While running a business, it is one thing to acquire new customers and it is another to make those new customers stay and turn them into promoters of your brand. Customer retention is a vital part of any company because it shows how good they are not only at getting new clients, but how they manage to keep existing customers satisfied. Many businesses go down the drain nowadays because of customer retention issues. This is why it is important to increase customer loyalty so as to reduce the stress of getting new customers.
Retain customers and make more money by applying our 5 best practices:
Take positive feedback as a marketing tool
Do you remember the last item you bought online without first reading the product reviews and feedback from consumers? Me neither. It's a great thing if your business has positive feedback because it shows that you offer quality products and services and it also means that people trust your business. Any positive feedback your business has should be capitalized upon to retain your customers and draw in new ones. The first step to achieving this is having a platform where people can leave feedback based on their experience with the service provided. If you then get a lot of amazingly positive feedback about your company, use it to your advantage.
How can you achieve this?
First, get permission from the people that sent the feedback and post it on your website or you can ask them to go on your Facebook or Instagram page and post it directly.
Improve your service with the negative feedback that you get
For your business to thrive and retain customers, any kind of feedback must be used to improve upon the service you provide. While positive reviews will show you what you're doing right, negative feedback shows you where you need to make improvements to deliver better services. Instead of having more customers leaving negative feedback about your business because of something you didn't do right, take this negative feedback, examine it and improve where necessary. Not only will this help you, but it will also bring about low churn which is good for every business.
When you get feedback from your actual customers and you take actions to improve, they see and know that you really care about them and this can lead to customer retention.
Treat your loyal customers better than one-off customers
This is self-explanatory. When you're running a business and you have returning customers, give them your maximum attention. It is usually heartbreaking when I see most people attend to one-off customers so nicely while they treat their returning customers like they aren't worth it. When you have a customer come back for your services, he or she came back for a reason which could be your topnotch customer service or any reason best known to them. You're cheating yourself out of getting more sales when your quality of service is inconsistent. Remember, your customers have a choice, If they don't get the same treatment they got the first time, they would definitely leave.
Work on your Customer support
Having a profitable business is important but having great customer support is more important. This is one of the factors responsible for Customer loyalty. Your business should be easy to contact either through your online platforms or your Customer support channel. Also, your responses to their questions should be prompt and fast, and for this, you can choose a social media platform where you are likely to respond fast to all comments, inquiries, private messages and so on. In addition to all of that, keep your temper in check- do not go off on a negative comment. You should endeavour to tackle the answer positively and watch your business grow.
Have a topnotch shopping experience that is not easy to forget.
If you want to retain your customers, you should make shopping with you worth their while. There is no business without competition so in order to keep existing customers, you have to do something differently. Do something that makes your brand distinct from your competitors. It doesn’t have to be something that makes a big hole in your pocket, you can add freebies in every package they get and after a certain time, you can even put out a special offer based on what services you offer. Those little things matter a lot, it gives your customers a feeling that they are always going to get more value for their money, thereby creating a sort of anticipation and eagerness in them to buy more of your products.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, customer retention isn't so hard to achieve. However, it's not an easy task as well. To retain your customers, you have to be ready to put in the work and use some of the valuable tips provided in this article.
