Retaining Clients in the Events Industry

As with any industry, it’s valuable to encourage repeat business. Providing you do a good job, and that you have clients who hold regular events, there’s no reason not to expect to be able to enjoy this, but it’s not always easy to hang on to your clients. This isn’t maybe so relevant if you’re the kind of company that offers one-off events, for example weddings or christenings, but if you’re a more generic events company, then repeat business is a great thing to aim for.

What are the benefits?

Apart from the obvious thing of having a job to do, encouraging repeat business works to your advantage in other ways too. Firstly, it’s a really good way to be able to forecast, knowing when you have money coming in and how much it’s going to be. This can help enormously with cashflow and growth projection. And it’s a nice feeling too, knowing you have the security of ongoing income from happy clients. It creates a sense of confidence in the business and the product.

Look out for competitors

You’re not going to be the only events company out there that does what you do, that’s for sure. There’s even a chance that there are companies out there that not only do what you do, but maybe do it better and cheaper! Market research is valuable in this instance, find out who you’re up against and look for ways of making your product more attractive and more efficient. In this way you can point out to your client why they should stay with you, rather than be tempted by another company.

Stay in touch

Assuming you’ve done a good job, it’s important to stay in touch with your clients anyway. You want to stay fresh in their minds, but it’s also about building a working relationship. If your client feels you pick him up and put him down when the job is over, he may not like that, he may like to stay in touch. Although beware of going the other way and being a nuisance! Generally though, keeping communication going will definitely help when new jobs come up. It’s really worth keeping an eye out for things they might be interested in – for example a new venue you think they’d like – as this gives you a reason for calling. It can lead into a discussion about an event on the horizon without it feeling like a hard sell

Offer something in return

It’s not just about doing a good job, nor about having a good relationship. To encourage return business and to keep your clients happy, it’s always good to offer them something special. This could be done in a number of ways – perhaps a special rate for repeat business, perhaps you just need to entertain them, enjoy a day of hospitality with them. Whatever it is, the aim of this is to make your client feel special, and looked after. It’s good old fashioned common sense but many people fail to recognise the value in spending a little bit on, say, a day at the races, in order to keep a client who can bring in ongoing revenue going into the future