Now that you’ve landed clients, it’s time to keep them for a long, long, long time and put the strategies of customer retention to work.
After all, you worked hard to acquire them. What’s more, it’s far easier to keep them than to lose them and then replace them. In addition, an increase in customer retention of just 5 percent can mean an increase of at least 25 percent in profit.
Customer retention strategies to consider:
Send a customer newsletter
This possibly is the easiest and least expensive and possibly most powerful customer retention strategy of them all.
Sending them information about sales, new products/services, the community outreach your company performs, news about new locations, etc. can keep customers with you for the long haul.
Especially, if you continue to provide them solutions and answers to their challenges and goals
Ask them for feedback.
And do so regularly. Tactics and tools to consider to collect, review and then distribute customer surveys and reviews could include:
- Send out a survey such as a Net Promoter Score®.
- Ask them to be a part of a user testing trial.
- Invite them to participate in focus groups.
Make sure to watch how often they reach out to you.
Create a communication calendar that lets track how often a customer interacts with you. Doing so means you can then send them a promotional offer, let them know if their subscription is going to run out, a product they purchased may need servicing, that you’re having a sale, and so on.
- Consider a customer loyalty program.
The more someone purchases and interacts with you, the more they should be rewarded – which will reward you over the long haul as they stick with you through thick and thin.
Remember that the top percentile of your customers spend far more than the rest of your clientele. Keep them happy and you’ll keep them buying.
- Make it EXTREMELY easy to buy from you.
Figure out what your customers want and how they behave and then create systems and tools (apps, perhaps?) that empower them. (A mobile order and payment systems is a perfect example.)
- Referral programs WORK!
Consider offering new customers – as soon as they become one – to receive an award if they refer a friend.
- Consider offering subscriptions.
Two words: Amazon Prime. (Extra words: 90 percent customer retention.)
- Work it with social proof.
More than 97 percent of customers have reported that online reviews do influence their buying decisions. Never forget: fear of missing out IS a powerful marketing as well as retention strategy.
- Continue providing them with useful, informative content that helps them solve their problems/reach their goals.
Just as you landed them via the power of inbound marketing/providing great content, so will you keep them if you continue doing so.
After all, if they discover one of your competitors that offers a similar product or service at a better price, they could leave you.
Create instructional videos, short reports, blog posts, infographics, etc. and send them to customers regularly. Make sure the content you create provides more information than sales pushes.
In short, continue to better your customers’ lives and you’ll continue to better your company’s bottom line.
Learn more about how Ingenex Digital Marketing can help you keep your customers happy and loyal.
