Improving your customer retention doesn’t always require big changes to your pricing, targeting or positioning. Sometimes it’s as simple as a small tweak to an existing system.
Earlier this year, Episerver found that one-third of consumers have felt disappointed by the lack of attention from businesses they help support. That feeling of neglect likely doesn’t stem from a deficiency of customer retention strategies or ideas on the vendor’s side. It’s far more likely due to customer support and marketing professionals who feel they can’t give customers as much of their time as they’d like to.
We all wish we could talk to our customers more and implement all the ideas we have at work, but often, we don’t even have time to finish the regular daily to-do list, let alone start exploring new initiatives. It’s time to shift your priorities to surprise and delight, so you can ensure you make customers happy every day.
That doesn’t always mean taking on a huge new retention project – sometimes it’s as easy as sending a message or adding a small personal touch on your website.
If you’d like to discover a few quick wins for your customer retention program, look for tools that make it easier for you to do that. Here are a few to help you scale your personal touch.
Use RightMessage to greet them onsite
One thing marketers don’t often think about is how current customers receive their acquisition-focused marketing. For example, how do the signup CTAs all over your site impact the user experience for those who have already given their information?
While it’s just a minor annoyance for users, it’s a big missed opportunity for businesses.
RightMessage is a tool with incredible personalization options and advanced technology but in a simple user experience.
It allows you to personalize your website as easily as you can personalize a marketing email, but well beyond using a visitor’s first name. You can customize all parts of your website for different prospect and customer segments.
Some of the ways you can use it to improve existing customers’ experiences is by removing CTAs for actions they’ve already taken and replacing them with more relevant options, personalizing content based on different types of customers or personas, or serving up targeted onsite polling.
To show the power of customer personalization, let’s look at Stitch Fix. Their business model and unique value proposition revolve around sending the most personalized clothing choices to subscribers and they’ve heavily prioritized and invested in doing so. By the time Stitch Fix went public in 2017, they had millions of active customers and its founder Katrina Lake, was the youngest woman to ever take a company public.
Talk “face to face” with Bonjoro
Let’s talk more about email personalization. There are tons of possibilities, but too many marketers settle for adding their customers’ first names to the copy. It’s time to go beyond that and find tactics that actually make a difference in the information and value offered.
A great tool for adding a human touch is Bonjoro, which is technically more of a video tool that lets you easily record and send customized custom onboarding and customer success videos.
It syncs with your marketing and CRM data to create an address book and to-do list in the app with a built-in camera for recording short, personalized messages. It’s great for offering quick tips to new customers, answering customer questions, and rewarding customer loyalty. You can also include a relevant CTA, like a more in-depth piece of retention content or tutorial and track the video’s results and impact.
ConvertKit used Bonjoro to send personalized onboarding videos offering help and advice based on information provided during signup. After 3 months, they reduced their churn by 17% and had customers telling the team they “finally felt noticed.”
Turn customers into advocates with GrowSumo
Once you’ve used personalization to excite customers, it’s the perfect time to get them talking. When you pair customer retention with referral marketing, you can earn even more from existing customers than repeat purchases and subscriptions.
But if you want users to refer you to their friends, it needs to be easy for them, which means using a high-quality platform to manage your program. And to drive engagement and participation within your referral program, it should feel both easy and fun for customers to recommend you.
GrowSumo offers all-in-one referral programs with excellent user experiences for both you and your advocates.
In addition to managing the tracking and technical aspects of a referral program, it also helps engage and educate existing customers. Through things like assets, drip campaigns, and challenges, you’re continuously able to move advocates towards their next desired action, whether that’s referring, retaining, or both.
Ship swag with Printfection
Finally, everyone loves swag. From the bank pen that’s always in your pocket to the soft t-shirt you love to sleep in, good promotional products can become beloved items that further a connection to a brand. This means your swag budget is better spent on existing customers than cold leads at a trade show.
Tools like Printfection have high-quality products and a simple delivery process. Printfection syncs with your marketing and sales data to automatically trigger sending gifts to new or recurring customers based on events in your CRM. You can easily build freebees into your onboarding or retention process in addition to placing orders for any events you attend. It also offers internal tools for managing swag information between teammates to simplify all things promotional products.
The key to swag success is keeping your target customers and their friends in mind. For example, TeamSnap’s product serves recreational sports coaches, players, and parents. Their swag campaigns take advantage of the close-knit relationships in that community and are all items sports enthusiasts will enjoy.
Spread the delight
Make surprise and delight an official part of your customer retention process in small ways. Customers just want to feel seen, recognized, and rewarded for their loyalty, especially as their pool of options grows.
More from PostFunnel on Email Marketing:
5 Email Tips to Remind Your Customers About Their Abandoned Cart
5 Tactics Retention Marketers Use To Make Automated Messages Feel More Human
How to Make Customers Look Forward to Your Email