Improve Customer Experience & Reduce Churn Rate with Customer Retention Strategies
The long-term success of any company depends on its customers. It’s important to grow and sustain in the market for a long time because it is imperative to deliver a great customer experience that encourages customer loyalty. To succeed, companies should engage customers in different ways, which helps promote repeat purchases. It’s crucial to cultivate brand affinity so that customers will get influenced and refer others.
A successful customer retention strategy helps encourage customer loyalty and maximizes customer lifetime value. Furthermore, it reduces the costs you typically have to bear to acquire new customers. The best way to retain customers is to employ a good combination of proven customer retention strategies.
The Role of Customer Retention Strategies
A well-planned customer retention strategy will help increase customer retention and grow your business by assuring long-term success. Here are some of the fantastic benefits of keeping your customers loyal for an extended period:
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Higher Revenues
Businesses get about 70% of sales from existing customers. Customers spend more on subsequent purchases than on the first interaction with a company.
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Reduced Business Costs
Customer retention tactics are much more affordable than other strategies for acquiring new customers.
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Effective Customer Acquisition
About 80% of your loyal customers will recommend your business to their networks and provide you with new leads that are readily convertible.
Let us have a brief discussion about the best customer retention strategies that have been proven that businesses can follow:
1. Reduce Customer Response Time
Are you aware of why live chat is considered the top-rated service method? Simply because it is fast and gives a response in seconds. The response speed holds great significance in customer service, and the same rule is applicable for every marketing channel, be it email, live chat, call, etc. Great customer service helps retain about 56% of customers loyal to brands.
2. Provide Surprise Gifts & Discounts
Customers love to feel appreciated and rewarded for their purchases. One good way to do it is to offer them surprise gifts and discounts. Give them a discount on their frequently purchased products and a small message saying why they are receiving this sweet surprise. The only thing to remember is that the message should be clear, saying that they are receiving the discount for being a loyal customer.
3. Gamification
Make gamification a part of your customer retention strategy and observe the difference. It is a fun way to reward loyal customers for benefiting your company and creating a successful strategy. Offer discounts to customers on referrals, and you can also choose to offer them redeemable points for every purchase made by them. Additionally, you can choose to give them a badge as a form of visual appreciation.
4. Leverage Customer Data
To increase customer retention, it is imperative to understand their preferences, needs, and what motivates them to buy from you. You can leverage customer data by collecting and mapping it with transaction history, customer service interaction, and loyalty program data. Doing this will help you prevent customer churn rates and identify where your customers intersect in line with your business objectives.
5. Customer Loyalty Program
A good customer loyalty program helps retain customers and helps convert them into brand advocates. Ensure that rewards reinforce core business goals and encourage more customer visits, trials, and incremental purchases. Ensure that programs and rewards are structured to give you desired results. You can create tiered programs where loyal customers can use more valuable rewards thanks to accelerated earnings and you can offer exclusive promotions.
6. Keep Customers Informed
It is imperative to keep your customers informed regarding new developments like new products, offers, events and milestones for the company. Do it every month by sending a newsletter through email; it will make them feel special and valued.
7. Conduct Customer Surveys
Customer surveys offer a great way to create customer engagement and to learn how customers perceive your product and brand. Surveys will help you identify areas where your customers are having issues. They include multiple choice questions and free texts that help customers express their opinions without restrictions. When you solve customers’ problems described in the surveys, it can help strengthen relationships with your customers. These surveys will help you re-ignite your loyal customers’ confidence who are losing interest in your brand or product.
8. Create Interactive Content to Educate Customers
When it comes to educating customers, your company is making an effort to provide authentic knowledge to your customers regarding how to use your products and services and how they benefit them. The content should be engaging, interactive, easy to understand, and help customers get started quickly. Educating customers about your company’s offerings will help them gain the required knowledge and insights and help turn them into brand advocates. These customer retention techniques are guaranteed to give you results when implemented. The only thing that matters here is that you should always maintain patience when implementing these techniques.
FAQs
1. What are the advantages of customer retention?
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Reduce expenses for acquiring new customers
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Reduce customer churn rate
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Increase each sale’s value
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It helps you gain valuable insights about customers
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Get customer referrals and enhance customer loyalty
2. What are the things businesses need to take care of while creating customer retention strategies?
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Ensure that you give personalized offers, deals, and discounts
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Ensure that your customers feel appreciated
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Ensure that customers are satisfied with your products/services
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Encourage customer engagement
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Never lose focus on acquiring new customers
3. What role does customer service play in customer retention?
Great customer service plays a crucial role in retaining customers and helps in achieving repeat business. Repeat customers are valuable and an essential asset to any business as they spend about 67% compared to new customers. Satisfactory customer service helps acquire new customers through positive reviews and word-of-mouth referrals.
4. How is retention connected to customer service?
Customer retention is a company’s ability to turn loyal customers into repeated buyers and prevents them from switching to other brands. It indicates if the quality of your products and services pleases your existing customers.
This article was written by Loyal-n-Save, an omni-channel customer loyalty solution for retailers looking to increase customer retention and new customer acquisition.