- August 30, 2021
- Posted by: A4P
- Category: eCommerce
Let’s learn the importance of customer retention and how to keep customers coming back in this article.
Repeat customers are the foundation of every business, and due to social media, they may act as online ambassadors for your company. A happy customer not only buys your products and services but also tells others about them.
Taking recurring business for granted is a poor decision. People will come and leave without notifying you as to why they aren’t coming back. Take the best possible care of them once they’ve joined the fold to safeguard the investment you made in obtaining their business the very first time.
What is Customer Retention?
Customer retention methods actually give and get more value from your current clients. You want to ensure that the customers you worked so hard to obtain stick with you, have a satisfying experience with your products and services, and continue to benefit from them.
In other words, acquisition builds the foundation of clients, whereas retention builds customer connections and maximizes profit for each one. However, how much effort and money must you allocate to your retention strategy? It really depends on your store.
Customer Retention is Important for an Online Business, here’s why…
For starters, you’ll save five times the amount of money on retaining customers.
Furthermore, selling to an established customer is at least 40% more effective than attracting someone who has never purchased from you before. Current customers generally spend 31% more than new leads. And if a new product is released, existing consumers are 50% more willing to try it out.
Those figures should be enough to persuade you to develop and test a customer retention plan.
How to Keep Customers Coming Back
Here are 10 tips on how to keep customers coming back:
First Impressions
From the time they come into your store, a consumer determines whether or not to remain loyal to your company. It’s necessary to deliver excellent customer service from the start and make a positive first impression.
When a consumer receives exceptional service that they can’t get anywhere else, they’ll return not just for your product or service, but also for the experiences.
Keep the experience’s freshness and relevance
Continue to fine-tune and increase your offerings, and don’t forget to inform existing customers of any changes. Maintain to fine-tune and expand your offers, and don’t forget to let existing clients know what’s new. More reasons to communicate with your customer base include changes or updates.
Maintaining relevance for your brand, its offerings, and the customer experience is critical in retaining existing customers. Considering that something more on-trend will come along shortly.
Offer instant gratification
The easiest approach to keep customers coming back to your store is to reward them for their visits and provide them quick gratification.
That means giving them a coupon code, a discount on their next transaction, or a buy one, get one free deal if they revisit. Or you can also enroll them in a membership program that gives them frequent discount offers that rise each time they shop in-store.
Get to know your customers and build a relationship
What do your customers’ preferences and dislikes? What are their thoughts on your shop? Learn the answers to these questions and personalize the shopping experience for each customer based on their feedback and interests.
For example, if you notice that a certain customer enjoys it when you double bag their products, propose to do it for them rather than relying upon the customer to request it. Not only would this win you extra points for thoughtfulness, but it will also make the consumer feel more important. Which is enough reason for them to return.
Stay in touch
Rather than focusing on the next transaction after the sale, make efforts in starting to develop a relationship. Being active on social media, offering them a unique reward, and maintaining contact, such as email newsletters, are all possibilities. However, there is a fine line between remaining in touch and becoming annoying.
Make it easy for customers to reach you
Don’t have them go through a long series of options before they could even speak with someone. Reply to comments on social media, emails, and voicemail messages as soon as possible.
Establishing clear ways for your clients to contact you is important so that they can express their frustration and concerns, and perhaps even send you praise.
Give them a chance to be part of a community
Choose the right platform
Using the channel that your consumers prefer is the best approach to enhance your customer support initiatives. Although nowadays, many people still enjoy and use email over other services (including social networking). Bust still, you must choose the channel that is most appropriate for your business.
Have the right people on the front-line
You could have the greatest product in the world, however, if the person with whom your customer engages is uninteresting, if not plain terrible to work with, you will lose customers.
Make absolutely sure your staff consists of qualified individuals. Service that is both friendly and professional, more importantly, and personalized service should be the norm. Customers appreciate excellent engagement, consider them like friends rather than customers, and you’ll have a lifelong customer.
Reward Loyalty
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Granting clients a discount on their next transaction
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Hosting special event weekends with freebies and prizes
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Providing free delivery of products in the local vicinity
Tools for Customer Retention
Okay, so apps can’t automate all these 10 tips on how to keep customers coming back.
There really is no app for social responsibility or establishing realistic expectations, for instance, so you’ll have to handle those client retention strategies on your own.
However, much of the real work necessary may be automated. Here are some tools that could help these customer retention strategies:
Customer Relationship Management Software
Loyalty program apps
Social Media Apps
E-mail Apps
Final Thoughts
Your most significant asset is your current customer base. Customers are familiar with the product and services, and they like the care you provide.
Spending your time and efforts on making things better for this group rather than always looking for new consumers can be a strong approach to boost your store’s profitability.
