What’s better than acquiring one new customer? It’s actually retaining an existing customer. Though customer acquisition is important, numerous researches have proved that customer retention is actually worth more than newly acquired ones.
What does customer retention mean? And how can you achieve customer retention through relationship-building strategies?
Customer retention is the process of engaging existing customers to continue buying products or services from your business. It’s different from customer acquisition or lead generation because you’ve already converted the customer at least once.
While generating leads and acquiring new customers is essential, getting existing customers to continue to buy from you is a lot easier and more cost-effective. Returning customers tend to spend more and buy more often, as they are already familiar with your products or services. Additionally, they spread positive word-of-mouth and refer your business to others. But on top of that, retaining current customers helps to boost ROI and increase your business profitability.
66% of US consumers spend more on brands to which they are loyal, 55% of US consumers recommend brands or organizations to which they are loyal to their family and friends, 12% will even publicly endorse or defend a brand or organization on social media. (Accenture)
Now that you know how important customer retention is, how do you achieve better rates? Here are some proven Customer Retention strategies that keep customers coming back.
Take Pride in Customer Service:
According to the study, “68 percent of customers leave because of poor customer service”. If your customers feel as if you don’t care about them, they are going to leave. More than anything, customer retention is all about building trust and powerful relationships. When it comes to providing good customer service and taking pride in the way you take care of your customers, you need to take a proactive approach to solve their problems.
Redtie Chat is the best way to communicate with your website visitors in real-time. You can also take advantage of Live Chat Software to connect with visitors on your site that increase customer retention.
Build Lasting Relationships:
Being able to earn the trust of your customers is paramount if you want to improve customer retention.
According to an Experian study, “Personalized emails bring up to six times more business than generic ones.” It might seem insignificant to you, but customer retention is all about the little things that make a big difference in the minds of your customers.
“80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention.”(Emarsys, 2018)
Redtie allows you to create a highly personalized messaging strategy when the user feels like the emails have been written especially for them individually.
Go Above and Beyond:
Don’t forget to always ask for feedback and to listen closely to what your customers are saying. By listening to your customers, you are getting insights into your business on issues and potential problems that you might not see from your vantage point. Being able to listen to your customers allows you to get a more accurate picture of your business and the services that you provide.
Reward Loyalty:
Nothing says “we appreciate you” better than providing incentives for your most loyal patrons. It’s all about showing that you truly appreciate them. Show your best customers how much their loyalty means to you and they will respond not only by staying with you, but by continually recommending your business to others.
That’s why at Redtie, we believe that creating a customer-centric culture begins long before creating a rewards program. By rewarding customers with redeemable rewards, you increase your customer’s average order value and encouraging them to invest in your brand — meaning they’re less likely to switch to a competitor. It’s also a good idea to deliver additional value to customers, potentially by inviting them to participate in an online community associated with the product.
Anyone with a Redtie account can send rewards via SMS, Phone Call or Email. Rewards may also be given as a result of an action such as scanning a QR code or participating in a survey (which in turn generate a message in one of the supported channels)
Conclusion:
While both customer acquisition and retention are important in today’s hyper-competitive market environment, retaining current customers should become a high priority for every business that wants to succeed, grow in profitability and win over the fierce competition. Since your loyal customers will always come back for your products or services, they are obviously your most valuable business asset that deserves explicit investment and care to generate long term benefits.
