Abhishek Chauhan
In a competitive niche such as customer success, the existence of your business relies solely on well, customers! They have the real power to make or break your business. On that note, brands are constantly vying to lure your customers in and mesmerize them with their offerings. If you want to steal the show, you will have to let your services and offerings do all the talking.
The good news is, if you have already convinced a customer to purchase from you once, you have successfully passed the hard test. Now, all you need to do is give them a reason to come back and do more business with you. So, what are those reasons? Fortunately, here in this blog, we will walk you through five such battle-tested strategies for customer retention that will rev up your profitability bar too. Without any further ado, let us get started.
Set and Meet the Customer Expectations
Why would a customer wish to revert to you if you do not give them something to look forward to? And, that can only be possible when you know your customers in and out. Understand what they desire and use those pointers to set and meet their expectations. One of the best ways of doing that is by sticking up to your own promises first.
Do you know what happens when you have promised your clients to render service over a stipulated time but don’t deliver it just right? You fail as a brand. And you do not want that to happen, do you? This is not something that a customer expects out of you. They want you to stand up to your promises and that too in a given time frame. And never, I repeat never, over-promise ad under-deliver. There is nothing that a customer despises more than that.
Surprise your Customers every now and then
Let’s face it – who doesn’t love surprises? Customers too are no exceptions. They do want you to delight and surprise them as a brand. That is something that they look forward to from you. When it boils down to nurturing your customers, you can always offer them something valuable without adding that to their memo. Isn’t that the beauty of a surprise? They are spontaneous and unplanned and that is what makes them more likeable.
A promo code, a discount offer, a coupon, loyalty program too can go a long way in retaining the customers. Aside from this, a handwritten note may also make them go gaga for your brand. Surprises motivate customers. It can come in the form of appreciation. And remember that an appreciated customer is here to stay with you for long.
Take to Automation for engaging Customers
Marketing automation is one of the best gifts to the world of customer retention. Having this will allow some of your routines to be handled automatically, thereby saving time and resources. Gone are the days when you had to keep a tab on your customers manually – that was not only time-consuming but also enhances the chances of errors. And through automation, you can now seamlessly manage your big list of customer contacts, skim through the important emails and schedule promotional emails from the non-promotional ones as well. In fact, 36% of the organizations claimed that they already see an extensive use of marketing automation as stated here:
If you have this set-up all optimized and systematic, this will also give you the golden opportunity to deliver on the promises that you once made to the customers. Once you do that, you will be assured to see a boost in the conversion rates and will be in a better position to communicate stronger with your customers.
Render Exceptional Customer Service
Know that sometimes when a brand tags something as great customer service does not really mean that the customers too deem it similarly. In fact, there is often a huge gap in their respective perceptions. A 2017 study found that 8 out of 10 customers are so frustrated by this that they’re actually willing to pay more to have a better experience. And around 75% of organizations believe they are customer-centric, but only 30% of customers believe the same.
For this, you will have to route the right staff to the customers by ascertaining what is it that the customer needs and assigning the staff who is the most skilled in that particular area. Whatever be the communication channel that you wish to address their query – provide them consistent care and attention. When a customer sees constant attention and love, they will try to retain longer with your company.
Highlight your Social Presence
Customers are tending to become socially aware and conscious. Simply put, if you wish to retain them, you too should highlight your social presence. Your beloved customers would want to pay attention to your social activities – be it giving away charity, taking part in a community improvement scheme, or simply observe your engagements on the social channels.
Your customers want to see that you care about the world and community and aren’t just a bunch of business-minded people who care about money. They want to buy from a brand that is well-rounded, socially present, and sincere. Understand that they want to see you as a real brand and not like a corporate entity. As and when that happens, the customer would like to do more business with you and stick around a little longer as a loyal brand advocate.
That’s a Wrap
Customer retention is no rocket science and no cakewalk either. You just need to know what measures work in your favor and what steps should you better steer away from. The whole blog put up a spotlight on the fact that a customer will stay retained only when they see your attention, trust, love and value. Follow these five great strategies and you will see the magical changes starting to appear sooner rather than later. When you give the customers what they want and deserve, your customer retention score will rev up instantly.
