Winning over a new customer is great but what is even better is retaining that customer. Customer retention is crucial for any business because it tends to increase your revenue. Statistics have shown that existing customers will spend 67% more than new customers on a product or service. This shows that keeping an existing customer will make you a significant amount of revenue.
Each company should ensure that they develop a customer retention strategy to avoid having one-time customers who never return. A customer retention strategy is a collection of business activities that aim to retain existing customers and increase each of these customers’ profitability. Let’s look at some of the strategies you can incorporate in your business to ensure you keep your customers.
- Offer world-class customer service and support.
Most customers are willing to pay more for a product or a service if they have an exceptional customer experience from a company. When a customer has a problem, they do not want to wait for days to have their issue taken care of or wait for minutes before speaking to a customer support agent. One way to give your customers a good customer experience is by making it easy for them to contact you. You can get a toll free number for your business so that your customers can contact you from anywhere if they need any help. You should also respond to emails and messages promptly so that your customers have a good experience and continue to purchase from your business.
- Onboarding program
When a customer purchases a product or service from you, it is tempting to send them on their way and move on to the next customer. This should not be the case because once you sell your customer, you have the chance to engage them further and ensure they are satisfied from the first day. Onboarding involves the personalization of products and services to suit the customers’ needs. A company representative teaches the customer how to use the product or service, saving the customer’s time and allowing them to understand how the product helps them achieve their goals.
- Customer feedback
If you want to improve your business, you need to know how your customers feel about it. You need to develop a process that works for your business and helps you obtain customer feedback that you use to make improvements. Customers tend to return when they feel like their feedback was taken into consideration and changes were made. The business can also pinpoint the changes they need to make based on the input instead of moving blindly and working on areas that may not yield any results. Sending surveys through your email service provider is an excellent way of obtaining feedback from your clients.
- Reach out to every customer.
Forming a close relationship with your customers by checking up on them is an excellent customer retention strategy. You should set up a process where one person from the company reaches out to the customer at set intervals. The recommended time is usually once every quarter at a minimum. A simple call that lasts a few minutes is made to the client to see how they like the product or service they are getting from you, if they need anything else and the areas you can improve to serve them better. This shows your customers that you care, and the result will be high customer retention rates and customer loyalty.
- Corporate social responsibility.
Most consumers now consider the CSR activities of different companies before purchasing from them. Therefore, it is essential to maintain a positive CSR presence because your customers may buy from you and choose to stick with you if they feel like they are helping support a cause. The cause you choose to support should fit with your company’s passions because you are not just doing it to retain your customers at the end of the day. You want to donate or volunteer to a charity that you genuinely care about and support consistently.
- Reward loyalty
One way to keep your existing customers is by rewarding them for their loyalty. Developing a customer loyalty program is an excellent place to start where they get rewarded every time they shop and interact with your business. Some of the ways you can reward your clients include a yearly gift for the holidays, promos when celebrating their birthday, and VIP discounts. This makes the customers feel appreciated and feel like they are getting more than the product or service they purchase from you.
Conclusion
Working to keep your existing customers should be taken seriously by every business because it helps you get new customers through referrals and word of mouth. Following customer retention best practices will ensure you keep your customers happy and increase your sales as they continue to purchase from your business.