What’s more important than get new customers in every chance? Yes, you got it right. It’s retained customers.
Differ from new customers that will widen your market for once, customer retention will lead to increased revenue as existing customers return to your store. To achieve this, you will need to provide the best experience to increase customer loyalty.
Managing customer retention is a very important part of growing a business. According to research conducted by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, companies that increase customer retention by 5% can increase profits by 25-95 percent.
What is Customer Retention?
Customer retention is a company's way or ability to convert existing customers into repeat customers and prevent them from switching to competitors.
Customer retention will also indicate whether your product and service quality can please them or not.
The best customer retention strategies support you to build lasting relationships with consumers. Those who are loyal to your brand will probably start telling their experience about your products and services to their loved ones.
Why is Customer Retention Important?
For many businesses, customer retention is part of Key Performance Indicator (KPI). This is due to the company's ability to retain existing customers is critical to short-term and long-term success.
So, why is customer retention important?
Cheaper
Keeping existing customers is much cheaper than acquiring new ones. The costs of selling and marketing are usually much greater than the costs associated with ongoing customer service and satisfaction.
Customer loyalty
Loyal customers are repeat customers, meaning they are valuable. Increased customer retention can increase their chances of becoming loyal customers, repeat customers, and ultimately can increase greater profits.
Effective
It is more effective for businesses to upsell or cross-sell their customers because they have a relationship built on trust and product satisfaction.
Word of Mouth
Happy customers can often generate new customers through referrals or word of mouth.
Main Purpose of Business
Customer retention is not only an important metric, it is the main purpose of almost any business.
Also read: Customer Experience, Key for Successful Business
Must-Try Tips To Boost Customer Retention
Boosting customer retention is different for every business. You need to consider your industry, brand, and audience before choosing the right strategies to retain customers.
However, here are some of the best strategies that can be followed to boost your customer retention.
1. Provide great customer service
Here are some ways you can improve customer service.
- Provide a cohesive and consistent experience – customers should always feel they are getting the same care and attention whether you talk to them on the phone, email or live chat.
- Provide multiple channels to accommodate different communication preferences.
- Direct the right agents to the right customers by assessing customer needs and assigning the most skilled agents in that field.
2. Optimize the existing data
Customers want you to know their purchase history. Other relevant details also support you to provide a personalized service. To achieve this, give your team access to all the data they require to provide a personalized service.
While privacy is not taken lightly, customers are generally open to businesses tracking and storing information that helps improve the customer experience.
3. Social media is THE media
The best strategy for retaining customers is social media that engages your followers and creates a community of flavors around the brand. This means that you can share customer-generated content, respond to their comments, and their comments.
Social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter can help brands reach customers, build relationships and trust.
4. Customer loyalty program
Rewarding a loyal customer is a good way to increase customer retention. Customers respect the brands who value them.
You can offer loyalty programs, discount codes, or special offers. This will motivate customers to keep buying from your business.
In addition, loyalty programs also help your business collect more detailed customer data.
5. Collect customer feedback
Customer feedback is very important in a customer retention strategy. If you want to know what works and what doesn't work for your customers, it's a good idea to get it straight from them.
Customer feedback supports a business to further personalize service and improve something lacking.
6. Improve customer support service
Offering a live chat or help desk feature can provide faster customer support.
Fast reply can increase customer satisfaction. You can also provide an estimate of the time it will take to solve their problem. Customers are more willing to wait if they know you are actively working towards a solution.
7. Keep your customers updated with your business
Keep customers informed of your brand's latest products and launches. Remember, your customers are not telepaths who read minds.
Instead of assuming that they know your latest updates or see your latest posts, you should try to keep them connected via broadcast messages or push notifications.
Also read: Five-Step Approach To Maintain Your Business Reputation
Increase Customer Retention with Omnichannel
Increasing customer retention and building customer loyalty is not possible overnight
However, there are many strategies you can take to increase customer retention. Worry not because all of these strategies can be solved with omnichannel.
Omnichannel is an important communication strategy for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones.
OneTalk by TapTalk.io is an omnichannel platform that brings together all customer touch points so that your sales team can serve everyone and maintain the best possible customer relationship.
OneTalk offers various channels that you can use, such as WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram. How does OneTalk help you to increase customers retention?
1. Understand customers better
Case Detail feature in OneTalk allows you to find out their shopping history, frequently used channels, and more.
This will make it easier for agents to find out how to deal with customers better.
2. Customer service can responds faster
Your agent can increase response time by using the Quick Reply Feature. This feature can make it easier for agents to reply to customers with frequently asked questions (FAQ).
You can prepare and set up message templates for these questions.
3. Solve problems faster
OneTalk has an All-in-one inbox feature. This means that all messages that come from various channels will be entered into one dashboard.
With this feature, you can navigate all messages assigning them to the appropriate agent without having to go through a lengthy process.
Also read: How Omnichannel Boost Social Media Customer Service
Conclusion
Whatever the nature of your business, the best way to retain customers is to provide an excellent customer experience across multiple channels. To contact customers across multiple channels, the most effective way is omnichannel.
This will allow you to focus on building good relationships with your customers, paying attention to their needs and preferences, and finding ways to make them feel valued.
Don't bother looking for other omnichannel service providers because our agents are always here and ready to help solve all your problems and questions. Visit Taptalk to chat with our agents.