The goal of many businesses, if not all of them, is to make a profit and increase their market share. While acquiring new customers should be part of your business strategy, which will contribute to fulfilling your goal, businesses must not forget their existing customer base. Your existing customer base is customers who have already shown interest in your business by making a purchase.
Retaining existing customers is essential to the success of your business, as it helps you maintain your market share, leads to better profit margins and is a lot more cost-effective. So here are 6 simple things your business can start doing, which can go a long way in leveraging your existing customer base.
Manage Customer Expectations
How well your product or service performs in the eye of your customer is the first stepping stone in building a successful relationship. Although the efficacy of your product is an influencing factor, how your customer perceives your product and what their expectations are will have a greater effect. This is why it is always important to set expectations early on. And while you will not want to set expectations too high, only to leave customers with a dissatisfying experience, you do not want to set expectations too low either, as this will deprive your product or service of its value. You may want to consider integrating expectation setting as part of your sales strategy and later in your customer’s journey as part of your onboarding program.
Keep Your Ears to the Ground
Addressing your customers’ concerns and the issues they face during their experience is essential to prevent losing them. Implementing a process for collecting customer feedback will give you insight into how they feel about your business, how your products and services are performing, and what you can do to improve your business. Listening to your customers can extend beyond simply collecting feedback – you can monitor their purchase patterns, product usage, and other variables that contribute to their behavior. This will allow you to deliver proactive solutions to your customers, and further your efforts in retaining them.
Personalize the Customer Experience
Establishing an emotional connection with your customers is the foundation for building a strong relationship with them and winning their loyalty. Customers want to feel that the service they are being provided is personal and about them. When it comes to retaining your customers, one size does not fit all. To personalize your customers’ experiences, add depth to your interactions with them, gamify their experience, and make them a part of your community, and make your offers relevant to their preferences. Every customer is unique, so treat them accordingly.
Adopt Customer Service Tools
There are a lot of factors that go into maintaining a strong customer retention strategy, which can make it a very complex process. For this purpose, you may consider turning to several customer service tools, depending on your needs. One of the most in-demand tools you may opt for is a CRM or customer relationship management tool, which can help you keep track of a customer’s journey. Another option, often coupled with a CRM tool, is to employ a telephone answering service. You can browse this site to learn more about how a telephone answering service can help you manage volumes of customer inquiries and empower your customer retention strategy. No matter the choice you make, ensure that the tools you opt to make your efforts to retain your customers simpler.
Stay in Touch with Your Customers
Just as it is the case with interpersonal relationships, a business cannot maintain a strong relationship with its customers without staying in touch. The obvious way to do this is to reach out through newsletters, phone calls, and messages. These communications with your customers can make them feel valued and appreciated. You can also extend these efforts by building an online presence on social media and through your website. Since communication is a two-way street, you want to make it so your customers can easily reach out to you as well.
Go the Extra Mile
Going the extra mile essentially means making your customers’ experiences at the core of your business. Drive your strategies by asking, what can you do to make their experience better? This might include properly training your employees and empowering them with the authority to solve your customer’s problems; offering innovative solutions that make your products and services easier to access, or surprising your customers with special offers and gifts. Contributing more to your customers’ journey will do wonders in making your business more memorable.
At the heart of a successful customer retention strategy is a business’ ability to add value to every step a customer takes over the course of their journey. Establishing a relationship with your customer that is full of positive feelings and enjoyable moments will guarantee that you make loyal, repeat customers. By following these 6 simple ideas, you can increase customer retention, dramatically increase revenues, and ensure the continued success of your business.
