Acquiring new customers can be very exciting for any business owner. After all, getting such conversions from unique users means their organisation’s marketing and lead-generation efforts are working. However, gaining new customers isn’t the end-all-be-all of good business. It’s also crucial for organisations to retain existing buyers by nurturing their business-customer relationships.
The Importance of Maintaining and Improving Customer Retention
According to statistics published by Semrush, repeat buyers are 60% more likely to purchase products than new ones. They also found that acquiring a new buyer is five times more costly than nurturing a loyal customer. Furthermore, loyal buyers tend to become ambassadors to a brand they support, driving new leads and often resulting in more loyal customers.
Unfortunately, not all business owners are familiar with or are implementing customer retention strategies. They may be so focused on customer acquisition that they forget to think about how to keep said customers around for the long haul. For instance, it is crucial to invest in quality customer service training to ensure that customers always have pleasant experiences when interacting with an organisation’s staff. Similar training programmes can also help businesses determine their customer retention rates and how to implement strategies to improve them.
What Your Organisation Can Do to Improve Customer Retention?
Do you feel that your organisation could also improve its customer retention rates? Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most effective strategies that can help you create happy and loyal returning customers:
Personalise Customer Experiences
Though your customer base all have one thing in common, that is, being your customer, it’s likely composed of different market segments. Customers cannot be approached, therefore, with a one-size-fits-all tactic. Customising each segment’s customer experiences by focussing on their specific needs and preferences can go a long way toward keeping them happy.
Resonate with Your Customers’ Values
These days, people are better informed and more aware of the many issues facing the world today. This awareness and care for current issues affect customer behaviours—that is, people are more likely to patronise a business if its values align with their own. Indeed, research by the Harvard Business Review shows that 64% of customers who claim to have good-standing relationships with a particular brand attribute that fact to shared values between the customer and the business.
This information emphasises the importance of identifying your customers’ values and adjusting your marketing and messaging efforts accordingly. After all, taking a specific stand on certain issues and embodying your customers’ values can be vital for building and nurturing brand loyalty. If your business’s values and those of your customers match perfectly, letting customers know that you’re on their side of a matter is a great way to grab their attention and loyalty.
However, this is not to say that businesses should pretend to support advocacies. Faking it can backfire, as it can cause the said businesses to appear inauthentic and thus not worthy of support.
So, if you choose to use your business’s values as part of your messaging, ensure they are values you and your business’s stakeholders genuinely believe in and want to uphold. While some customers may not click with these values, those who do believe in the same things your organisation does will appreciate your openness and transparency regarding such matters.
Reward Customer Loyalty
One of the best ways to ensure that a person repeats an action is to reward them. The same goes for customers with a history of purchasing a product or service from a particular business. For instance, offering discounts and exclusive products to repeat buyers incentivises them for their support. Doing so encourages buyers to return and make repeat or additional purchases.
Make It Easy to Contact Your Customer Service Departments
Ensuring clear and open communication between your organisation and customers is key to building and maintaining customer loyalty and satisfaction. Generally, people appreciate it when they are heard, especially if they’re having trouble using your offering or interacting with your business’s employees.
To facilitate quick and open customer communication, a business must provide suitable communication channels for customers. These channels can take the form of comment sections, review pages, forums, and feedback forms, to name a few. Some more modernised businesses even invest in robust social media, text, email, and call systems to provide customers with immediate ways of providing feedback or asking for help.
Ready to improve your company’s customer retention rates but still feel a little lost about where to get started? Getting guidance from proven experts can go a long way to helping you achieve this goal.
Why not reach out to the experts here at Priority Management? We’re an organisation that boasts an effective customer service training programme, among other courses beneficial to the improvement and progress of organisations that operate in all sorts of industries and niches. Contact us today and let us know how we can assist you.