Why is customer retention so important that we are giving you a long-form article with customer retention tips? Because:
- The average global value of a lost customer is $243!
- It is 16 times as costly to build a long-term relationship with a new customer than it is to increase the loyalty of an existing one.
- As businesses grow, they find it increasingly difficult to cut down customer churn rate. Companies are always striving to keep existing customers from leaving because it affects their brand reputation as well as their bottom-line.
- Loyal customers spend more per order than customers who aren’t loyal.
- The average order value and the number of transactions are higher when you have loyal customers who are happy with the service and experience you provide.
Let’s go into more detail on this.
Why do You Need Customer Retention Tips?
- Increased profitability: Loyalty is not only cheaper, but it also gives you better returns. Loyal customers are more open to price changes, but they will never compromise on the quality of service. This is why you need to invest in customer experience! The customer retention tips in this article will help you further with that.
- More word-of-mouth referrals: Loyal customers tend to spread the word about your business more than your other customers do. And regardless of how much money you invest in Facebook ads, there is nothing like a friend or a colleague suggesting why your product is good for your potential customer.
- Honest feedback: Loyal customers don’t hesitate to let you know their thoughts. So collect customer feedback diligently. This also means that they will tell you how they want to be treated and how to get their business. People who see that their complaints have had an effect on the company’s policies are more likely to buy from you again.
- Easy to cross-sell and up-sell more: A new customer might be a difficult prospect to up-sell and cross-sell. But that’s not the case with a customer who has been one for a pretty long time. Since they have already experienced your product and are satisfied with it, they will be more willing to buy from you when you launch a new product.
Now you know exactly why you need a customer retention strategy. Let us help you out with these 10 customer retention tips.
The Best 10 Customer Retention Tips to Reduce Churn
Customer Retention Tip #1: Listen Attentively
You don’t want your customers to leave? Then listen to what they have to say. Be open to praise but make sure that you ready to listen and act on negative feedback as well. This is why a lot of companies invest in online survey tools. These tools help consumers engage with the business and provide candid feedback.
There are a lot of channels through which your customer can address their concerns: emails, social media messages, call center and so on. It is pivotal that you listen to your customers with an open mind as customer feedback survey results can add a lot of value to your business and increase customer happiness.
Customer Retention Tip #2: Be Strong on CS
The ‘CS’ here stands for customer service. If it is not up to their expectations, customers won’t think twice about leaving you for a competitor. This is because loyalty changes when expectations aren’t met and it needs to be earned every single day of your operations.
Taking quick action when a customer is confronted with a problem and communicating with them on their preferred platform is important. Another customer retention tip on similar lines is being quick to respond to any customer queries. It goes a long way in cementing trust.
Customer Retention Tip #3: Maintain Integrity
Celebrities have lost million-dollar deals because the brands they associate with don’t want to partner with someone who has a besmirched record. Even if it is due to something as simple as a tweet that offended a particular community. Friends leave when they get to know that you are accused of dubious activities. Why would a customer do any less? So never take shortcuts when it comes to integrity.
Your integrity is demonstrated in the way you handle little, everyday things as well as the larger things. Customers are happy to pay their hard-earned money to companies that are transparent, open and care for them. They will avoid you after the first transaction if you don’t hold yourself to high standards.
Customer Retention Tip #4: Communications Calendar
Customers never complain that brands ‘communicate’ too much! Build relationships by being in constant touch with your customers through different mediums. Create a content calendar of sorts where you communicate with all levels of customers. This can be through a sequence of emails, events, calls, webinars, special offers, follow-ups, cards, personal notes, social media updates and so on.
People respond to regular communication because they respect and appreciate the time and effort that you put in for them. This keeps your brand at the top of their minds. It validates and reinforces the business relationship with you and keeps them coming back to you over and over again. If the customer responds privately, do not hesitate to respond to them either. It will increase the intimacy of the bond that a customer has with your brand which helps immensely when you do outreach campaigns.
Customer Retention Tip #5: Delight Your Customers
This is easier said than done. Remember that the smallest of actions can have a great deal of impact on the customers. Think of your brand-customer relationship as similar to a married couple. Little surprises and gifts can keep the relationship exciting. Don’t just think of this as an opportunity to drum up more sales. Think of it as a way to delight the customers, nothing more.
Ask them to be a part of your beta list of product testers. Give them a coupon for your new product. Send them tickets to a game or a comedy show. Celebrate their anniversary. Give them exclusive updates. There is so much more you can do depending on the kind of business that you do. Follow the updates of your customers on their social media handles and look for ways to make it special for them.
