In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast we explore 15 ways to wow your diving customers.

Welcome To The Show!

Welcome to The Dive Locker Podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that make you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management and dive business.

Okay, it’s quiz time. You ready? Which is more important a new customer or an existing one? Its the existing one! Of course new customers are important but they are not AS important as the ones you have already. Check out some of these statistics:

• Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.
• Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-95%.
• The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.

Interesting huh? In fact one research firm discovered that loyal customers are 5x as likely to repurchase, 5x as likely to forgive, 4x as likely to refer, and 7x as likely to try a new offering.

So with this in mind how well are we doing at keeping customers? Often we do our thing and then move on – that could be a class, a sale of equipment, equipment servicing, a dive trip – whatever. Granted we have continuing education and upgrades in gear to keep fueling our existing customers, but there can and should be more to this relationship. And it involves giving.

You have heard the term wow your customer right? Well many of us try to wow our students or clients or customers with what we do and the services we offer. But hey, if we really think about it we do what we do – to a high level of excellence – and that’s it.

But if we take that relationship a little further by showing some customer appreciation well that can lead to the WOW factor, where your customers receive unexpected items or services from you. Then they speak your praises even louder. Friends a little investment in time, energy and/or expense to wow your existing customers has far greater returns than that investment.

So in this episode I’m gonna to share with you numerous ways that you can wow your customers. And remember we all have customers – whether you have a dive center, a dive boat, a resort, a liveaboard, or you’re an independent instructor or you teach at a university or an aquarium – you have customers. And that is why this is important.

Now, I’m adapting this from a fantastic worksheet by Ken Countess of The Countess Group. Ken and I did a couple sessions together for the DEMA virtual show last year and he is a great business consultant. You can get his full Wow my clients Worksheet at https://www.marketyourbusiness.co/wow-my-clients/ But I have taken many of his points and modified them for our industry. Okay here we go.

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Items In This Episode

1. Send them a handwritten thank you note
2. Send them swag with your logo or inspirational message on it. Check out deeplydesigns.com
3. Within a few days of someone purchasing an item of gear from you, or after taking a course or a trip with you, give them a quick call or text to see how they like it, and thank them.
4. Send them a favorite food or snack
5. Send a book with a personal note
6. On location catered/cooked meal
7. Celebrate how long they have been a customer
8. Follow on social media and give a shout out
9. Featured diver on website
10. Make a donation to a charity on their behalf
11. Plant a coral on behalf of customer
12. Bricks pavers on new or old structures
13. Signage
14. Special shopping hours
15. Shirts water bottles at end of course

Episode Sponsor

If you find this show adds value to you as a dive pro and you’d like to help support the show, please consider supporting it on Patreon. It’s only $4 per month – that’s only $1 per episode. When you become a supporter of The Dive Locker you’ll get a shout out from me on the next episode after you join. You will also be listed on the Patrons of Dive Locker Podcast webpage. And you will receive 10% off any ScubaGuru Academy course at the Patron level, and 20% off at the Rockstar level. And of course my undying appreciation for helping support the show.

Thanks For Listening!

That’s it for today, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher, that way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes Page at scubaguru.com . There you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care of my friends.

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