Customer retention is vital to the survival of any business and customers are the key ingredient in what keeps your business running. From their first purchase up to their second or third, the best customers will not buy your products only once—they keep coming back for more. Keeping your customers loyal, therefore, boosts your revenue and increases customer value over time.
According to Edelman , 81% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on how much they trust the brand, and 66% of consumers would continue to buy from a preferred brand, even when that brand goes against a more innovative competitor. This not only proves that customer retention is extremely important to a business, but it also states how easy it is to for your company to reap the benefits of customer retention by making your customers care about your brand. Customer retention is also more cost-effective than customer acquisition and it builds a lifetime value for customers.
Some businesses find customer retention difficult. Due to competition and the challenges brought about by an ever-changing market, businesses will need to consistently come up with new ideas on how to keep their existing customers coming back for more. Here are some approaches to customer retention that can keep your business afloat for many years and your customers coming back for more.
Building Customer Relationships
Your customer is the focus of your business, and keeping this in mind will allow you to gain a razor-sharp focus on your dreams and goals for them. Most customers do not let their dissatisfaction known and instead they just wander around for a switch of services. Build customer trust by keeping consistent and transparent, and keep them informed about the latest promos and trends. Allow your agents to shift your customer experience (CX) into high gear by providing them more customer interaction training—empathy, assurance, instruction, and small talk. Treating customers like human beings gives your agents a fighting chance to make their customers happy, even if the issue at hand was not resolved. Customer retention is a byproduct of customer service and experience. Create a good experience, that’s consistent and predictable, and you have a shot at customer retention.
Innovation
Innovation is a big boost to customer retention by helping your company be several steps ahead of the problem and is the key to making your company ready for anything the future throws at you. Choose the right tools to help you keep customers into your fold. One of the best ways to keeping updated is the utilization of the best that innovation and technology have to offer and some degree of automation like the use of chatbots may help identify high-value customers and filter those that need help most. However, do not dismiss the fact that customers still require a human touch that only a living, breathing representative can give. Wield technology like a useful tool, but do not let it wield you.
Proactiveness
Being proactive is defined as acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty . Proactiveness can help your company be more relaxed, prepared, and in control, as you can establish precautionary steps for potential situations. Know your company and your services well. Hone your forecasting skills to clairvoyant levels by skillfully utilizing your gathered data and expect the unexpected problems and resolve issues even before it becomes an issue. The good news is that proactivity is a skill that can be developed and your managers can train their team to approach problems and solve them proactively.
Prioritizing Customer Retention
Make customer retention your company’s number one priority by getting every single person in the company committed to it and launching a company-wide customer retention strategy program might just do the trick. If there are changes that need to be made in your customer experience approach, do it. There will be inevitable mistakes, so make sure that you and your team are equipped to do a rebound. Utilize social media to your advantage and play to your strengths. Also, improve KPIs around customer retention so that your team can have a tangible goal that they can aim at.
Passion for People
Finally, love your agents! Your representatives will be at the forefront of the struggle towards customer retention, and happy agents create happy customers. Your team is your best ally in this, and they are the only ones who can see your customer retention strategies through. Acknowledge their hard work and reward every good deed. Make it known that their success is the company’s success, and it never would have been possible without their help. A people-centric organization focuses on employees and their behaviors first, along with their customer interactions and communications before anything else. Emphasizing the human element of your human relations, along with strong leadership will get you on the straight and narrow path towards becoming an award-winning customer experience-delivering organization.
If there ever was an expert in customer retention, that would be VXI, but do not let us tell you that. VXI is an award-winning customer experience provider with over 19 awards including a Global 100 Leader Frost & Sullivan Award, Leader in Customer Management citation from the Everest Group, a Gold Stevie® Award for Customer Service Management Team of the Year, and Best Contact Center & BPO Company of the Year from the International ICT Awards. Get in touch now and allow us to create for you the greatest customer retention strategy on this side of the planet!
