It is often said that getting customers is easy, what is hard is to retain them. To maintain and grow the success of your business you must learn how to retain your customers. The easiest way to do this is to first identify the factors that attracted users to your brand in the first place. Once you identify what works in attracting your customers, try to utilize it fully and generate more ideas revolving around it.
Since almost every business revolves around its customers, as a marketer, it is necessary you understand the importance of customer retention. The fundamental of growing a business is by focusing on the customers and working on increasing your customer base and thus the popularity of your business. To improve your customer retention skills, you must understand your customer and their needs.
What is the need for retaining customers? The number of customers a business has represents the credibility and authority of a brand as well as the level of loyalty displayed by its customers. A brand with a loyal customer base is an established brand, simply because it managed to satisfy its customer. Still, brands and businesses are constantly trying to grow their customer base. A brand is at high risk when its customers feel insecure and this is when a brand starts losing its customers. Thus retaining the customers is as important as growing the customer base.
Here are 7 ways to retain your customers:
Revise your marketing strategy
If you notice stagnancy in the number of customers, consider giving your marketing strategy a revamp. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and analyze each step involved in becoming a customer. Then identify the gaps! Review your marketing strategy all over again in order to identify hindrance in attracting your customers!
It could be anything ranging from your colors, fonts, target audience or even the time you choose to put out your posts. Research and development is likely to be beneficial in achieving an effective marketing strategy.
Customer satisfaction
The key to a successful business is a happy customer. Businesses bloom when they manage to satisfy their customer because they have successfully solved a problem or offered a solution. For example, Netflix offers an enormous collection of movies, soaps, and TV series. It has provided a solution for millions who would often struggle to find the same online. Netflix has a large and satisfied customer base and is therefore a successful brand. So, to grow and maintain your customer base, you must keep your customers happy and satisfied with your products or services.
Online engagement
The most feasible customer retention trick is to engage with them online. The formula for retaining the customers is taking the initiative to be seen by your customers more often. Start by initiating a group discussion on an online forum or any social media platform where your customers are active. Give them updates on what's happening behind the scenes, respond to comments, ask them questions. Doing this reflects the value your brand holds for its customers.
Flexibility
The bottom line for any business is its customers. If it weren’t for your customers, your brand or business wouldn’t generate any revenue. Customers are by far the most important factor determining the success of a company. Keeping that in mind, your business or brand must be flexible with the needs and wants of your customers.
Accept feedback that you receive from your customers. What your users say about your products or services is valuable information that you must leverage to improve your own business. Be willing to adapt to new suggestions made by your customers.
Offer a solution
One of the simplest ways of expanding your customer base is to help your customers. If your brand or business manages to offer solutions to a specific problem, you have successfully helped somebody tackle that problem. By helping them out, you are offering to make their lives easier – and who doesn’t want that?
A brand is no different than a person. Would you like somebody if they always helped you out with your problems? Well it’s the same with a brand! When you help your customers, you show them how much you care about them. If you don’t have anything to offer, your customers are likely to leave.
Surprise your customers
Just like everybody else, customers love surprises! Surprises are a great way to retain your customers if not making them want more!
Giving free offers and some added benefits will take your business a notch up compared to your competitors. Although freebies are not the only way to surprise your customers, they do work well. Giving discounts to your customers on their birthdays or anniversaries will only help position your brand better in your customers’ minds.
Is a customer unsatisfied with your service? Offer him a discount for the next time. Was there a delay in your delivery time of an important parcel? Send a personalized apology note from the manager. It’s the little things that can make a big difference to your users.
Complaint
A complaint is something that every business or brand will face, no matter how successful it is or has been in the past. But to know how to deal with these complaints is something that can make or break the brand value of your business. As a marketer, you must learn to deal with customer complaints and feedback. If you receive negative feedback, you must respond positively in order to maintain your brand ethics and image. You could also counter these with sincere apologies, offers and freebies.
One of the most important aspects of negative feedback is to consider them as valuable input and an opportunity to improve your products, services and in turn, your brand. As a brand, you will always have to face angry customers, but you must know how to handle these in order to do some damage control.
To conclude, retaining your customers is one of the most efficient ways of growing your business or brand. We’re sure you got a few ideas on how to go about customer retention for your business in 2018 with these factors that influence customer retention!
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