5 Key Strategies for Improving Customer Retention and Driving Loyalty

Companies spend a fortune on advertising and influencer marketing to draw in new customers, but they shouldn’t neglect their existing customers in the meantime. The cost of attracting new customers is said to be up to seven times greater than the cost of retaining existing customers. Profitability has the potential to soar by 75 percent from just a 5 percent increase in retention. Here are five simple ways to help ensure you keep your hard-earned customers coming back for more.

 Keep It Personal

Never miss an opportunity to treat people as individuals. If you send out emails, personalize the greeting and give your customers the opportunity to tailor their experiences on your site to meet their needs.

Remember, customer service is key. Customers have countless options for companies to deal with, and they won’t stick with one that doesn’t give them the service they expect. Research reveals that 47 percent of customers would leave a company within just one day of a poor customer service experience.

Go Mobile

The world’s gone mobile, so don’t get left behind. In 2018 there were approximately 4.57 billion mobile phone users, and those people expect to be able to engage with your brand wherever they are. That means not only having a web-presence, but also making sure your website is mobile-friendly. If customers cannot access your services, or if they become frustrated with your website because you haven’t optimized for mobile devices, they’re going to turn to another company instead. You may even want to consider an app if that could be applicable to your business to make sure your mobile experience is as streamlined as possible.

Use Social Media

Social media is an incredibly powerful marketing tool. It’s a way to build a relationship with your customers. You have the opportunity to communicate with them through tweets or videos, and they have an opportunity to engage with that content by liking, sharing, and leaving comments. This helps to build a sense of community. If you keep providing enjoyable content, your customers are going to keep coming back to see more of it.

Have a Strong Brand Message

Your customers are real people with real emotions, and finding a way to tap into those emotions helps to develop loyalty. People like to deal with companies that share their world views. Having a strong brand message (such as reducing your impact on the environment) gives them a reason beyond value and customer service to back your business. In fact, in a study by Verint Systems, a company specializing in customer engagement, 69 percent of respondents said ethics was a strong factor in choosing an organization, with 49 percent of them saying they would likely switch companies for ethical reasons.

Listen and Learn

The best way to deliver what customers want is to put yourself in their shoes. Listen to what they’re saying and never miss an opportunity to receive feedback. Read the comments on social media, provide feedback forms, encourage them to complete questionnaires, and monitor their usage of your website to identify the pain points that cause them to click away. Analyze data carefully, and incorporate the information into your strategies.