Here’s a business priority worth embracing: Increasing customer retention. You see, not all customers are created equal. Yes, all paying customers spend money with you, and that’s something your business needs, but the real bread and butter of your business is your loyal customers. Those satisfied people who return to do business with you again and again provide you with a stable customer base and a steady income, making them worth a great deal to your business.
A study by the Harvard Business School suggests that if you can increase your customer retention rates by 5%, you could see a jump in your profits by as much as 25%. That’s good news for any business, so let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to increase customer retention rates.
- Give service that stands out
Good customer service is a must when it comes to customer retention. Customer service is the point at which the customer often has the most personal and prolonged contact with your business, not to mention that it’s your best chance to solve problems and leave them with a positive impression of your company. Make sure your front line staff understand why customer service matters, and encourage them to really get to know your customers and make sure they feel like they matter. Feeling understood and valued matters to your customers, so make it your priority to ensure they do.
- Understand your customers
Your customers will keep coming back if you give them services or products that they want, love and need. To that end, it’s important that you understand your customers. Make use of the data you have available to you: customer surveys and feedback, sales figures, social media metrics and website statistics, for example. This data can be used to build up a clear picture of what your customers want from you, what problems they have that you can help them to solve. Wow them with the quality and usefulness of what you offer, and they’ll come back again and again.
- Introduce a loyalty scheme
Loyalty schemes such as membership cards which can help to increase customer loyalty are relatively inexpensive to get started with. A loyalty scheme that gives your customers benefits that they wouldn’t otherwise get makes them feel valued, while the act of working towards points or rewards gives them a reason to stick with your company. Loyalty schemes also help you by better understanding your customer base so you can see clearly who is the most loyal and who spends the most, allowing you to make the most of those relationships.
- Communicate your values and personality
Customers are more likely to be loyal to your brand if they feel you share their values. People want to do business with brands who reflect their own personal standards. If they care about your values that means they care about your business. Communicating your personality also matters – each brand has a unique personality, and by keeping yours strong and easily recognisable you can build up a strong relationship with your customers.
- Make it personal
Customers are more likely to be loyal to your business in the long term if you make them feel personally valued. After all, no one likes to feel like just another number. Think about ways you can show your customers how much you value them as people. Think about targeted ad campaigns, personalised communications and smart copywriting that speaks directly to your target market’s concerns. After all, your customer isn’t a mass of people, it is one person reading your email or looking at your products and searching for a connection with your brand.
Increasing customer loyalty is an important part of any long term strategy to keep your business strong. It doesn’t have to be difficult; make building personal connections and reasons to stay with you part of the everyday fabric of how you do business and keep your customers coming back.
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