In the business world, there is something more important than getting new customers. Sounds hoax, doesn’t it? But it’s true, there comes a time in every business’s life when getting new customers doesn’t suffice the business growth needs. The more important factor that we are talking about is customer retention.
It is alluring to gain a new customer since it is a testament that you are doing something right. But what is a lot more satisfying is the feeling that the customers love your offering so much so that they keep coming back to you. Ergo, customer retention.
In this article, we are going to look into the different ways small businesses can up their customer retention game. We will dive into the strategies that every business can apply to a better customer experience through digital transformation.
But before we deep dive into the process of how you can up your customer retention game, you should know how to measure the count.
How to Measure Your Customer Retention?
There are three data points that businesses consider when counting the customer retention number:
- Number of customer they have at the end of a period – E
- Number of new customers acquires in a period – N
- Number of customers there were at the beginning of the period – S
The formula: ((E-N)/S)*100
Following the formula application, know that no matter which number you arrive at, you will have to ensure that it keeps growing. Let us get into the strategies on how to keep the number up next.
Strategies to Increase Your Customer Retention Count
- Heavy personalization
Gone are the days when writing names were the peak point of personalization. Today, personalization means keeping track of your users’ behavior on the website or application, elements they interacted with, spaces which they passed, what made them customers, etc.
Backed by the insight, the next step would be to plan your marketing campaigns for each scenario. Upsell to customers who have suddenly stopped engaging with your brand, limit sending notifications to the user who keeps blocking notifications, and send newsletters and testimonials to on the fence users.
- Omni-channel marketing
Your customers are now on the website, mobile app, social media, home assistant devices, and offline. The fact that your customers are available to engage with your brand across channels is a sign that you should be available across platforms too.
The key to gaining business success in the current time lies in being everywhere your customers are – social media, billboards, mobile applications, websites, and home devices. The more they see you, the greater would be the chances of them becoming a returning customer base.
- Recognize and appreciate customers’ association
Modern-day customers thrive on recognition and rewards. The best way to up your customer retention count can be to offer them free services or products, coupons, rewards, and the opportunity to purchase goods before the official discount season – something that can be learned from the Amazon Prime Users centric Sales season.
The more you show your customers privilege, the greater would the chances of them becoming returning customers. Here too, you can make use of an AI-driven speech and emotion recognition facility to plan out the best recognition and reward campaign.
- Treat convenience as king
The heading of the section speaks for itself. But the fact that so much relies on getting the convenience angle right, let us reinstate it for you. The more time your customer spends on your product to reach from point A to point B, the greater will be the chance of them abandoning you for someone who offers 3 clicks everything.
Your product should be backed by the power of automation, integrations, and search-bar immersiveness to ensure that your customers do not have to waste any extra minute within the solution.
- Ask your customers for feedback
The importance of your customers’ opinion cannot be overstated. They do not just help you grow as a small business but also shows your customers that they are your priority and you want to shape your business according to their need.
We generally find that there are two good ways to ask for feedback without seeming intrusive – on a survey after the user has to spend somewhere around a month within your business and when you ask them to rate your application on Play Store or App Store. In both situations, users are most likely to get back with their honest opinion about their experience.
- Replace selling with helping
If you have done any amount of market research on how to keep customers engaged, you would know that the intent of selling is frowned upon by the industry. The more you try to push your product or service on your customers, the more they’ll run away.
Customers want to be learned and become independent problem solvers. They prefer self-help videos over contacting the customer service team. You can also take a leaf from HubSpot Academy book, how they offer free customer training, marketing, and sales video to help their customers grow their skillsets.
Parting Words
Increasing customer retention count is not as difficult now as it once used to be. All your customers want is your availability and the freedom to make choices. The moment you offer them these factors in addition to your impeccable service or product, the probability of them becoming your loyal customer base while getting you more customers increases by manifold.
If you continue forming your business processes and communications around your customers, it will take very little time for you to cross the bridge of being a small business to an established organization.
These 6 strategies are time and tested by some of the biggest brands and startups alike. But don’t limit yourself to these, keep experimenting with what makes your customers happy and excited about your product. Meanwhile, if you know of more ways you can bring the customer retention count up, do share with us.
Author Bio:-
Smith is a very creative writer and active contributor who loves to share informative news or updates on various topics and brings excellent information to readers. His priority is to cover up new technologies and techniques for his audience. Smith has come out with many interesting cases and information that attracts readers to unravel his write-up.