The most important relationships to consider when building your business Are those with your very own customers. While the adventure of gaining as many leads and new customers as possible is an exciting and sometimes overwhelming challenge, there is also the important job of retaining their business for future growth and development. One of the best methods to the growth of business is to move forward without losing current customers. It can be done with some simple, basic steps!

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There is no need to continually introduce new products and services to people. There is the ability for every marine and boat company to uphold solid relationships with all customers on all different levels. Customer service management is a natural method considered to be helpful, among many others. Many times, the acronym CRM relates to “Customer Relations Management”, and there is much to consider with the relationship retention, both in the CRM software that can be used in managing your customer relations along with the management of your company’s processes and methods.

While there are several steps that can be taken to build customer relationships for business retention, there are always key points to help maintain those solid customer relationships for the long-term:

1. Communication – keep it consistent and personal (stay in touch and build trust through education and loyalty).
   
   
2. Quality – ensure quality in all points of marketing, sale, and communication. Be the best; not necessarily the fastest or the largest in the business.
   
   
3. Reduce pain and friction of purchase – if the customer trusts you they will come back for every product and service they need (buying the boat, service and further products or needs and they will also come to you for answers to questions).
   
   
4. Establish inbound marketing – place your trust in the ability of the customer to come to you (place your company brand out there for the customer to trust and come into the purchase process).
   
   
5. Relate to the customer – you already know your customers and the best way to continue along is to relate to them with what they will continue looking for in the future.

There are so many potential standards and processes that can help to maintain incredible relationships with your customers, no matter whether you are selling them additional boats, fishing trips, services, insurance, warranties or more. There is plenty to consider in the fact of the matter that the more they see your loyalty and faith in them, your company will be the trustworthy point of return for Q&A and all other education that may be needed in their future shopping ventures. Just make yourself the one they must turn to for additional needs and there is no need for them to pull away!

References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_retention, www.helpscout.net/blog/customer-retention-strategies-that-work/, marketingwizdom.com/strategies/retention-strategies, searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/CRM, blog.clientheartbeat.com/building-customer-relationships/, www.forbes.com/sites/alexlawrence/2012/11/01/five-customer-retention-tips-for-entrepreneurs/#24b41b0b5e8d