The Best Strategies for Customer Retention

For businesses, getting customers and driving sales is key to their success. But while getting new customers is important, it’s also very important to not forget about the customers you already have. You need to be able to retain them and ensure you have their repeat sales coming in along with new sales from the new customers your marketing efforts will generate. Both play an important role in growing a sustainable business, but retaining customers is crucial to your long-term success. Increasing your customer retention rate will give your profits a boost. According to Gartner Group, an increase in customer retention of as little as 5% can increase your profits by anywhere from 25% to 125%.

So, what are some of the best strategies for companies to use to retain customers? Here are a few tips.

 Personalization

Personalize their experience, and they’ll be more likely to return. Make them personalized offers. Personalize e-mails and communications to them. Personalize your site’s experience to make it relevant to customers. This can include altering product prices and promotional offers, images on the landing page or product page, or the amount of text on a page. Use outbound marketing to target prior visitors/customers with ads tailored for them. Give them a personalized customer experience in stores.

 Loyalty programs

Who doesn’t like feeling like a VIP? And who doesn’t love a deal? Offer your customers a loyalty program to join, whether it be a punch card for a deal when it’s filled, a card that lets them earn points per dollar spent, or a card that offers them some sort of pricing deal (special prices only for loyalty members, or a percentage off) when they use it. 

 Reciprocity

Go above and beyond to give them great customer service. Do a little something extra, something unexpectedly nice, some small little gesture to heighten their experience. Maybe try to personalize it to them. If you can give them extra special customer service, they’ll more than likely come back – and tell others about the experience. Small customer appreciation gifts, handwritten notes, and thank you emails are also great little customer service surprises that your customers will love.

 Customer support

Quality matters more than speed. People like customer service that is courteous, willing and helpful rather than speedy. It makes them seem like they matter more to you rather than being rushed. If they feel they matter, they’ll come back. Also, utilize the channel of customer service your customers prefer and makes the most sense for your business. If they prefer email for the primary means of contact, use it. If they prefer social media or online chatting, use that. 

 Survey

Let your customers take customer satisfaction surveys so you can see how you measure up and what you can do better to keep your customers happy. This allows them to give important feedback to you on how you can do things better and keep them coming back.

 Online relationships

With the rise of social media, it makes sense to connect with your customers there. Most of your customers will be found on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (although Pinterest and Instagram are also rather popular) so you want to have accounts there at least. Be sure to have links to these accounts on your website so people can find them. And also include a link to your website on your social accounts. Use your social media accounts to share relevant content, thoughts on topics, and engage with your followers who leave comments and feedback.  Also, be sure you use e-mail to keep in contact with your customers. Start a periodic e-mail marketing campaign to keep them informed of news and share links to articles. Also, send periodic sales offers by e-mails. You also want to start a blog to share news and updates your customers will find interesting as a way to keep engaged with them.

 Stand out from the crowd and aggressively grow your business with Aggressive Growth Marketing. The Growth Marketing Agency that provides Growth Hacking Marketing, Social Media, Guest Blogging, Email Marketing and growth focused Digital Marketing Agency services. Call 020 7692 8960 to discuss your needs today.