.com
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These answers were in response to a question posed by Ryan Hnetka, founder and CEO of App Guys (appguys.ca). Here’s his take: “In moving my business from Regina to Calgary, I learned quickly that the way we have always been doing things just wasn’t cutting it here in Calgary … We quickly revamped our brand and what we stand for. This helped us get personal with our clients, and it helped us earn more business because our customers started to care about us just as much as we care about them … We made our business adjustments and changes a communal effort, and we sourced our clients to see what we could do or change to make them want to come back. Making them a part of the process helped us earn business.”