These days, too many companies focus on acquiring new customers instead of retaining them. Superb customer service will help you retain your customers and lower customer turnover.
What Constitutes Customer Retention?
Customer retention refers to the activities you undertake to retain and increase repeat customers. When you keep more of your customers, you build long-term customer relationships. As a result, you increase your revenue with each retained customer.
Once you have been in business long enough to acquire sufficient customers, you can focus on retaining them. You want to encourage them to remember you when they are shopping and come to you.
Email Marketing
Most companies make an effort to get a customer’s email address. Begin an email campaign reminding the customer what you have to offer and to check out their latest products.
Based on a recent Forrester study, businesses are using email even more in 2021 than ever in the past. If large companies see the value in email marketing, small businesses should look to use the same strategy.
Get Serious About Your Online Presence.
Now that you have a customer, retain him or her through strategic marketing. Have a website that provides up-to-date information about your product and service. Ensure that you have a Facebook and Twitter account referring customers to your website, which will keep your business at the forefront of their minds. If you have a B2B business, consider being active on Linked In as well.
Deliver Consistent Customer Service
Always remember that you are dependent on your customers. They are not reliant on you. Your job is to serve the customers to their ultimate satisfaction. Arguing with a customer will lose you a customer, not win you an argument. For the ultimate in customer experience and retention, consider Nordstrom. The store quietly and without argument accepted the return of a set of tires from a dissatisfied customer. That would be normal, except that Nordstrom does not sell tires. It does, however, know how to retain happy customers. To quote Warren Buffet, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Main Reasons That Customers Go Elsewhere
It is convenient for customers to deal with a business they know. Why do people cease doing business with a company with which they are familiar? Here are the most common reasons:
- Customers do not appreciate rudeness. We all know that businesses can see many unreasonable customers each day, for example, a customer trying to return tires to Nordstrom. Train your staff to be courteous at all times. It is a great idea to reward customer service staff who have a reputation for good customer relations with bonuses. They are as worth retaining as your customers are.
- Customers are actually willing to pay more for a pleasant experience. When they feel appreciated and understood, they will continue visiting a more expensive store rather than doing business with a continuously rude and uncaring store.
- From a customer’s point of view, one of the most frustrating aspects is the lack of human interactions. Online bots have taken over customer service. On the phone, machines and voicemail can make it virtually impossible to reach a human being. For increased customer retention, be there for your customers. A 2015 study revealed that 46 percent more customers will switch companies than they would have ten years ago.
Final Thought
Customer retention is no longer a given. You need to earn it.
