Most business owners get so caught up in marketing and trying to recruit new customers that they forget the existing ones. Your marketing efforts are bound to be in vain if you keep losing buyers after one or two experiences.
Your loyal customers may be right in front of you all this time while you are busy chasing the wrong audience. Remember that you have already won their hearts with your products or services. All you have to do is ensure that their perspective towards your company gets better each time.
This is where customer retention comes in. It is only achievable if you put up tactics to reduce the rate at which you lose customers to competitors.
Studies have shown that a five increase in customer retention increases profits by 25 to 95 percent. This is because the process is not as expensive as advertising to acquire new customers.
Do you understand what needs to be done to keep loyal customers glued to your product? Here we outline vital customer retention strategies.
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Customer Retention Meaning
Customer retention is a set of strategies or processes that companies adopt to increase repeat customers. This, in return, maximizes the profitability of each consumer. The activities allow you to offer more value to your customers and extract more from them.
The aim is to ensure that your earlier acquired customers stay with you by offering the best customer experience and products’ value.
While acquisition builds a foundation for buyers, retention is determined by the strength of your relationship with consumers.
Customer Retention Tips
Your customer retention tactics should revolve around your company goals. For instance, if you aim to maximize customer loyalty, focus on tactics that will facilitate that. Pay more attention to building a strong relationship with your existing clients.
Find out what attracts buyers to your business and work on maintaining that. If they come back because you have better quality products than competitors, your retention strategy should maintain the products’ quality.
If they prefer your services and products because you offer great prices, work on other areas to ensure that you never have to increase the prices.
If your customers have been ditching you for competitors, here are customer retention strategies to adopt for your business success.
1Customer Appreciation
Showing appreciation is the easiest way to appeal to your existing customers. It would help if you showed them that their presence is felt and you appreciate the fact that they chose to shop with your company.
Customer appreciation does not have to cost you a fortune. Simple gestures such as a thank you email or monthly service and product discounts go a long way. You may also offer freebies from time to time as a token of recognition and appreciation.
Such gestures may seem small, but customers never forget. You can measure customer retention metrics by checking how well they engage with your business after the appreciation. If you notice an increase in sales after the acknowledgments, you are on the right track.
You can calculate consumer retention by comparing the number of customers at the end of a period to the number of consumers at the beginning of a particular period.
2Real-Time In-App Survey
In-app surveys are crucial, especially before launching a new app or adding new features to an existing application. Let the users express their encounter with the application or website.
Was the interface user-friendly? What about the loading speed? Ask them what they would like for you to improve before officially launching the app.
In-app surveys ensure that you get relevant, real-time information, and in return, you can make timely adjustments.
If surveys sound daunting, you should try out heatmaps. This easy-to-use tool helps you investigate users’ experience with your app or website for increased conversion rate.
By viewing the users’ behaviors and interactions with the site or app, you will have better insights into why you are losing visitors to competitors and what needs to change. Ensure that you check out guides online for everything you need to know about this tool before getting started.
3Excel in Your Customer Services
In most cases, what a business owner considers to be excellent customer service does not match with customers’ expectations. About 80% of customers are always ready to pay higher to acquire a better experience.
It is up to you to perform a case study to establish if your buyers are happy with your services. You can easily do so through regular surveys and questionnaires to get consumers’ opinions regarding your services and products.
Some essential tips to boost customer experience is to offer consistency and timely response. All clients should be treated equally regardless of whether they are shopping online or at the store. Make sure that your customer service team is available to attend to consumers’ inquiries at all times.
Put up several communication channels and be sure to put customers’ opinions into consideration. Let them feel free to express their concerns and work on them immediately. Such actions make them feel like they are part of your company, and they will always come back.
4Send Trigger Emails
Losing customers does not necessarily mean that they are gone for good. Perhaps, they got lost inside your service or product. They couldn’t find exactly what they were looking for, most probably because they did not take a chance to explore everything you have to offer.
Now that you understand the value of keeping the right consumers over chasing the wrong ones, you should work on bringing them back. You can do so by sending trigger emails to remind them of how great your company is.
For example, you can send detailed emails with some tips or important business updates. Let them know that you have expanded your product line and you have fantastic discount offers.
Such relevant emails can trigger even the most uninterested person to want to check your products out. If they do, make sure they get the best customer experience, rest assured that they will stick around this time.
Now You Understand Your Way around Customer Retention
Existing customers are likely to spend more on your products. If treated right, the consumers will refer their loved ones to your business. This results in an increased customer base. Follow the right customer retention strategies depending on what you wish to achieve.
Keep checking our articles for more tips on increasing business success, through better customer services.
