Engaging your clients: 5 tips to improve client retention

If you’re looking to boost revenue and grow your business, then go no further than these 5 tips to improve client retention. From bundled packages to motivational messages, we’re sharing our best advice to reduce client churn and provide value-added resources. 

When it comes to your nutrition business, client retention ranks high in terms of success. Clients are the key to help your business grow, but if you experience high churn rates, you may notice a decline in clientele over time, which negatively affects your business. 

That’s why it’s important to have a client retention strategy–by having a well-laid out plan, you can gain more business, increase revenue, and help clients reach their goals. Here are our top 5 tips to improve client retention.

Tip 1: Improve client retention by creating session packages

You can greatly improve your client retention rate by offering a package of sessions instead of a la carte menu. This will go a long way in how many clients you get and how long you retain them. One example of this could be to offer 3-month sessions (bundled at a discount with some extra perks) instead of individual sessions. This will not only save your clients money, but it provides additional value and keeps them coming back for more.

Tip 2: Set initial expectations

When starting with any client, it’s important to set expectations and gauge what their expectations are. You should have this conversation during each client’s first meeting to make sure you are both on the same page. If expectations differ or you aren’t clear about how you plan to help them reach their goals, you run the risk of having the client churn or not refer you to other potential prospects.

Tip 3: Improve client retention by providing additional resources

Clients tend to churn because they don’t feel that your services provide value or that you don’t care about them outside of each session. You can improve client retention rate by putting in some extra effort in-between sessions to help encourage and support your clients. Some ideas include:

• Do a weekly check in (via email, text, or phone call) to assess how your clients are doing;
• Offer an email mailing list with weekly tips, recipes, inspirational messages, and wellness suggestions;
• Provide free downloadable materials that are helpful to each client’s needs.

Going the extra mile gives your clients the value they seek, and they will be more likely to refer you to friends, family, and colleagues.

Learn more about how to use recipes in your client retention strategy here.

Tip 4: Make regular check-ins

It can be easy for your clients to get frustrated if they feel that they aren’t making any measurable progress, especially if they hone in on every minor setback and don’t focus on their overall progress. You can help them see the bigger picture by having them track their progress through: 

• Maintaining a healthy relationship with the scale (i.e. not weighing every day or skipping it altogether);
• Taking period progress photos (if weight loss or increased muscle mass is a goal);
• Keeping a journal where they track how they feel each day (i.e., hunger/fullness scale, what foods made them feel good/bad, or if they had enough energy at the gym).

You can check in with your clients in-between each session to see how things are going, and help them make adjustments if needed. Take their feedback into consideration, and make sure they feel heard. This small change will encourage your clients and make them feel that you care about their goals.

Tip 5: Provide a smooth onboarding process

If your potential clients have to jump through multiple hoops to book a session, you will experience a high client churn and you will struggle to boost your clientele. To solve this issue, you can create a smooth onboarding process by removing as much friction as possible. This could look like having a welcome email, minimizing the amount of forms to fill out, or streamlining the booking process. 

Learn more about how Nutrium provides appointment management systems to optimize the scheduling process.

Summary

When you find a client retention strategy that works for you, it will help boost your revenue, business, and referral rates. Whether it’s through regular check-ins, motivational messages, or having a smooth onboarding process, your clients will feel valued and motivated to reach their goals.