Customer Retention Tip #6: Reduce Pain Points
This is an important tip for folks who are trying to keep their paying customers that way. The reason why a customer became one is that they were looking for professional help in an area where they lacked expertise and had to deal with certain pain points. As a brand, here is your chance to do an impeccable job at solving those customer pain points. If you understand how their business and industry works, you can create solutions that makes their journey easier or even alleviate their pain points permanently.
Once you do something like this, you are gold. There is no need for any extra customer retention tip either because there is no bigger expectation from the customer than having their problems solved. Make sure that your customer’s business runs smoothly. The customer, knowing that your contribution increased their productivity and profits multi-fold, will always be loyal to you.
Customer Retention Tip #7: Create a Community Around Your Brand
People love to be a part of a community. They want to talk to people who do the same things they do. So give them an opportunity to talk to other customers of your products inside your brand community. If you can create a community where people discuss your brand, there is nothing better. It is something that can add a lot of value by putting up content consistently. A Facebook group is a great place to start an engaging community.
Give your customers an incentive to be a part of the community – like a free e-book or a quick consultation call. Use the community to get instant feedback from your customers. Send them free samples whenever you launch a new product and use it to get testimonials or encourage purchase. Use it as a source of content ideas for marketing. Communities are a valuable resource, but there is a lot of effort that goes into building and growing a community.
Customer Retention Tip #8: Incentivize Social Shares
Social media has made word-of-mouth marketing easier to achieve because customers keep sharing items that they like or at least tag a few of their friends. Have social sharing competitions where you ask your customers to take pictures of them using your product and the best picture gets a prize. Not only does it act as a reinforcement of your brand, but it also helps with word-of-mouth marketing.
Contests like these reduce your marketing budget significantly because your customers are the ones doing all the work to get the rewards. Give them prizes that justifies the time invested and excitement with which they worked on this contest. User Generated Content (UGC) is one of the biggest drivers of engagement where you use content created by the customer on your social media handles. This increases customer engagement and also helps with achieving a significant amount of reach to newer customers.
Customer Retention Tip #9: Add More Content
The power of good content as a means to engage with customers has been written about again and again. People throng around places that add value to their experience, and valuable content is a vital factor. A content funnel is an important customer retention tip because you are slowly attracting potential customers by providing high-value content. This encourages them to spend more money on you.
A funnel usually has a cycle which goes like this: Awareness-Consideration-Conversion-Loyalty-Advocacy. As soon as people visit your website, nurture them with relevant content. To create awareness, these are the things that you can use: whitepapers, e-books, checklists, how-to articles and videos, webinars and so on. Allow the customer to evaluate your offering through these – demo videos, product webinars, FAQs, discovery calls and case studies. The last stage is where you help them make the purchase decision by offering free trials, live demo, consultations, discount coupons and so on. By the time a potential customer is ready to pay, they are convinced of your expertise in the field.
Customer Retention Tip #10: Personalize, Personalize, and Personalize
Personalization starts with communication. If Roger gets an email addressing him by name vis-à-vis being addressed as Mister, his reaction will be completely different for each one. He would warm up to the company that addresses him by his name but a plain salutation might not have much impact on him. Personalization goes a long way in winning customers. It is a sign of a good brand that concentrates on customer service.
Personalization, in terms of communication and offerings, is one of the best ways to beat the competition and improve customer retention. There are a lot of tools that help with it. Spend time and invest in the right tools to make sure that personalization happens at each customer touchpoint.
The value that personalization brings in is pretty high, and companies around the world are spending thousands of dollars to say -“Hi Roger.” You can do personalization at so many points – including emails, communications, content, live chat, customer service emails, phone calls, FAQ pages and so on.
Conclusion
In a world today that is entirely data-driven, companies which use technology to understand the psyche of their customers will thrive. The rest will find it difficult to hold on, and will eventually give way to newer companies that have customer service at their heart. With the help of a feedback form creator like that of SurveySparrow’s, you can collate information and work according to what they want. It will help you retain customers, increase revenue, keep them satisfied and increase the client base.
In short, creating a foolproof method for a customer retention plan is all about making a checklist of activities that you need to do consistently. The thing that will work across different industries and clients is nurturing relationships. The 10 customer retention tips that we have explained in detail here are not the only methods that you can use to keep the churn low. There are many more ways in which you can stop your customers from jumping ship.
