Consumer trends changed drastically when the coronavirus hit. You probably have customers who never thought of purchasing local until it became a necessity. While stores, restaurants, and other businesses are opening back up, many consumer trends are sticking around (read our blog post here). Keeping those new customers around will be key for sustaining the growth your business has had the past six months. So how do you keep your new customer coming back again and again? Here are five tips to keep your customers.

1. Survey Customers – Survey all customers at the end of the season or periodically to see what they liked, what they didn’t like, their wants, and their needs. Listening to customers and adjusting your offerings as needed might increase customer retention as they feel like they are being heard.

2. Recipes & Food Preservation – Keeping, storing, and using produce and other perishable products can be challenging, especially for those who have no experience in doing so. Provide recipes for your customers when they purchase products from you or share those recipes on your webpage, blog, or social media platform. You can also host a webinar series or how-to video that teaches customers how to preserve and store the produce. This will have them anticipating next year’s bounty each time they open a jar.

3. Create Community on Social Media – Your social presence is more important now than it ever has been. Use your social media to encourage customers to share their stories with your business. Your business is as unique as you are and sharing content that your target audience cares about and demonstrates how your business is unique will encourage them to connect with you.

4. Rewards and Frequent Buyer Club – Rewards and buyer clubs can prompt customers to return and purchase more from you, but they can also get customers to send new customers to you. Create a buying club with discounts offered at a certain number of purchases made or dollars spent and add a referral program that rewards those customers when they spread the word about your business. You can make the program even more effective by giving rewards to both the person who refers to the new customer and the new customer as well.

5. Community Partnerships - Try to partner with local restaurants that purchase products from the farm to offer special discounts to your most loyal customers or host a customer appreciation day. However, this might mean offering products to restaurants at a slightly discounted rate to offset their costs of discounts to customers.

Selling to existing customers is often easier and cheaper for a business than spending to acquire a new customer. It can also lead to larger purchases (as they already know what you are about). Adding customer retention strategies into your marketing is essential for the growth of your business. For assistance in developing customer retention strategies or creating a marketing plan, contact KCARD today at 859-550-3972 or via email at kcard@kcard.info.