Customer retention can be a serious issue for many small businesses. After all, attracting new customers and keeping them engaged is generally a straightforward strategy. But most of the time, customers don’t return at all and that can put the business at risk. On the other hand, you should know that there are several things you can do to turn the tables around.
For starters, you should know why your customers don’t want to do business with you again. In general, clients leave a company due to unpleasant customer experiences. This includes all direct and indirect contact with the brand, such as customer support, social media and more.
In fact, recent data from Dimensional Research has shown that 59% of customers don’t return after a bad customer service experience. So, before you jump into a solid loyalty program, maybe it’s a great idea to review your customer experience.
No matter what is making your customers turn to the competition, there are several strategies you can try right now. Check them below and start getting your customers back!
Develop Your Personal Touch Engagement Strategy
How’s your engagement strategy doing? If you don’t have any, then it’s crucial that you develop an effective engagement plan for your business. Whenever possible, you should include personalization features and add that unique touch that distinguishes you from your competitors. That will give you a great advantage when it’s time to take action!
For example, I’ve been coming to the co-working space Atlas Workbase for well over a year. Their facility setup is incredible but the personal touch keeps me coming back. They go a step beyond the norm with their service. Atlas takes time to connect me with members that foster great collaborations. They’re always thinking about the benefits of the member.
It’s not enough to simply engage with your customers. That is simply the beginning of the journey. You need to innovate and stand up for your core values and value proposition. Your customers need to know what makes you truly special. Otherwise, why should they buy from you instead of any other brand?
Keep your engagement personal and appeal to your customer’s interests and behaviors. That’s extremely important if you want to stand out and be noticed. With every customer, I take the time to understand what they truly need. In other words, this is a key point when it comes to customer retention and loyalty.
Know Your Customer Well
Another essential strategy to fix your unreturned customer problem is to research and ensure you know your customer as well as possible. Who is your audience? What is the standard buyer’s journey for your business? What are your customers’ interests? What type of engagement works best for each segment?
These are all questions that can’t be taken lightly. You need to build definitive answers based on research if you want to succeed with your customer retention.
Suppositions will only hurt your business here. What’s the use in creating a strategy based on a customer base that is not the one you really have? It simply won’t work and you’ll just be throwing your precious time and resources out the window.
Develop a Strong Follow-up Game
Now, you’ve got a great engagement strategy and that’s fantastic. But what about your follow-up system? Are you using automation to improve your personalization and ensure every single customer is noticed? Are you addressing different behaviors properly?
If you want to have a strong engagement after the purchase phase, then you need to keep the interactions and interest alive! Remind your customers of their positive experience with your brand and show them what else you’ve got for them.
Establishing an effective engagement at the right time will help your customers to build trust and affinity with your brand. Ultimately, this procedure ensures that your customers will not forget you right after their purchase! They are still interested and engaged. That means they will most likely come back to do business with you once again.
Try Collaborative Marketing
Most of the time, small business owners assume that content and collaborative marketing is a waste of resources. Probably because the immediate results are close to none. But you need to stay open-minded when you’re in business. Not every investment will deliver results right away. You need to remain calm and patient when it comes to customer loyalty.
Now, collaborative marketing has an incredible power to develop your business and to reach the customer’s heart. When you associate yourself with a well-established or well-known brand, you will also benefit from their aura of positivity.
For example, YPOS (Young Professionals of Seattle) does an incredible job of fostering collaborations. Their collaborations range from Pemco Insurance to Delta Airlines. As a result, it’s produced major benefits over the years for the Seattle company.
There are mutual interests, values, resources, and together you can accomplish much more than you ever imagined on your own. At the end of the day, it’s not just about what you can achieve. It’s also about the reputation and image you are building, which will inevitably influence your customers.
Monitor Your Online Reputation
After creating your engagement and follow-up plans, it’s time to keep an eye on your online reputation. In this digital era, it’s essential to be aware of what your customers and competitors say about you. Whether you receive positive or negative feedback, you should be monitoring the comments and reviews.
By doing this, you are showing your customers that you care about them and their input. You also get the chance to show them that you are proactive and you stay up-to-date with the latest digital trends. Besides that, you can easily identify critical issues through negative feedback and work on a solution faster. It’s a win-win situation.
Don’t forget that you might have the best service or product in the world but if your online reputation is dreadful, then your chances to get new customers or maintain your current ones will be much more difficult.
Customers Don’t Return… If You Don’t Take Action!
It might be quite challenging to get customers to come back and purchase from you again. But one thing is certain. If you don’t take action, then nothing will improve!
So, make sure to build your engagement strategies and follow-up procedures, as well as ensure minimum quality with your customer support. Consider collaborative marketing opportunities and check your online reputation on a regular basis.
Only then, you can expect your customers to return after purchasing. Competition has never been stronger with e-commerce and digital tools. So, make sure to engage and chase your customers because they will surely not chase you.
If you need help building an effective loyalty or customer retention strategy, then feel free to contact us here.
