There’s one thing that every single business has in common: customers. Sure, the customers vary in demographics among businesses but no trade can survive without them, that’s why customer loyalty and retention is so important to the bottom line of a company.
A smart business owner knows that he or she must keep their customers happy even after the sale. Losing customers is never a good thing, but understanding why they left is the first step to fixing the problem.
Often businesses gain the loyalty of their customers and then forget about them. This is a mistake when it comes to customer loyalty and retention, we have to strategize wisely and continuously gain the loyalty of our clients.
Why Would a Customer Leave You?
There are a few reasons why a customer would leave a company: they’re dissatisfied by the product, unimpressed by your customer service, persuaded away by a friend or a better deal, or no longer in the market. These are all good reasons, but not the reason 68% of customers leave.
What’s number one? They believe that you no longer care about them.
In this article, we’ll dive into why you should care about the loyalty and retention of your customer and how to increase customer retention with some grade A tactics.
Let’s get started.
Why Do You Want to Improve Customer Loyalty and Retention?
This should be obvious but we’ll cover some of the reasons you would want to improve your customer loyalty and retention. The main reason you want to improve your customer relationships is to keep your current customers coming back to you instead of your competition. Here are some more reasons:
Achieve Better Conversion Rates.
Once you establish trust and confidence with your customer, you most likely have a faithful consumer, assuming you provided them with good service and good value. According to marketing genius, Paul Farris, a repeat customer has a 60% – 70% chance of converting.
Lower Cost of Marketing
Keeping your current customers is a lot cheaper than acquiring new ones. Finding new clients is expensive and exhausting.
After you find potential customers, you then have to convince them you are the best choice for them. Keeping current customers happy is much easier to accomplish and a better for the bottom line.
Increased Profits
With reoccurring customers, you know they’re satisfied with your product’s or service’s price point. This means you don’t have to lower your initial price with coupons or discounts like you would have to when acquiring new customers.
If you have a loyal customer on your hands then chances are they trust you and your product or service. Therefore, it may be much easier to upsell them on your more expensive products or cross-sell them to different items. The facts are real–returning customers usually spend 20% more than new customers.
Improved Products or Services
The best part about a loyal customer is that they keep coming back. If you can win their heart once, you should be able to keep their business time and time again.
After a customer buys your product or service, you can then send them surveys to understand their experience, likes, and dislikes. Find out if they found the product to be valuable and find out what you could improve on.
If anyone comes in contact with your customer support team, be sure to follow up with a survey on how the call went. Make sure their needs were all met and all their questions answered. Taking the extra step is the key to a positive, ongoing relationship with your clientele.
Bring on the Referrals
What does a happy customer and an unhappy customer have in common? They both run and tell others about their experience. Knowing this, it’s important that you’re on the bragging side of that conversation. Produce a happy customer and you can bathe in the power of referrals.
The Concerto Marketing Group analyzed that 83% of customers will recommend your brand to others if they trust the brand. Did you know that 92% of people rely on the opinions of family and friends when making a buying choice? Referrals are a powerful thing.
How to Increase Customer Retention
If you want to create long-term loyalty, consider these customer retention methods that businesses have been doing for decades. Everyone likes a little surprise now and then, especially if they’ve given you business several times over.
Christmas Gifts
It’s time to try something different this year. Just like you would get a gift for your employees, why not give a gift to your customers this holiday season to show them how much you truly appreciate their business? After all, where would you be without them?
Sending Christmas gifts is one of the best customer retention tactics there are. Reap the benefits of kindness and generosity this Christmas by sending your clients a branded box of chocolates or one of these hot products.
Holiday Discounts
Can’t afford to send your clients a physical product? How about offering them a holiday discount instead. It’s a good idea to put an expiration date on these offers to create a sense of urgency so your customers feel pressured to take advantage of the offer while they can.
Loyalty Rewards
It’s in your best interest to keep your big-ticket clients, therefore, we recommend you reward your most profitable customers so they stay your most profitable customers.
Loyalty rewards are fun because they allow you to get creative. It can be much more than giving a gift or a loyalty punch card, all great options and explained more below.
Think outside the box and reward them with advanced access to products and services. You could explain that you trust their opinion so much that if they’re interested in purchasing this additional service at a discount, you’d appreciate their feedback. Everyone’s attracted to exclusivity.
Gifts for Current Customers
Show your customers you appreciate them with a surprise gift. Of course, you don’t want to blow your budget on gifting every one of your customers.
Take some time to segment your list into specific types of customers: new, reoccurring, ones that recently contacted support, ones that discontinued a reoccurring order, high value, ones that give you referrals, etc.
Need gift ideas? We can help with that. We’ve got promotional items for everything you can think of from houseware to pet accessories.
Send a Handwritten Note to Show You Care
If you really want to go the extra mile with a customer, write a handwritten note. This is different than your average thank you or birthday email because it shows dedicated and thoughtfulness.
The customer will notice you took the time to 1) think about them, 2) find a card 3) handwrite the card 4) spend money on a stamp 5) take time out of your busy schedule to go to the post office.
Communicate Often
Your customers are your customers because they trust you and believe that you are an authority in that field. Why not strengthen this relationship by sending them educational emails. By providing value you increase the confidence your audience has with you.
Loyalty Cards Pre-Stamped
There’s a reason why almost every coffee shop, supermarket, online retailer, and ice cream parlor has a loyalty program these days. It’s because they still work.
Want a creative twist on the loyalty reward card idea? Send the cards out pre-stamped for more of an incentive to shop with you.
Let’s say two coffee companies each mail you a loyalty punch card for their coffee shops. Company A sends you an empty card for 8 coffees. Company B sends you a card for 10 coffees, but two were already punched out.
Yes, both cards are technically the same but which one would you feel more inclined to use? Company B, of course, because they’re making you feel like they gave you two coffees for free. You also choose Company B because they read this article and understand the value of good customer service.
Don’t Stop After the Sale
Don’t stop trying to win over your customer after they make a sale. The key to success in any business is continuing to improve your customer loyalty and retention.
When customers feel that you care about them, they’ll feel connected to your services. They wouldn’t dream of leaving a company that sends them a personalized Christmas gift every year.
For incredible marketing ideas of all shapes, sizes, and uses, check out our blog. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us today so that we can strategically plan your marketing needs in order to not only keep your customers happy but keep them coming back.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]