Top 6 Customer Retention Strategies

 

It is imperative to note that customer retention is an important behavior for measuring business performance. The retention of customers also costs organizations less than customer acquisition because the established customers are already aware of certain products and services, hence reducing the need for constant persuasion. Following is the list of the most successful customer retention techniques to foster relationships and gain a competitive advantage.

1. Availability of promising deals:

Customer support is the key to customer satisfaction, which form the basis of customer retention. As a manager, you get to know that customers want to be served in an effective, selective and most importantly- empathetic manner when dealing with your company.

Make certain that contact managers during train rides are easy to reach, unfailingly trained in answering, and always happy to render assistance. Allow them to make decisions that will fix issues instead of directing the callers or making them to wait. Allow the customers to contact through the phone or email, live chat and or social media so that they can select their most preferred method.

Define explicit assumptions about how rapidly service should be delivered and how many minutes a certain issue should need to close. Keep an eye out for call center monitoring metrics, including the length of time customers must wait on hold, the frequency with which calls end effectively initially or in subsequent calls, and the general customer satisfaction rating. For better service delivery efficiency in a company, it is necessary to motivate customers to give feedback via surveys and online reviews. Treating all customers the same and providing them very high levels of service, also shows them that they are valued and therefore are likely to continue buying from your business.

2. Develop a Custom Loyalty Program:

Customer rewards involve encouraging customers to purchase the same products over and over again. Customers are rewarded with either given points, credits or some other freebie in return for their loyalty. These programs take advantage of the basic need in customers for recognition, membership, and privileges in form of bonuses.

Popular loyalty program models include:

Brand loyalty schemes where customers get points for every purchase they make in a store and can exchange for vouchers, freebies or free trips. These are innate in the fact that people like to accumulate things. 

Structured programs with various status as gold, platinum, and diamond. To get access to additional or better rewards, customers advance to the superior levels through more operations. Superior levels acknowledge and status respond to the appropriate behaviors in the member population.

There are membership programs that are only a fee of an annual or monthly basis that will provide you with special offers for a certain company. Amazon Prime is a good example which offers members free shipping, free streaming media and other improvements.

Loyalty cards that give a free product, gift card or a discount for purchasing a particular quantity or number of products.

The best programs make it simple to sign up, give customers what they want in terms of rewards and last but not least when and how they can use them. The benefits of incorporating loyalty program into mobile apps or website is that it is more convenient to encourage participants to complete the program.

3. Send Triggered Communications:

Otherwise, triggered communication is the announcement made by the company to its clients when the latter engages in particular activities. Communication through such one– to – one messages can be effective in enhancing relations when the messages are sent at the right time.

Leverage an introductory email or direct mail message to new customers aboard. Thank them for their first order and proceed to give advice on how to make good use of your offerings. This gives the new customers that impression that they are special which form the basis of meeting more of their needs in future.

Establish /sales recovery programs involving customers who have not bought products in 3-6 months. Email clients to confirm interest in the item and follow up with a message that may include a discount as 10% off or free shipping. The aim is to recapture the lost sale before the customer’s relationship erodes deeper, or they switch over to a competitor.

Keep the customer engaged; send them special coupons, free items and other content that would interest them, mostly when you are stocking up on items you know they have purchased before. This helps them feel you acknowledge their constant patronage with your business. It makes sense to send these communications when the customer is most likely to make a repeat purchase or on the anniversary of their purchase with you or when the customer has leveled up in your loyalty program. 

In general, triggered communications work on their own ones after being set up in the email marketing solution or CRM. Depending on the different decisions that the customer is making, they get the appropriate message in the right time in order to increase business.

4. Solve Customer Complaints:

Inadequate handling of customer complaints as a rule leads to the loss of that particular customer. Conversely, there is great relationship-building and word of mouth potential in anyone who has been initially ‘made’ angry with their experience.

The customer complaints must be easily given by the customers through emails, live chat, social media, telephone calls, etc. Starting now, make a detailed list of particulars and follow accepted procedures for reporting and uncovering the root sources related to alleged challenges. Provide service agents the ability to give refunds, reductions and replacements when a problem is acknowledged in order to shorten their reaction time.

It is possible to call or e-mail a customer after major service breakdown or Branch’s negative experience to make sure that he/she feels satisfied with solution. Supplying a sincere apology, in addition to a gift card or some free products, might fix any problems uncovered. It is the commitment to do more than solve the existing problem and rebuild the customer relationship for the future.

5. Keep Customers Engaged:

It is out of sight it is out of mind so customers are not likely to remember to purchase products when they are not seeing the advertisements. Awareness results from continued communications and quality content so that your brand dominates the ‘share of customer’ thus discouraging customers from engaging in switch behavior.

Send a properly formatted weekly to Bi-Monthly e-Newsletter having product update, products on sale, tips, how to guides along with articles of interest. Publish articles and pertinent discussions on industry topics that customers will find both relevant and worth reading. Make recommendations of new products you consider might interest them or if you would like you can design an anniversary that will remind the customer that it has been one year since they last made a purchase.

Expand involvement and focus on the stages of the process of buying and purchasing cycles. Use the automated email notifications, whenever the time is arrived to reorder on consumable products or to book annual service in advance. Remind customers about product features and uses at certain time that it’ll be more appropriate to use through tips. By learning what policies to convey and when to express them, you are helpful instead of a nuisance these clients often loath. 

Enable customers to engage with each other through creating communities about your products or brand. The current customers get to respond to each other’s questions and offer and share product advice and experiences. This community makes customers have a reference when they have to deal with you while at the same time consuming less of your customer service line.

6. Focus on Total Customer Value:

The greatest profits are found in customer relationships where exchange contributes value for months or years at a time, not during singular exchanges. When companies adapt a paradigm of focusing on the total lifetime value they reap more value for less effort in comparison to the perpetual cycle of ‘buying’ first-time customers.

Market data such as the customer’s purchase history must be analyzed in order to determine ideal VIP services and premium loyalty program customers. Some of these may perhaps entail loyal consumers who buy regularly, those who do not hesitate to pay the whole pricing structure instead of hunting for voucher or tender prices or perhaps those who bring in many people or friends as their brand of cars. 

Enhance the features of the loyalty program, raise service scopes, and provide superior account executives to provide a better service to those superior segments. Despite the fact that such may be a small percentage of your overall customers, their LTV warrants more attention and prioritization when it comes to ensuring they are happy customers. Consequently, they produce lasting revenue while generating good word of mouth and exceptional case study narratives which are critical in the marketing process.

Making a shift to a customer retention strategy is a slow process but it sure works wonders in the long run. Place the cost of obtaining new customers against the established & potential profitability of retained ones. When, on the other hand, customer retention and building customer loyalty strategies are priorities across the whole organization, your top customers will stay loyal.