Customer Retention Strategies. For a business to be profitable, it is important to be able to attract customers. You can use different channels and ways to find buyers. Engage the best marketers. But it won’t matter if you don’t use customer retention techniques. This is an excellent method that will allow you to save your promotion budget and increase brand loyalty.

This article will talk about ways to help you retain your clientele in 2022. But first, let’s talk about the most important thing – customers!

What Types of Customers Are There?

Depending on your business area, there are different ways to group buyers. For simplicity and understanding, we divided them into conditional 2 groups

• One-time buyers

These are people who predominantly make one purchase. To re-attract them, you need to use different methods of promotion over and over again.

• Permanent buyers

These are consumers who have made more than one purchase and come back to you regularly. You do not need to use additional advertising channels and resources for people to re-apply.

The goals and methods of customer retention differ depending on what type of product the company will have, and in accordance with this, it will have different customer retention strategies than online stores.

Why is Customer Retention Important?

Customers are the most important thing for any business entrepreneur, especially permanent ones. We recommend focusing on attracting new customers and working with regular ones in order to increase loyalty.

Global statistics show that regular customers are 50% more likely to buy than new ones and spend about 33% more. Keeping them is logical and less costly in the long run.

9 Strategies to Improve Customer Retention

There are a lot of marketing strategies and customer retention methods that can deliver results if you implement them correctly.

We have collected the most effective ways to retain your customers.

1. Set realistic expectations

In the modern world, users pay attention to profitable offers. This is why you should:

• Use only real product photos;
• The description of the product or service must match reality;
• If you offer a delivery – describe how it is carried out;
• When a product is out of stock, tell the customer so and provide the delivery time.

Why is it important? It affects the reputation of the firm. Having a lot of dissatisfied customers and negative reviews will ruin your loyalty. Also, don’t forget about the loss of profit. Show your best side and you will come again.

2. Positioning

A brand must carry its values to the masses. When it has a position, the brand acquires buyers and people who share them. Buyers are more likely to ignore someone who doesn’t have them while supporting others who advocate specific goals.

This is why you should:

• Choose a mission that you like and talk about it!
• When a business has core values and communicates them in the form of actions, people notice this and are more likely to want to contact you.

3. Loyalty programs

Create various loyalty programs for customers – they are the tempting incentive to make a purchase. Individual approach to people always responds. Make your customers feel special, worthy of the very best. And then they will come back to you. you can provide personalized service using customer communication tools like CommBox.

Offer value to your customers without any hidden plans once they’ve purchased. This will go a long way in increasing customer loyalty and retention.

4. Discounts

Use discounts in your strategies. And in order for them to work more efficiently – with reference to time. For example, having a valid discount for a certain period, the buyer will make a purchase decision faster and contact you.

What types of discounts are there?

• Simple discount;
• for the speed of payment;
• for the volume of purchased goods;
• accumulative;
• dealer;
• discount to retailers;
• seasonal;
• for a new product;
• export.

Depending on the existing product or service, you can use discounts and attract customers to repeat purchases.

5. Pay attention to complaints

Paying your attention to customers’ reviews helps improve business performance. With the help of customer feedback, you identify “gaps” in your work and can correct them. Try to respond in a way that doesn’t give the impression that you’re just trying to get them to leave. Thank people for their words and take action.

6. Use mailing lists and campaigns 

These can be letters with individual offers, bonus certificates, promotions, or selections based on customer purchases.

With the help of letters, you communicate with the client, showing his importance.

Today it is better to use Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Instagram Direct and WhatsApp for communication. It is these applications that are at the peak of popularity, and are also very convenient. Omnichannel customer communication solutions like CommBox help you communicate with customers across all channels from one platform. CommBox also allows you to set automated campaigns and send personalized promotional messages via WhatsApp. 

7. Automate customer interactions

To avoid negative feedback about the speed of the business, use various services to automate your communication. Study customer requests and provide a turnkey solution in the shortest possible time. The CommBox AI-powered platform automates your communication using chatbots and automation rules.

When communicating with customers, consider script options that you can in production. If you are suddenly afraid to write them yourself – use writing services like EssayTigers.

8. Track Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a metric that shows the total profit from the client for the entire time of “life” and interaction with you.

It helps you determine if your current customers are spending more than before and if you have a long-term relationship with them. By studying it, you can adjust or create new strategies that will help you earn more.

9. Be honest with your clients 

This is the last and most accurate strategy. Don’t lie to the buyer. Many people have a negative experience with business and will be very distrustful. Provide quality services and products. Make an accurate calculation of the delivery time.

Treating your customers the way you want to be treated is one of the best ways to improve customer retention rates for businesses of all types and sizes.

Conclusion

You now have a list of great customer retention tips. Each of them is special and will help make the business more profitable. Implement these strategies to see results.

Put particular emphasis on your customer communication. Engage with your buyers through their channel of choice to provide them with an exceptional experience and encourage them to purchase. To manage your customer communication effectively across channels, you can use omnichannel platforms such as CommBox.

Remember that customer retention is one of the most important elements of running a business. Every lost customer takes your profit and gives it to your competitor. Therefore, losing customers at the present time is an unaffordable luxury.

When implementing these tips, always put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and ask yourself the question: “Does this loyalty program/discount/approach motivate me to come back again?” If the answer is yes, you are on the right track!

Contributed by Leslie Anglesey.