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Baby Come Back! How Businesses Can Improve Customer Retention

A business’s ability to improve retention is just as, if not more important than customer acquisition. That’s because the majority of your revenue will come from ongoing customers rather than new signups.

Baby Come Back! How Businesses Can Improve Customer Retention

Your existing customers give you the gift of sustainability. In the following article, we’ll be sharing 10 ways you can make sure they’re with you for as long as possible. Let’s begin!

1. Educate Customers On Your Product

Perhaps the most important step you can take in retaining customers is to get them from the beginning. Particularly if you have a product that includes many features and benefits that are not obvious to the naked eye.

Software as a Service (SaaS) companies run into this situation a lot. For their clients to get the most bang for their buck, they need to know everything the product can do and, more importantly, how it’s done. This is where onboarding and ongoing education are so important.

Customer retention can be established early through simple tutorials. Use email, video, audio, and articles or blog posts to ensure people are able to digest product or service information in any way they can. Leave no mode of learning behind.

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2. Ask Your Customers For Their Opinion

Customers need to feel heard. Providing them with ample opportunities to voice their opinions and connect will go a long way to accomplishing this.

Consider sending out surveys and responding to comments and direct messages on social media. Furthermore, solicit feedback whenever possible. Use every available channel so you’re not missing anyone because doing so is invaluable to improving retention.

3. Keep Customers Engaged

You can do this through the use of calendars and newsletters to great effect. By showing customers that you’re constantly providing opportunities to engage, you are keeping them from losing touch.

This customer success strategy is personable and will keep your product or service top-of-mind. It will also ensure that customers eventually use your company for the purpose they initially had when they gave you their payment information.

4. Show Appreciation

Some companies make customers fight for appreciation. This was especially present as consumers started cutting the cable cord. Consumers grew tired of watching new customers get the sweetheart deals while their introductory offers expired, sun-setting into exorbitant prices.

You pretty much had to threaten to leave every 6-12 months just to get a decent deal from your provider! Thanks to the rise of streaming, consumers now have more options.

The cord-cutting situation highlights the need for companies to roll out loyalty programs. Make it worth your customers while to stay put! This retention strategy will pay long-term dividends by making sure revenue-per-customer continues uninterrupted and is one of the most important ways to reduce churn.

5. Drive Referrals

Getting referrals is more than just a great way to try and drive business. It’s also a fantastic method of keeping your existing customers.

They stay because they’re invested. By referring others to your product or service, your customers are claiming ownership of their experience. They’re putting part of their reputation on the line.

Customers willing to provide referrals are more likely to stay with you for the long term. They’re also up for working through any issues they might have with your company rather than abandoning ship at the first sign of trouble.

6. Embrace Corporate Citizenship

Another of the retention techniques that work to your advantage is embracing your role in the community. Stay present, give back, agree to sponsorships. The more people see you giving back, the more they will want to support you moving forward.

“Shop local” efforts are popular nationwide. Latching onto this will only ingratiate your company to the people who make your community what it is. And a community takes care of its own.

7. Customize Their Experience

Capitalizing on the technology that allows you to address customers by name is only the beginning. Today, data analytics give us more insight into customer preferences than ever before. You can drill down to just what it takes to keep your customers engaged.

One big part of this is keeping tabs on where your customers are in their journey. Think marketing funnels. Some customers are ready to buy, some need support, and some are ready to take it to the next level.

Giving customers the messaging that they need rather than grouping them generically will go a long way in helping you to retain them. Customers who feel like individuals are not as likely to leave.

8. Consider Subscription Models

Subscription models produce recurring revenue. They also force you to bring your A-game when it comes to support services and product development. After all, you’ll need to give your customers the value it takes to keep them month after month.

Subscription models work best when they address ongoing problems or needs. Such customers are custom-made for retention, but you have to stick to the landing by delivering what they need.

9. Leverage Social Media

The usefulness of social media goes beyond marketing your company and acquiring customers. It also helps with customer retention, providing that you’re using it to the right ends.

Two main retention methods include sharing glowing reviews and responding to criticisms or problems. On reviews, you need genuineness. Audiences are smart enough to see through shills as Amazon-only authors have found. With comments and criticisms, it’s important to keep a demeanor of straightforwardness and helpfulness.

10. Surprise Your Customers

Last but not least, leave some room to surprise customers with special gifts, services, or discounts. Keeping your customers on edge, in a good way, can make them stick around for the long haul. It can also build enough goodwill to turn them into evangelists for your brand.

You Must Work Continually to Improve Retention

The ability to improve retention is wholly contingent on doing the work. Doing the work means knowing your customers and treating them like they are the most important factor in the world to your company. That is what they are.

Best of luck as you employ the strategies mentioned here. For more business tips and tricks, check out some of our additional posts!

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