Do you want to know what is better than getting lots of sales through your website?
Having those customers return to your store again and again and again.
And what is the key to encouraging your customers to return? By inspiring loyalty.
In this article, we’re going to talk about why loyalty in business matters and which strategies are best for increasing your customer retention rates. Read on for the definitive guide…
Why Does Loyalty Matter In Business?
Loyalty is the key to customer retention and longevity in any business.
What good is a dentist if their patients use them once and then look elsewhere for future procedures? Or a restaurant without regular diners?
If you want to make as much money out of each customer as you can, you need to provide superior value and establish a level of trust.
Once you secure a customer’s loyalty, not only will they return time and again to spend their money with you, but they will also talk about your brand with their friends and family and ultimately spread the good word.
In doing so, you are taking business from your competitors and ensuring your long-term survival.
What Are The Benefits Of Good Customer Retention?
Customer retention can benefit your business in a multitude of valuable ways, such as:
1.) Increased Order Value
if a customer trusts your brand and the products / services you provide, they’ll be far more likely to purchase from you again in the future – and may spend more with each visit.
For example, imagine an agency that specializes in digital marketing in Singapore; if they provide superior value to their clients, not only will they be able to retain them as long-term clients, but they will have a much easier time of up-selling them on a variety of different digital marketing methods.
The more value they deliver their clients, the more money their clients make, and ultimately, the more money the digital marketing agency makes as a result. Everybody wins!
2.) Higher Profits
Of course, the more customers you manage to retain, the more money they will invariably spend, and the greater your annual profits will become.
When you invest in customer retention, your profits can grow exponentially as a result.
3.) Better Customer Relationships
Again, those who are loyal to your brand will invariably become ‘brand ambassadors’, which means they will frequently talk about your brand, products and/or services to their friends and family.
If you continue to invest in customer retention strategies, you will build stronger customer relationships, leading to greater satisfaction levels and far less time being wasted on appeasing disgruntled customers.
4.) More Cost-effective
Investing in customer retention is far more cost-effective than constantly having to find new customers.
Yes, the goal is to always be attracting new customers to your cause, however, there is far more value in ensuring that those who do find your brand ultimately continue returning for more!
The Most Valuable Customer Retention Metrics To Measure
Before we get into customer retention strategies, here are a few of the most valuable metrics for you to measure:
- Repeat customer rate.
- # of customers with more than one purchase.
- # of unique customers.
- Overall purchase frequency.
- The average order value.
- Projected customer lifetime value.
- Churn rate.
By measuring the above metrics, you can frequently leverage high-value, actionable data to refine and perfect your ongoing customer retention strategies.
Now, let’s take a look at how to put these into practice…
The Best Strategies For Customer Retention
Customer Accounts / CRM system
One critical aspect to customer retention is making it as easy as possible for them to spend money with you the second time around.
The easiest example of this is eCommerce websites offering an account sign up to store pre-filled shipping information.
Once a customer places an order, they can easily sign up for an account, and then when they do come back they can place orders almost instantaneously.
You can encourage this by offering incentives for signups (e.g., 10% off your next order if you sign up today).
Following that, if you use a CRM (customer relationship management system) to store and monitor all of your customer accounts, your team can easily track and manage your customers – including recording any contact with customer service (which takes us to our next point).
Invest In Customer Support
The more you invest in your customer support the better. Don’t be one of those companies that are practically impossible to make contact with.
Instead, make it easy for your customers to find the information they need and provide them with easy resolutions.
Using the CRM system example above, whenever a customer makes contact, you can update their account so that the next customer service / sales rep can refer to it in the future.
Brand Loyalty Programmes
Consumers love being rewarded for their loyalty, which is why brand loyalty programmes are so effective.
A brilliant example of this is offering regular discounts to return customers and/or offering stamps that can be redeemed for all manner of rewards.
Engage With Your Email List
Start a conversation with your customers and keep it going by sending out regular newsletters with exciting, informative, and entertaining information.
This is the key to keeping your brand alive in their minds and upselling them in the future.
Even if some of your customers never open those emails, they’ll see them on a daily basis which means that when they do eventually need or want a product or service similar to those that you offer, there’s a good chance they’ll remember to come back to you.
Request Customer Feedback
Frequently ask your customers for feedback on your services and make it easy for them to provide it.
Not only is this an effective way of seeing how satisfied your customers are, but you can also take steps to appease those who aren’t so satisfied / ensuring that you don’t get similarly negative feedback in the future.
That, and the more ‘social proof’ you have, the far easier it will be to prove your credibility for new customers, establish trust, and up those organic conversion rates.
Provide Personalized Shopping Experiences
Personalized shopping experiences work exceptionally well in the eCommerce industry.
This could be anything from having a chatbot assistant on standby to offering personalized product recommendations based on their previous purchasing history and products bought by others who share similar interests.
Create High-value Content, Consistently
While it is very important to offer superior products / services, you also need to invest in creating high-value content on a consistent basis.
Remember, the key to securing your customers’ loyalty is by keeping your brand alive in their minds.
You can achieve this by showing up consistently with awesome and engaging content that speaks to their needs, fears, and interests.
Continue providing free value and helping improve their lives and/or the way in which they use or interact with your products, and you’ll have a much easier time of keeping them coming back for more.
Keep Your Employees Happy
Do you want to know who your biggest brand ambassadors are? Your employees!
This is one of the most frequently overlooked customer retention strategies; investing in keeping your employees satisfied in their work.
The happier and more fulfilled your employees are, the more pleasant they will be when interacting with your customers.
If your employees are fed up and bored and don’t feel any passion in what they are doing, your customers will pick up on it.
The fact is, if your customers can clearly see that your employees are well taken care of and are happy to be there, it always reflects positively on your brand.
If you commit to the above suggestions and continually keep an eye out for new ways to improve the customer experience, you’ll have no trouble keeping them coming back for more time and time again!
