Customer retention is key for maintaining high profitability and consistent sales in any business. Increasing customer retention by only 5% can increase your business profit rate by up to 95%. Companies should not only focus on obtaining new customers but also generating sales through existing customers.
Customer retention strategies are simple and applicable to most businesses regardless of the industry. Furthermore, the practices used to retain customers have their benefits, including better customer service and more satisfying online shopping experiences. So if you are looking for customer retention strategies, then you are at the right place.
This article will come across five customer retention strategies that you can implement today to boost sales. Read On!
1. User Accounts
Invite customers to create user accounts, and you will have an opportunity to market your products to them continually. Furthermore, they will be more invested in your store after creating an account. Increase the chance of securing future purchases by customers looking for a return on their effort to create an account.
However, user account registrations have their drawbacks. Some customers may not understand why you are asking them to create an account or see it as a waste of time.
So here are a few tips for increasing the rate of new account registrations:
● Discounts: Offering discounts is a great way to offer value in return for account registration. Customers may feel that taking the time to fill out a form and verify an email address is worth the effort to receive 20-50% off from their first order. Test different discount offers to determine the one that has the highest conversion rate.
● Easy process: During the registration process, try not to ask for more information than is required. Minimizing the hurdles customers have to jump over to create a new account can increase their likelihood of completing the registration process. You can ask for additional information in the future if it is necessary to boost your marketing efforts.
● Fear of missing out: Showcase the benefits of having an account, and new customers may naturally want to register without much incentive. For example, if you offer cashback, a newsletter, and exclusive offers, then promote that on your website.
The cost of generating new registrations will be insignificant compared to the value that user accounts can create. User accounts are an investment to be monetized in the future.
2. Loyalty Program
Offer a loyalty program that rewards customers for shopping on your website. Creating an incentive to buy from your store compared to competitors is a great way to win customers. Loyalty programs are beneficial in highly competitive niches where you cannot lower your price because of the hit to your profit margin.
Give your loyalty program a catchy name that ties in with your brand. How you market, the rewards program can be as important as your product when trying to enroll customers. Customers are more likely to spend money at an online store where they are part of a loyalty program.
You do not have to destroy your profit margins to offer a high-quality rewards program. Further, consider adding prizes and special discounts on your highest profit margin products. Also, provide early access to new products, so loyalty members get first dibs.
Please take note of what competitors in your niche are offering in their loyalty programs. Is there a common type of reward that every competitor is providing? Perhaps it is a sign that the reward is highly effective. However, you will also need to differentiate your reward program from others. If you do this, your customers will have a reason to pick your online store over your competitors.
3. Customer Service
Up to 70% of customers have shared that they are likely to support companies that deliver great customer service. It is important to reduce the number of instances that customers have a bad experience with your brand.
So here are a few ways that you can increase the overall quality of your customer service:
● Chatbots: Implementing a chatbot for customers to interact with is a simple yet effective customer service strategy. They typically appear in the bottom right-hand corner of eCommerce websites. The mix of instant answers and scalability are big reasons for their success. Giving the option to escalate the query to a live agent helps improve the customer service experience. Alternatively, offer a form allowing customers to interact with your brand via email.
● Software: Invest in Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, software that can track customer information. It empowers your customer service staff with the right information when handling queries. Moreover, CRM software helps communicate customer data between departments, which contributes to high-quality customer service.
● Feedback: Allow your customers to leave feedback about various aspects of the shopping experience and customer service interactions. Feedback is a great way to improve areas that are not providing an optimal customer experience. Further, you can ask for feedback at the end of each customer service interaction or request feedback via email at regular intervals.
Improving customer service is vital to growing your brand and keeping customers engaged long term. Customers are not always shopping for the best price—they want to be nurtured and supported along the way. Therefore, put care into how you approach customer service, and you will reap the rewards.
4. Email Newsletter
Creating an engaging email newsletter that gives customers a reason to keep coming back to your website is a proven approach. Generating new email subscribers costs money. So you need to make the most of your current list. The value you can extract from each subscriber beats most other marketing channels. This means it must be a core focus for your business.
Personalization is a great way to maintain a good engagement rate for every subscriber. Use buying history and browsing data to determine the products that subscribers want to know about. You can include dynamic product images, relevant offers, and suitable product news to hit the mark.
Are you out of ideas? Take a peek at how the top brands in your industry are marketing to their email lists. You may spot the tricks they use to sell products to the same group of subscribers repeatedly.
5. Customer Education
Focus on educating customers, and you will be top-of-mind when the time comes for them to buy. Give the education portion of your website a name and a mission statement. For example, if you are selling bikes, the mission could be educating every bicycle buyer on the core maintenance fundamentals. Also, Sharing educational material through various marketing platforms grabs customer attention at the start of their buying journey.
Educating customers builds trust and positions you as an authority in your field. Customers will want to give back to your brand after having learned a lot. Generating sales from educational content is hard to track with direct metrics. But it is an effective strategy used by top brands across a multitude of industries.
Final Thoughts
Are you wondering what customer retention strategy to get started with? Pick one to find out how it will affect the sales volume of your business. Ideally, you should incorporate all five customer retention strategies from this article to get the biggest boost in sales.
These strategies will get you started. But there are many more that can be implemented. You will find additional customer retention tactics by digging deep into what is working for your niche. So constantly innovate your retention strategies to stay one step ahead of the competition.
Also, do not forget to check this blog out:
Create a Powerful Brand Identity To Encourage Customer Loyalty
