by Kingsley Emezie | Copywriter | Lead Generation Expert | (2022) |
When you hear customer retention, what comes to your mind?
What does customer retention mean to you?
Is it a means of generating more profit for your business or is it about the customer experience?
Whatever your ideas are about customer retention, this post will shed more light on the importance of customer retention and why your business needs it today.
Let’s jump right into it, shall we?
So, what exactly is customer retention?
Customer retention is the process of nurturing an existing customer in order to keep the customer for a period of time.
It is also a way to retain customers for a short or long period of time.
The customer experience is vital to retaining a customer, as this could make or break the relationship between you and the customer.
Customer retention is about taking care of your existing customers to make them repeat buyers and in some cases ambassadors, vips.
Vip customers?
Vip customers are your best advertisers. Why do you think all the mega brands worldwide have a vip category? Think of prime, think of executive badges, vip cards.
This is simply because great customer service gets you a Vip customer.
Come to think of it, it costs 10X more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer.
You will also be glad to know that your existing customers are more likely to purchase your latest products compared to new cold customers.
A recent study reveals that an increase of 5% in customer retention can improve sales by 95%.
How can customer retention be improved?
Every once in a while, you come across a frustrated customer threatening to cut ties with your business for various reasons.
Whilst this can be a difficult situation for any business, there are still positives to be taken from such situations.
You can measure your customer retention process by using the retention metrics to track the numbers of customers you have on board and the customers you lost over the years.
I’m sure you will agree that no business wants to lose a customer, but sometimes losing a customer can be the best thing that happened to that business.
What I am leading up to is this: When a business loses a customer, it is often due to the level of customer satisfaction and customer service.
The good thing is, they can both be improved to avoid further losses. By applying the tips in this article, you will be able to increase customer engagement and retention.
Here are some tips for customer retention
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer engagement
- Content marketing
- Loyalty programs
- Email marketing
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction will help improve your retention rate as a business because every satisfied customer is a happy customer.
As a business, it is your duty to ensure adequate customer service is provided to each customer.
It can also be measured by asking the customer questions, and encouraging their feedback.
Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is an effective way of retaining your customers because it shows the human side of a business.
When you encourage social interaction with your customers, you get a chance to connect with them on a personal level.
Examples of social interactions includes;
posting on social media, responding to comments and likes, answering questions, sharing news, and trends, company announcements, and so on.
Content Marketing
Content marketing helps to educate the customer of a certain brand, industry, product, or service.
It is a highly effective customer retention process. This is because customers want to learn more about things they are attracted to.
If you can provide useful tips, latest news, to your existing customers, you will grab their attention which helps to increase retention.
Loyalty Programs
It’s no secret that loyalty programs are one of the most powerful customer retention strategies in business.
This can be done by offering your existing customers discounts, promo codes, gift cards, etc. By doing this, you can improve the customer retention rate significantly.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a way to keep in touch with customers. How often you want to email your customers is completely up to you.
Bear in mind, you don’t want to send out too many emails, and you don’t want to send no emails at all. So you must find a balance in between.
You can use email marketing to redirect customers to a certain offer, a new content you just posted, news, blogs, anything you think the customer will find useful.
If you are not using email marketing in your business, I encourage you to start today.
Conclusion
Customer retention is all about finding ways to improve the customer experience.
Each customer deserves to be listened to and understood to help create a lifelong relationship.
What are your thoughts?
What point stood out for you?
Please let me know.