It is no secret, the primary goal of most business owners is growth, and increased profits. In the never ending quest for growth, the majority of business owners focus the lion’s share of their attention and effort on lead generation to drive new customers to the business.Here is the simple fact that most miss. It turns out that as much as 68% of a company’s sales come from existing customers, not new clients.
Attracting new customers, and converting them to paying customers is an important factor in the overall growth of your business or brand. However, it is equally important to cultivate and nurture the continued satisfaction, and loyalty of your existing customers.
In this article we will explore 10 of the best strategies to help you build customer loyalty, and increase your company’s customer retention rates.
It goes without saying that you want to provide the very best customer service, support, and product quality to each and every client. That being said, smart business owners know that there are some clients that you go above and beyond to make sure that their requests and needs are met.
There are a number of tools available that can help users create robust customer profiles for each client making it easy to identify your most high value customers at a glance.
Customers want to know that they are heard. Knowing that their concerns have been heard, and acknowledged can go a long way toward reducing your customer churn rate, and increasing customer retention and loyalty.
It is important to note that today’s customer expects more than the standard “We are sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with our company” canned answer. Responsive customer service requires that you take the time to truly understand why the customer is frustrated, disappointed, or concerned, and offer meaningful solutions to resolve the customer’s problem, or explain why a resolution is not possible.
Communication is key when it comes to providing customer support that retains customers. You may not be able to satisfy every customer, or solve every problem, however the better that you are able to communicate and educate the customers, and ideally find mutually acceptable solutions, the better your chance of retaining customer loyalty.
Your individual customers are undoubtedly patrons of a wide array of other companies, and each of those companies are sending out email campaigns, and newsletters just like yours. Most of these emails are generic, mass mailing campaigns touting the company’s latest offerings, discounts, and a basic call to action. That means that most of these emails go unread. Make your customers feel valued, by taking the time to send personalized emails to your high value clients.
Make a concerted effort to solicit feedback from your customers through the use of customer review, rating, and survey tools. To ensure that the feedback that you receive is valuable and productive, take the time to carefully construct your customer feedback questions to encourage clients to share the type of high quality information that will allow you to grow as a company.
We have talked about the need to personalize communication to your high value clients, but how do you identify those clients in the first place? The key to personalization, and robust customer service is the collection and analysis of customer data. Make use of customer analysis tools or services that will help provide you with key data on who your customers are, what their interests are, what issues they have that you can help them solve, and how they interact with your company on a variety of platforms.
The benefit of referrals is two-fold. Most business owners tend to place referrals into the category of new customer acquisition and quality lead generation, and these are certainly the primary benefits of referrals. That being said, there is a secondary benefit to referrals that plays into the customer retention and loyalty side of the equation. A customer who is referred by a trusted contact, or partner is far more likely to stick around and remain loyal to the company than a customer who stumbles upon the company on their own, or through a lead generation campaign.
This one does not need much in the way of explanation. Creating a valuable subscription program is a great way to ensure that your customers remain engaged and loyal to your company for the long haul. Customers with a subscription in place are far less likely to shop around at your competitors, and are far more likely to reach out for assistance should they become dissatisfied, giving you a chance to correct the problem before they jump ship.
This is another no brainer. The easier, and more pleasant you can make your customer’s interactions with your company, the more likely they are to return to your company for continued service or purchases. View your company website through the eyes of a customer, and ensure that each step of the process is as simple, and straightforward as possible. Your customers will appreciate the consideration, and a happy customer is a loyal customer.
The more that you can bring your customers into the fold, the closer they will feel to your company.Creating engaging, entertaining, or informative company newsletters allows you to take the relationship between your company and your customers a step beyond being merely transactional. Look at your company newsletter as a chance to share a piece of yourself, and your company with your customers.
Last, but certainly not least, do not overlook the importance of social media for building long lasting, loyal customer relationships. Social media offers a way for you to connect with your customers on a one to one level in a way that is less about selling them a product or service, and more about having a good conversation between peers. Make sure that you are using social media to your full advantage to build solid relationships with your customers.
As a business owner, you invest a great deal of time, money, and effort into attracting customers to your business. We hope that this post has provided you with valuable food for thought. Reach out to Orbitly today to learn how we can help you keep the customers you fought so hard to win.