If you want your business to succeed long-term, customer retention needs to be a top priority.
Did you know that 80 percent of your future revenue will come from just 20 percent of your current client base? Clearly, it pays to keep your customers happy.
How do you do this, though? How do you make sure your customers continue working with you and don’t jump ship when a new business that offers similar products or services to yours comes along?
There are a lot of things you can do to keep your customers happy.
Read on to learn about some helpful customer retention tools and strategies that you can use to keep them coming back again and again.
Customer Retention Tools
First, let’s go over some tools you might want to start using. The following are all great tools that will simplify communication and ensure your customers are always satisfied:
Cloud Contact Center
A cloud-based contact center makes it easy for your customers to contact you. Contact centers provide a variety of methods of communication, including email, voice, and chat.
This website shows that making use of a contact center helps you to give your customer much-needed flexibility. It also allows you to gain meaningful data and insights from customer interactions so you can provide better service in the future.
Customer Loyalty Program
A customer loyalty program is another great tool that helps you build — you guessed it — loyalty among customers and keep them coming back to your business.
A great example of an effective customer loyalty program is the one Starbucks uses. Who doesn’t want to earn a free drink?
Find a way to keep track of how often customers shop with you and reward them for their loyalty.
CRM
A good CRM (customer relationship management) software can help you learn more about your customers and make sure they’re having a positive experience working with your company. It’s especially useful when paired with your contact center.
A CRM system helps you keep track of which customers are coming back, what they’re buying, and how often they’re shopping with you. It stores all your customer information in one place, too, so it’s easy to reference on a regular basis.
Personalized Content
People are more likely to continue working with your business if they feel that you see them as an individual, rather than just another customer.
By putting in the effort to personalize content — and with the right automation software, there’s really not that much effort required — you can increase customer loyalty and show them that you really care about them and their experience.
Customer Retention Strategies
Having the right tools can take you pretty far when it comes to retaining customers. Remember, though, that the tools are only as good as the person using them.
If you really want to see improvements in your retention rates, you need to make sure you’re also implementing these strategies.
Celebrate Milestones
Find ways to celebrate small milestones with your customers. For example, maybe you can reward them with a 10 percent off coupon after they make three purchases from your online store.
It doesn’t even have to be a monetary reward, though. Sending a handwritten note when you ship out a customer’s first purchase can go a long way and help them to feel more appreciated.
Meet Customers Where They Are
If you want to increase retention, you need to be where your customers already are.
If they’re spending a lot of time on Facebook, be on Facebook. If they respond best to email marketing, place your focus there.
This helps you keep your business at the forefront of their mind and increases the likelihood that they’ll remember you and order from you again in the future.
Be Responsive
Nobody wants to continue working with a company that has terrible response times. In order to build customer loyalty and retention, you need to respond promptly to questions and comments.
Don’t leave people hanging. The faster you respond, the more impressed they’ll be and the more likely they’ll be to continue working with you.
Be Transparent
Clear communication is key when you’re trying to retain current customers.
Make sure you’re being honest and transparent whenever you’re communicating, whether it’s in an email, over the phone, or on social media. Don’t try to cover things up or sugarcoat issues.
People appreciate it when you tell it like it is — while still making an effort to be polite and professional, of course.
Create a Community
The more you’re able to build a community around your products or services, the easier it will be to retain customers. People love feeling as though they’re part of something bigger than themselves.
Encourage communication and find a way to point out the ways that your customers are connected. Maybe they’re connected by a mutual love for something or a shared passion for a particular cause.
Incentive Sharing
Finally, incentive your customers to share information about your business.
Consider hosting giveaways that reward them for sharing your social media posts or tagging their friends to raise brand awareness. This rewards loyalty and helps you get your brand out in front of more people.
When people have the opportunity to participate in contests and potentially win something from a brand, they’re more inclined to think of that brand in the future.
Learn More Today
Now that you know more about the different customer retention tools and strategies you can utilize to keep your business running, do you know which ones you’re going to implement first?
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re presented with a list of different options to try. Start by picking just one and see how it goes. Remember, you can always make adjustments and try something else later.
Do you want to learn more about customer retention and customer satisfaction?
If so, be sure to visit the Customer Service section of our website today.
You’ll find all kinds of helpful articles here that will teach you everything you need to know to keep your customers happy.