Strategies to Increase Customer Retention

No matter what industry your business is in, every business has the same goal: Keeping your Customers!

Customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition.

Customer retention is the single most important factor in the success of any business. It is the key to increased business value and greater market share. It should be the aim of every business to increase customer loyalty, gain repeat business, and create brand ambassadors.

Customer retention is the key to the success of any business.

Studies show 44% of businesses focus on customer acquisition, while only 18% focus on customer retention. 

Hence, customer retention strategies are necessary to reduce churn, retain customers, and increase profits.

Customer Retention: What is it?

Customer retention is like the ignition system in a car.  It’s vital if you want your engine to run smoothly and successfully.

Customer retention is a type of marketing where your company focuses efforts on retaining customers instead of focusing on acquiring new ones.

When questions arise about other common strategies regarding customer acquisition, it may be best to think about some creative ways in which you can retain the customers you already have instead of thinking about new ways to get completely new customers.

By focusing on keeping your current customers happy, you are never going to have to worry about actively looking for brand-new ones again!

For instance, many e-commerce businesses go through a phase of constantly acquiring new customers and then abandoning them after the sale. This means that they lose out on valuable business relationships that could lead to long-term profitability.

What is Customer Retention Calculation?

It is important to note that customer retention does not refer to the process of selling more to existing customers; it refers to retaining the existing customers who already have a relationship with your business.

The two important factors of customer retention are ‘satisfaction’ and ‘loyalty’. 

When customers are loyal to your business, they are more likely to stay with you and continue to purchase from you in the future. Also, when customers are satisfied with your business and your products, they are more likely to continue purchasing from you.

A Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is the cost an organization incurred per customer it acquired. A company pays this price to gain a customer who becomes loyal to their brand and will continue to buy from them in the future.

You can calculate customer retention by simply dividing the number of loyal customers by the number of customers you have.

How can you increase your customer retention?

• • Customer retention losses have increased by 37% since 2016 due to POOR customer service.

    Businesses spend a lot of time and energy acquiring new customers, but paying just as much attention to the ones they already have is important, too. Customer retention is a key way to improve your bottom line.

    When you have a customer who has bought from you once, there’s a good chance that they’ll be back for more. If you treat them well, their loyalty will ensure that you make money for years to come. Repeat customers are often responsible for more than half of a company’s annual revenue. Customers are more likely to buy from you again if you provide exceptional customer service.

One of the best ways to boost customer retention is by improving your ‘Customer Service’.

These days, customers demand fast results, so contact centers must be equipped to handle customer inquiries in a timely and efficient manner. This means training agents to handle complaints, and deciding whether to route customers to a live person or use a self-service option.

• 73% of customers say they stay loyal to brands because of friendly ‘Customer Service Agents’. (HubSpot)

  The best marketers and business owners always seem to have one thing in common: they never forget their customers. They keep in touch with their customers and think of new ways to improve their relationship with them.

  And it’s not just about selling to them again and again — it’s about actually building a relationship with them. 

  Another strategy is to simply ask the customer how they are doing. You can ask this in person, or you can ask this over the phone. You can ask them if they are satisfied with their purchase, or you can ask them if they are satisfied with your customer service.

• Customer engagement is a customer-focused plan of action to improve customer retention, create customer loyalty and encourage customer referrals.

  What makes a customer engagement strategy work is the ability to learn about the customer and then tailor the engagement strategy to their needs and wants.

  Research has shown that if you can engage your customers and keep them happy, they will come back to you again and again. It’s the only way to build a long-lasting business.

  There are several ways to measure customer engagement. The most common one is using the Net Promoter Score (NPS). It’s a simple question that asks customers to answer on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely they are to recommend your business to a friend or colleague. It’s a great way to figure out how engaged your customers are.

  Hubspot said that companies with a Net Promoter Score of +50 see a 37% increase in revenue, while companies with a score of -50 see a decrease of 50% in revenue.

• 76% of customers feel that businesses should understand their needs and expectations.

  Today’s consumers are no longer satisfied with a one-size-fits-all approach.

  They want to shop where they can get individualized attention combined with a seamless customer journey, personalized to their preferences and the ability to transact seamlessly across any channel they prefer using their preferred device.

  The best way to attract this type of consumer is by getting to know what they want. This means surveys and reviews as well as in-person interactions through focus groups, chats, or phone calls as research methods that enable you to identify just what it is your potential customers truly want and how you can exceed those expectations by offering them products, services, or experiences that meet or exceed all of their stated needs, wants and desires for an ideal shopping or ongoing consumer relationship.

• As far as strategies that are proven to work the most for customer retention, email marketing is 56% more effective than any other method, making it the most effective approach

  If a customer is not being updated with the latest information, they will probably lose interest in your brand or product. This can lead to them moving on from your business or losing interest altogether.

  One way to engage customers is by adding new avenues to help you keep in touch with them, including calling, sending out newsletters, emailing them updates regularly, and allowing them to follow you on social media for regular promotion updates so that you stay top of mind when it comes time to make purchasing decisions.

  Surveys are a great way to see what your customers think of you and how they feel about certain aspects of your business, as well as help them feel more engaged and valued as a customer which is always good for repeat customers. You can conduct surveys to analyze pain points.

  Targeting strategy is important because it enables you to make sure people are seeing the content they want (or don’t want) to see. This shows that you value your audience and this helps encourage repeat purchases from those who may have previously abandoned their shopping carts because of an experience in the past that wasn’t ideal for them.

Conclusion:

Improving customer retention is one of the best ways to grow your business. Statistics show that when you focus on customer retention, you will improve your bottom line. We hope that you can use these strategies to focus your business on customer retention and help your business grow.

We at DialDesk pride ourselves on offering the best in customer support and cloud communication technology that can help your company maintain better communications with customers by increasing customer retention. These improvements will help your business increase its revenue and reduce churn without it taking a huge toll on resources. Get in touch with us for a free demo!

Author Profile

Varuna Raghav

As a CX and marketing specialist, Varuna Raghav has more than 15+ years of experience to her name. Her enriching input has been valuable to the brands and organizations she's worked with.

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🔗 Tags: Best Strategies to Increase Customer Retention, How can you increase your customer retention?, What is Customer Retention Calculation?

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