Too many contractors serve customers once and think they're customers. They're not. The horrific truth is, most of the time contractors get the call, schedule the appointment, show up, present the bill, leave, and, in most cases, that's it. There's no follow-up whatsoever. Maybe you just expect them to remember you after one service call because you did such a great job. Maybe you expect loyalty and referrals, and want to believe that they're yours from here on in. If only that were true.

Studies show that 16 percent of your customers leave you due to a competitor's offer. That's bad enough, but another 55 percent of the customers you lose leave because you paid them no attention. Remember, repeated surveys show that each customer costs you around $300 to get. But you spend nothing to keep them, so they leave. Yet for less than $3 per year you can keep them, their business, referrals, and future sales in a way that makes you stand out from your competition. How?

Get a customer retention newsletter program going, or keep it going. Newsletters are designed to keep your name in the customer's mind, but not merely as a sales piece. If you're always trying to sell somebody something, that's a big turnoff. Instead, a newsletter builds a relationship with customers, and this relationship builds loyalty, which leads to referrals and sales far better than a screaming advertising message could.