As more and more businesses have begun to shift to eCommerce platforms, it is becoming harder to compete. The 21st century is an age of technology, and everyone has access to it. This makes it extremely hard to work on customer retention.
Where all your choices are perfect, which one would you opt for? Customers are often confused between websites with the same features and services or ad campaigns that don’t go anywhere. So, how can you make your mark?
The good news is that strategies for customer retention become a lot easier the first time you reel in a customer. Since the customer has already bought your product, you have passed the initial hurdle. It is time to keep them in!
What Is Customer Retention?
The easiest way to understand customer retention and its importance is through the example of an apple orchard owner. With a beautiful website that displays the juicy apples and quality that beats all, the owner is ahead of the game.
Suppose Customer A scrolls onto the website and makes that first purchase simply because they are interested. Good customer retention rates will push them to stay with the same apple orchard owner and buy the same product. Essentially, it will turn them into repeat customers.
Customer retention can be impacted by another producer offering better quality or a more appealing interface. They can pull them away from your website and onto their own through promises of a much better experience.
Thus, strategies for customer retention must revolve around targeting these areas. Now that you know the answer to “what is customer retention,” here are 5 powerful strategies to retain more customers!
1. Make Them Feel Special
Customer retention is easy when you make your customer feel special. The comfort they receive through your service is unmatched. This means they will not get this anywhere else. It can push them to stay longer.
Strategies for customer retention should involve making people feel like their purchases matter to your organization. By offering them gift cards, special discounts, or thank you notes, you can essentially communicate to them that their investment is important.
This can help your customers return time and again to buy your product. Of course, it is even more special if you ensure that your messages are in line with the website or company theme, as that sticks to a customer’s memory for longer.
2. Make Your Mark
The first impression means everything to a customer. However, they can often forget that impact and switch to another company as they make a more impactful mark. Personalizing your marketing strategy is the only way to prevent customers from switching.
If your website feels like many other websites out there, the customer finds it much easier to move away. However, using your metrics to create a website according to your traffic is one of the greatest strategies for customer retention.
You can also attempt to create a brand theme and increase your brand loyalty. Using SEO, content, and digital marketing strategies for a cohesive brand image can boost retention rates by a bigger margin.
3. Keeping Them in the Loop
Customers like to be kept in the loop. They prefer to be privy to information that potential customers don’t have. After all, this is what separates them from other customers.
It is easy to make customers feel special. If you wonder, “what is customer retention,” an easy answer could be “keeping customers.” You can only make customers stay if you make them feel like they have a place in your organization.
Invest in a team that is dedicated to updating their repeat customers about new offers, partnerships, other developments in the company, discounts, new products, and more through special newsletters.
4. Feedback
While we are on the topic of keeping customers away from other companies, let’s discuss one of the most important strategies for customer retention. This is the much-dreaded feedback that forms the crux of each of your quarterly meetings.
Customer feedback is essential as it tells you a lot more than metrics. It can help you gauge whether you have met the customers’ goals and addressed their concerns. Ensure you add a feedback form to your website and push customers to fill it out.
This doesn’t just help you keep customers but also work on your current process to update and improve them. You can decide to send this feedback form once or twice a year and develop mechanisms to ensure changes are implemented.
5. Customer Service
Customer service is king! We all know good customer service is hard to find. It often involves searching for several days before landing on one company that doesn’t shy away from answering questions.
Customer retention is boosted when you become that company for the customer. The best customer service answers all of the customers’ questions with knowledge, experience, and patience. Without this trio, the experience will not provide value addition to the customer.
Alternatively, you can boost this value addition by providing blogs or articles on your platform and educating customers through frequently asked questions. Since most of them don’t want to pick up a phone to answer their question, this is something they will appreciate.
Moreover, different customers prefer different kinds of agents. You can match the agent’s personality to the customer for the best customer retention!
