Customer loyalty is one of the most valuable components of any successful business, with significant consequences to the bottom line. 96% of defecting customers don’t tell the company why they’re leaving, which means that business leaders are responsible for figuring out what customers need in order to retain them. Here are some customer retention strategies to keep them satisfied and loyal.
Knowing the Customer’s Business
The first step in keeping customers loyal to your company is by thoroughly understanding their expectations. As unfair as it may seem, customers expect you to understand what they need without them telling you – as a result, you must understand their motivations and desires intimately to set accurate expectations and keep them happy.
Information-gathering is a good way to get to know your customers before even meeting them. Do research on what your target audience expects from businesses in your industry, and take a look at customer lifetime value (which is based on recency, frequency, and value of purchases) to see how much retention effort you should devote to different types of customers. If possible, you should also ask customers what they need and want during your initial contact. This will let you know their motivations for being interested in your company.
Once you’ve figured out what customers need, you can set expectations for your company to retain them. The trick here is to keep these expectations honest; don’t promise anything you can’t deliver or you risk raising your customer’s hopes only to disappoint them. This is a big risk, as one dissatisfied customer is likely to tell up to 20 more people about their negative experience. In other words, your reputation is at stake if you overpromise and underdeliver.
Communicating Regularly
An easy way to improve customer retention is by responding to every customer engagement as quickly as possible. This can include responding to social media posts and comments, sending thank you notes for referring other customers, establishing email lists, and more. Make it a point to provide clients with progress reports, send out customer surveys, and give news about sales and other offerings to create a better experience. By making sure no customer is ignored, you can establish a strong relationship and stronger loyalty.
A significant – and not always easy – component of this is always addressing customer complaints. Not only will you keep upset customers happier and more likely to stick around, you’ll also avoid them spreading bad news about your company. If a customer complains, correct the issue and let them know how you have done so. You should also keep a database of complaints to make sure similar issues don’t come up again.
In order to keep track of all this communication, you might consider automation. This allows a software program to automatically engage with your customers. A customer relationship management system is one example of these, as it can help you track and communicate with customers automatically. Although you should keep automation to the quick, simple communications like sale announcements, it can save you a lot of time and keep your customers engaged.
Maintaining Your Value
Perhaps the most significant aspect of customer retention is keeping customers interested by maintaining the value of your business. You should never assume that a loyal customer will cut you some slack for slipping up; instead, focus on constantly proving to your customer base that they’ve made the right choice in sticking with your products and services.
One way to do this is by providing perks to returning customers. Create frequent shopper programs and subscription services for loyal customers to pique their interest. You can even create invite-only services like hosting certain giveaway events, “open office” Q & A, product unveilings, or special sales restricted to returning patrons.
Although it’s important to remain true to yourself and your vision for your company, you won’t have a successful business without a loyal customer base. Focusing on understanding your audience, opening lines of communication, and constantly showing your value will help with retention – and your bottom line.