Welp MagazineEvery business strives on three key goals, namely, leads – customers – sales. If you want your business to thrive and prosper, you will have to take care of your biggest asset, which is your customers. Yes, you heard that right. Ultimately, it all simmers down to your customer’s satisfaction and loyalty. On that note, it is seemingly vital to retain them and look for battle-tested customer retention strategies that seal the deal.
While the due conversion from leads or potential prospects to a loyal customer is not an easy process – but your efforts will still pay off if you zero in on your final goal – customer retention. If this is what you have been wondering lately, you are on the right page.
Here, we bring out the best strategies for customer retention that you need for your business to thrive. So, without any further ado, let us get started with the list right away.
1: Enhance your Website’s Security Measures
The biggest weapon that you can have is the trust of your customers. Why should a customer come to do business with you if they do not have enough trust in your security? And that is why getting the best-suited type of SSL Certificate is a step in the right direction for your business. Once you get your hands on an SSL Certificate, it becomes nearly impossible for hackers to break into your system. Also, in-transit data stays secured and encrypted. This information will get decrypted only when it reaches its intended recipient. To avail SSL security, you do not need to pay high amount as there are many brands as well SSL providers who offer cheap ssl certs for your website security. For that you need to assess the requirement of a website.
As a business that seeks to expand in the future, choosing the perfect SSL cert may seem like an uphill task. For such unique needs, we thoroughly recommend investing in a wildcard SSL certificate. With this single certificate installed on your business website, you can secure unlimited level one subdomains like the payments, blogs, product pages, including the main domain. What’s more? You don’t need to worry about the security of any new first-level subdomains that you choose to add later as you grow. If you are still searching for brands that offers your desired SSL certificate then, here are some of reputed SSL certificates: GlobalSign, Comodo SSL certificate, RapidSSL certificate, Sectigo SSL, etc. So, think no more, and buy one now!
2: Keep your customers informed about your Updates.
The last thing your customer would want to miss out on is an essential update or upgrade that you are bringing out on the system. Whether it is an essential addition to your system, a vital up-gradation, new schemes, or discounts – it is always recommended to keep your customers alert about your updates. It would turn out to be quite detrimental for your business if your loyal customers were left out on your alerts. Eventually, it is for your customers that you are bringing out these alerts for and missing them out on such alerts is not a good idea.
3: Pay Heed to your Customer’s Opinions
Your customers use your products and services at the end of the day. There is a good chance that your customers know more about your products than you do. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to know what they think about your services. Make it a point to collect necessary customer feedback as and when the need arises. You can do so by taking customer surveys. This will keep you informed on their likes and dislikes, what they want to be changed, what looks stellar to them and more. It is always worth a try!
4: Improvise your Customer Experience
How great is the user experience that you are providing to your customers? A customer must feel good visiting your site and must find whatever she needs within a few clicks. If this is not close to the experience you are catering to, it is time to rethink your decisions. Note that a highly engaged customer will have some amount of rational attachment and emotional commitment to your brand. This gives them another reason to stay retained in your brand. Hence, ensure that your customer experience score is always on point.
5: Offer Loyalty Programs and Discounts to your Customers
Who does not love surprises? A customer is no exception here. A customer wants you to do something special for them. You can do so by offering them loyalty programs, a flat 20% OFF discount offer, maybe a promo code to use in their transaction and so on. What matters to the customer is the fact that you care. This is all that they need to stay retained in your business. Adding such ‘surprises’ onto their plates will not only make them feel happy and satisfied but also make sure that they stick around with you for a long time.
6: Set the Customer Expectations right from the Beginning
It is no good to give your customers false hope about something. Instead, give them something to look forward to. While it is easier said than done. It is hard to satisfy someone you just met. Therefore, understand your customers and know what they want and desire from you. And on similar tracks, set expectations. One of the best ways of doing that is by being transparent and honest to them no matter what. They will hate to see blatant lies from your end. If you cannot deliver their product to them on time, make it a point to inform them in advance with an apology that you mean.
7: Optimize your Customer Service
Your customers want their answers immediately, and you know it. Train and educate your staff to be proactive when they are handling customer complaints. The last thing they would want to see is a lethargic staff who is unsure how to help the customer. When customers indicate interest in your offer, response time is a metric that measures how courteous your staff was to your customers in answering their queries. Make sure that you set your key performance indicators (KPIs) right and engage with your customer complaints in the proper manner.
8: Communicate Effectively with Consumers
A customer wants to be heard, and you also want to communicate with your customer. With frequent and interactive communication with your customers, you ensure that your customers communicate freely about their likes and dislikes. Recent statistics have shown that companies that relate to their customers more than ten times a year have a whopping 300% more profit than those who lost their connection with the customers in the long run. This shows the essence of healthy communication in the lives of a customer and their relationship with your brand.
9: Under Promise and Over Deliver, Always
Remember, a promise is more like a debt. A promise that cannot be delivered at the right time is detrimental to your business. To avoid seeing your business going downward, chant and act upon this mantra – under promise and over deliver, always. We all know that promises raise expectations. And when your customers become more expectant of you, you are in a delicate phase then. This is where you should become sensitive to your promises and strive to exceed them. And when you do not do that, you call for a big-time churn rate that will leave in business in a state you do not wish for.
10: Personalization is the Key
Like we just discussed, your customers want to feel special and personalized. Therefore, personalization has always been an integral component of customer relationship management and customer service as well. It does not matter what KPIs and tools you use; if you cannot get personally connected with your customers, it tends to be of no use. The value of personalization is huge. A customer who sees a personalized feed on their screens will more likely stick around with you than a customer who does not.
That’s a Wrap
You want your customers to be happy and your business to strive. Is that not the truth? You want to see your customers stay loyal to you and not switch to another competitor of yours. Following these battle-tested customer retention strategies will make sure that you see your customers retained. The key to generating huge customer retention levels comes from maintaining a keen focus on what the customers need and want.
Start to empathize with your customers and put yourself in their shoes. You will soon start to see and visualize things that you were not able to see earlier. Aside from this, if possible, include them in the development and strategy around the future product updates. Again, taking and incorporating their feedback here will be helpful to your business.
The bottom line here is to treat your customers just like partners and remind them that their opinions and suggestions have been incorporated as and when required. Communicate to each of their needs and treat them with the utmost respect. These are some of the simple ways by which you can win your customer’s heart. Make sure they know that you’re both in this together and that their success is your success.
