Case Studies - How to keep your customers coming back

This week we are going to profile one of the Business that came to our first ever Pop-Up Business School in Weston Super Mare and also look at the business challenges they were facing and how they overcame them. 

At the end of the article we will look at ways to get your customers to buy from you more regularly and keep coming back.

Emma has been teaching Yoga for about 10 years now, mainly evening classes through the local council. After being made redundant in 2011 from her day job in Cornwall she relocated to Weston-super-Mare and set up her business here with a view to teaching Yoga full time.

Do Yoga running a morning yoga class

The funky Do Yoga car that Emma uses to promote her business

Enter Emma "Thanks to Pop up business school she's been able to 'follow her bliss' and is now making money doing something she loves, sharing the gift of well being and true health with others through the practice of Yoga.

This is Emma's first attempt at being self employed and although she was fairly competent with the administration due to her previous role as an office worker she was still floundering with marketing, self promotion and pricing.

She now feels a whole lot more confident in charging for her work, has several people on standing order paying monthly and has a lot of new marketing strategies to help her promote herself, through social media for example. This has also helped her meet new people in the area and attract clients through word of mouth."

Emma says "Do Yoga is now a viable business with a very funky car thanks to a grant from Alliance Homes which paid for the logo on it!

Sincere thanks to Alan and Simon for scaring me into sticking up for myself!"

Tweet Emma here: https://twitter.com/doyogadaily
Or Alan here: https://twitter.com/AlanDonegan

Do Yoga's logo and a link to their site

What did we do?  Alan's notes

Alan: The biggest challenge for Do Yoga was to get their customers to commit to coming regularly.  How did we make sure they came week in and week out even if it was raining?

We did several things:

1. Gave a reduced price for signing up to a direct debit.  We all need encouragement to exercise regularly even though we know it is good for us.  What we did was to offer an incentive (cheaper classes and the ability to come to any classes)  for people to sign up to a direct debit, this gives extra motivation to turn up every week and get healthy.  It also allows Do Yoga to know how many people are signed up each week and what income they are going to get

2. Secondly we looked at starter packages - when someone first comes along to a class; instead of just letting them come and go when they like they are offered a six or twelve week package for a reduced price.  This package gives them an incentive to come every week and also turns Yoga into a habit for health.  it also means that they commit to long enough to see the benefits of Yoga really start to shine through.  For Do Yoga it means that new clients sign up to an introductory course and keep coming back

What incentives could you offer your customers to get them to come back more regularly?
Do you bundle your products or services?  What Bundles and discounts could you offer?
Can you get your customers to sign up for a course up front?  (this has to be in your customers best interests!)

Test and try new things, bundle your products or services and remember to have fun in business every day