Developing A Clientele: The Importance of Communication

In every business, the cost of maintaining an existing customer is lower than the cost of acquiring a new customer. In fact, it’s 1/5th of the cost of finding a new customer, and increasing customer retention by 5% can increase revenue by 25-95%. I know that’s alot of math to start with, but just so you know how serious customer retention is and how serious these numbers are allow me to share my source: The Value Of Keeping The Right Customers. That’s right it’s directly from the Harvard Business Review and this article quite possibly could solve many of your camgirl problems. Just like most mainstream businesses you’re income will mainly consist of regular customers who rely on your consistency and ability to keep them coming back for more. Camming isn’t that different, whether you perform live on camsites like Streamate, MFC or live on Skype, having a large group of repeat clients is essential to success.

When business is brisk, it’s easy to get used to cruising along by simply responding to and serving the clients that come to you, but the extra time you spend on tending to your garden of regulars during the good times will pay off in the slow times. I didn’t make that plant-based reference lightly–maintaining client relationships really is a lot like caring for a living thing. Some clients are like air plants–mist them with water once in awhile and they’ll be just fine–while others are delicate orchids, requiring expert care and attention out of all proportion to the beauty of their bloom. Before I stretch these similes too far, let’s get to 3 steps to maintain contact with regular clients to increase their spending on you, and to reduce the impact of the slow season.

Step 1: Open Up The Lines Of Communication
If you’re doing shows on Skype, this is simple–once you’ve done a show with someone, you have their Skype ID and can easily contact them at any time that way. Performing for a client on a cam site? Make sure add them as a friend and even make a note if the platform has the feature (such as on MFC). Live streaming sites sometimes make direct one-on-one contact with your clients outside of your chat room slightly difficult, so when up against a poorly designed user interface, use a word document to save information. Another means of keeping track of clients is to seek out a way to communicate with them outside of the site of your choice, share a public snapchat, ask for their e-mail, or add them on twitter; several options are available, you just need to put in the work of cultivating your list.

Step 2: Maintain Customer Notes
A list of your past paying customers that you can contact is great, but without accurate notes, every interaction feels like the very first time, which offers little benefit to the returning customer. Many of our clients enjoy variety and “fresh meat”–this explains the “new model” label often prominently displayed on sites, and the associated drop in earnings many models experience after their first month of camming. To avoid losing customers to the newest models, you need to offer value that the girls can’t. Your main advantage over a model that is new to the customer is your past experience together.
Leverage that experience by using your notes to “remember” each customer. Keep track of customer information including screen name, real name (if you know it), date of most recent show, average show length, details of any special requests/fetishes/outfits they have enjoyed in the past, and any other details that might help build a connection (perhaps a common interest, or a unique interest of theirs). Each client gets a VIP experience when you “remember” their preferences from one show to the next, which also saves time when setting up shows, as you already have an idea of what they are looking for.

Step 3: Create An Outreach Plan
There are two ways to organize your customer outreach communications plan: regular time-based schedule, and flexible one-to-one messaging when you notice a certain period of time has elapsed since your most recent show with a client. Choose your plan based on your style and the amount of time and effort you are willing to put into communication to maintain a connection with regular clients in between paid shows. However you choose to structure your plan, try to include a mix of the following communication types:
Targeted sales message: New fetish videos up for sale? Write a short 2-3 sentence message mentioning your new content and send it individually to the clients on your list who enjoy that type of fetish. Write one message and copy-paste it to each with their name at the top, so that it has a more personal touch. This works best for content and scheduled themed cam shows. Anything that specifically applies to that customer–if it is more of a general interest type of thing, it may be more time-effective to send a mass mailing.

Personal Note: As I mentioned earlier, find their interests, which sometimes comes up in conversation with clients, especially those that follow on Snapchat or Twitter. Note down the interests of regular clients, and occasionally drop them a message about that interest, send funny GIFs, or a quick message about the topic. Sending personal messages about common interests creates a nice rapport for very little effort. Some clients may read this as an open invitation to talk more about the shared interest for free, but I find that ignoring or redirecting their replies once or twice re-establishes that boundary for most.

Mass Mailing: When offering discounted rates for content or services, if working with another model in the near future, or just wanting to remind clients that I’m alive without wanting to take the time to customize the content of the message, send out mass emails. On Skype you copy-paste the same message to everyone, on sites with a group message function use it to send out identical information. It’s very handy, but fair warning, if you overuse mass mailings it becomes quite spammy and can turn off some clients.

Conclusion
Some cam models prefer not to communicate with their customers in any unpaid fashion–there is nothing wrong with any approach to customer communication that works for you. If, however, you struggle to maintain a steady flow of repeat clients, the steps above may be worth trying to improve your retention rate. Remember, though, that all customers have an expiration date, and that the best regular client may suddenly stop doing shows with you for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Also, please note that none of the steps above are aimed towards maintaining a client as yours and yours alone–I do not think it is productive or sustainable to try to force clients to make you the only model they spend money on.

Most models enjoy reaching out regularly to repeat clients, and find that keeping up with communication helps keep their income stable across slow times, because they are not constantly searching for new spenders. It takes some time to set up and test the different ideas to see what works for you, but over time it becomes easier and almost automatic.

Water your garden regularly and reap the rewards at harvest time!