Here’s a universal truth: All customers want to feel special. Whether they spend just a few dollars with your brand every once in a while or hundreds of dollars every month, they want to know that you care about their business and are willing to go out of your way to earn it.
And yet, as the e-commerce market grows, more digital marketers are having to confront the challenge of connecting with their customers across digital channels in a meaningful way. While there’s no shortage of precedent for white-glove practices in brick-and-mortar sales environments, digital communications remain something of a wild-west when it comes to making customers feel important.
Those tasked with cultivating customer relationships find themselves with plenty of tools at their disposal. Familiar channels like email and push notifications are becoming increasingly sophisticated, while third-party platforms now offer a variety of solutions for businesses looking to offer personalized service at scale. No matter the toolset, all retention strategies can benefit from a few time-tested methods of ensuring every customer feels like a VIP.
Maintain Detailed Customer Profiles
When deciding on an engagement/retention platform, be sure to consider its user-level data capabilities. Almost all platforms include some form of anonymized behavioral data tracking and visualization, but that’s not enough to make your customers feel valued and spark the desire to continue supporting your business. “To get the VIP status,” says James Green of Martech Today, ”it’s best to pair the anonymous actions with more detailed customer profiles, allowing brands to create a single comprehensive view of their customer.” A detailed customer profile repository has become table-stakes for any organization looking to retain customers effectively and it provides the backbone for all other initiatives.
Personalize Messages With Behavioral Data
Once detailed customer profiles are in place, marketers should brainstorm ways to personalize their messages beyond just using the recipient’s first name in an email. Demonstrate familiarity by (stealthily) including data related to their previous interactions with your product and brand. In a recent email campaign from Netflix notifying customers of a rate increase, the media company used behavioral data to personalize the messages. One email read, “The cost of your Netflix membership will increase to $10.99 on Sunday, October 29th 2017. Why? So we can add more of what you like to watch, from Brooklyn Nine-Nine to Gangs of New York.” The result was a more human form communication that demonstrated consideration for the viewer’s experience, making the cost increase that much more palatable. When openly addressing company changes in a personalized manner, customers won’t feel as slighted and, therefore, may decide not to jump ship.
Remember Their Preferences
Like your favorite restaurant that knows your order before you walk in the door, good brands remember personal details and use them to make life easier for their customers. Take advantage of opportunities to be a good listener and keep track of customer preferences, including their favorite communication channel or payment method. Incorporating these preferences into subsequent customer experiences shows how much you value their time.
Offer Personalized Product Recommendations
Besides facilitating famously high contributions to overall revenue, (as much as 35% in the case of Amazon) product recommendations are an effective way of making customers feel prioritized. In discussing Sephora’s use of personalized product suggestions, Kirsten Burkard of smile.io says, “These recommendations provide an elevated experience by demonstrating an understanding of each customer’s purchase habits and preferred products.” While the luxury French cosmetics chain does offer a tiered insider program, all registered users benefit from the product recommendations delivered according to customer behavior.
Be Kind
Unexpected gifts for your customers demonstrate an earnest appreciation for their business. Express genuine appreciation both inside and outside of commercial transactions. Even a simple thank-you email written in a candid tone can demonstrate a brand’s humanity, and modern customers much prefer interacting with humans than brands. Brian Honigman at Kissmetrics reminds us that the benefits can be substantial: “As many as 3 out of 4 customers say they have spent more with a company because of a history of positive experiences. Kindness and gratitude for a customer’s business is an undeniable way to further enchant them for the long term.”
Go Analogue
Never be afraid to go old-school. By embracing systems that facilitate volume and scalability, digital commerce has made analogue modes of communication a rarity. We’re not so far removed from the age of pen-and-paper that a thoughtful, handwritten note would fail to resonate with new or existing customers. Beyond that, work to foster a sense of community by inviting customers to real-world events, regardless of their lifetime value. Putting a face to a digital product will make you unique among the hundreds of brands that remain anonymous and only interact when ROI is at play.
All of these strategies help show customers that you care. Go into your customer retention plans armed with these best-practices and a “show, don’t tell” attitude, and you’ll reap the benefits of a consistently satisfied customer base for years to come. Implemented properly, you’ll be able to make every customer feel like a VIP, resulting in benefits across all your business’s KPIs.