We live in a world of constant competition. When it comes to the business, brands are working rigorously to make sure that consumers don’t buy from their competitors. In such situations, the best option is to work on your customer retention strategies.
Customer retention, in a nutshell, refers to the process of keeping and nurturing your existing customers. It involves building trust among existing consumers and earning their continued patronage.
According to Invesp, the probability of any business selling to existing customers is 60-70%. The study further shows that existing customers are 50% more likely to try out your brand’s new products. They are also likely to spend 31% more compared to new prospects.
These statistics explain why you should concentrate more on customer retention rather than focus only on getting more customers.
And due to all these benefits, customer retention is one of the key factors that drive the success of any business. So for optimum results, your brand should have proper strategies in place for retaining your existing customers.
Here are a few tried and tested strategies you can use to excel at customer retention:
#1. Add Value to Your Products
Providing something extra to customers so that they don’t buy from your competitors is a good way to retain customers. It is not only limited to providing benefits and features, you can also provide unique experiences to your consumers that no one else provides.
You can alternatively provide unique benefits and experiences to certain groups of customers rather than providing them to everyone. This way, you can also reap huge benefits by offering a sense of exclusivity to certain customers.
An example of a company that adds value to its products and provides unique experiences to its customers is Apple. Apple has always been known for making products that are easy to use. In its recent development, the iPhone X is one of the first mobile devices to have facial recognition technology.
This allows you to you scan your face so that it can only be unlocked by you. Not only this, Apple perfected the face ID technology significantly so that their product is one-of-a-kind. They have yet again managed to set themselves apart to continue retaining their loyal customers.
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#2. Delight Your Customers
As a business owner, there’s no doubt that you can offer your product at a fair price and deliver it to your customers in a timely manner. However, this does not give them an unforgettable and meaningful experience. Nor does it ensure that you’ll gain their loyalty.
In order to retain customers, your brand should think of effective ways to consistently provide memorable experiences to customers. There may even be times when you go above and beyond to ensure that their experience is unique and pleasant.
To delight and surprise your customers you can:
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- Ask customers to take part in surveys to show that you care about their opinions.
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- Bring them onboard for product testing so they have a unique pre-launch experience.
- Celebrate their birthdays by sending out exclusive gifts or discount offers.
This way, your customers will know that you truly care about them and not just about their business with you. It will help them understand that you’re serious about delivering a one-of-a-kind experience to them. And this will enforce their trust in your brand. Foundr magazine recently published a guide anyone can use to start and scale an online store.
In 2012, the people of Bethel, Alaska were delighted to hear the news of a Taco Bell opening there. But they later discovered that the opening of the Taco Bell in their remote town was merely a hoax.
Not long after, the news reached Taco Bell. The company understood the amount of excitement that was built around the potential Taco Bell opening. This is when the company thought of surprising the citizens of Bethel.
Taco Bell soon executed an event named “Operation Alaska.” During the event, the company sent out a helicopter carrying a Taco Bell truck to the town of Bethel. This truck was filled with enough food ingredients to make 10,000 Doritos Tacos for the people of the small town.
Taco Bell did this to surprise the people of the town and appreciate the brand’s loyal fans. Although they were unable to open up a physical store in Bethel, the company went out of their way to address their customers’ demands.
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#3. Provide Great Customer Service
It doesn’t matter how good your product or service may be if you can’t deliver good customer service. If your customer service is not up to the mark, you will have a hard time retaining the customers who choose to do business with you.
Brands should understand that the quality of service they provide is the main factor that differentiates them from competitors who sell the same products as they do.
That’s why it is of the utmost importance that your company has effective customer service strategies in place if you wish to boost customer loyalty. This would also include everything from setting up a proper after-sales protocol to providing a good user experience to your site visitors. They need to know how to build, launch and grow a profitable online store.
Just think about it – will visitors return if your web pages load slowly, or if it takes several minutes for them to find the information they need?
It will not only frustrate them but also increase their sensitivity towards price. And this could significantly affect your brand’s revenue in the long run.
By focusing on personalized customer service solutions, brands can easily retain the majority of their customers. Here’s an example of great customer service being provided by Amazon.
Here we see that the customer has reported that the product order is yet to be delivered. The customer support agent Jeff informed the customer that the product has been delivered to Australia. He apologized for the inconvenience and created a replacement order for the customer.
Jeff also went on to provide an expedited delivery of the replacement order. This way, he not only answered all the customer’s questions but gave her a personalized solution to the issue.
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#4. Boost Your Content Marketing Strategy
By understanding the customer’s perspective, you’ll realize that consumers are more comfortable buying products and services that they think they’re familiar with. So when it comes to purchasing decisions, they choose products and services they’ve heard of from some other source. This source could be anything – from friends and family to news articles.
That’s what makes content marketing so effective for businesses. Content marketing involves publishing content in a way that not only reaches out to the masses but also influences them. It helps consumers learn more about your product or service in a way that’s not overly promotional. Additionally, it also provides useful information to existing customers on how to further benefit from your product or service.
There are a few steps you can take to optimize your existing content marketing strategy. Here are some ideas you should implement:
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- Combine Content Marketing with Influencer Marketing – Work with influencers who have a voice in a relevant niche. You could have them create content in which they talk about your products or services in front of their audience, which can help you win over an engaged audience.
You could also have them vouch for your products or services in testimonials, expert roundup posts, or interviews. And since the recommendation is coming from someone they trust, this audience is highly likely to be smitten about what you’re selling. This will give you an easier time winning their trust and loyalty, which is vital for retaining them.
- Combine Content Marketing with Influencer Marketing – Work with influencers who have a voice in a relevant niche. You could have them create content in which they talk about your products or services in front of their audience, which can help you win over an engaged audience.
- Keep Track of Where Your Content Stands – It’s also crucial that you ensure your content remains consistently visible and valuable. The goal here is to ensure that you continue to attract and engage a highly relevant audience and win over their loyalty.
Additionally, strategies such as updating content can have a significant impact on your content visibility and customer retention efforts. The strategy involves picking out older pieces of content and updating them with new information, new ideas, or new images that can continue to engage your audience.
Conclusion
It’s important to understand that your current customer base is the best asset your business has. These people are the ones who are already aware of your brand as well as its products and services. Focusing your energy and time on making these people happy will help you generate substantial revenue.
Do you know any more strategies that can help in customer retention? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
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What is Customer Retention?
Customer retention includes all those measures taken by a company to ensure that its customers continue to purchase its products and services and avoid purchasing the same from competitors. According to a study, around 44% of companies focus on customer acquisition (bring new customers). Whereas, around 18% of companies focus on customer retention. And for around 40% of companies, both ideas are equally important. But as a fact, customer retention is comparatively cheaper than customer acquisition.
When does the company need to focus more on customer retention?
Whether you are focusing on customer retention or customer acquisition, everything should be done when it is required. There are some tips when the company needs to focus more on customer retention. After starting a business, when you have a good customer base. Then you need to focus on customer retention. So, your existing customers start willing to buy more of your product and don't think about shifting to another company. When you will have a well-established business. It means you have already achieved a lot of success from your business. Then you need to focus more on customer retention than acquisition.
How can a company calculate its customer retention rate (CRR)?
A company can find its customer retention rate (CRR) in percentage. The rate shows the number of customers retained over time. First of all, you need to identify a specific period. Then you need to subtract the number of new customers acquired from the number of customers retained at the end of that particular period. Then divide this value from the number of total customers and multiple wholes by 100. Now, before planning or applying any tactics, you should check your customer retention rate (CRR) once.
