Did you know that research by Bain & Company found out that increasing customer retention rate by just 5% can increase profits by 25-95%?
If there’s one thing that always bears on the mind of businesses, it is this: What drives a customer to come back for more?
In this day and age, where cut-throat competition is rife, brand loyalty is as elusive as a dream. From expeditious customer service and product quality to brand values and convenience, there are a host of factors that influence customer satisfaction.
Even so, do there really exist enough ways to make customers visit your business and buy again? Here, we look at five ways you can improve customer retention and subsequently improve your sales.
1. Real-Time Customer Support
According to MTD, nearly 35% of consumers expect a response on social media questions or complaints within an hour, with 18% expecting an immediate response.
With proactive response behavior, result-driven conversations, and round-the-clock support, everything about real-time customer support spells customer satisfaction. By employing advanced customer support tools like live chat, you can correspond with consumers in real-time and resolve their issues instantly and provide them with frictionless customer experience.
This is probably the reason why as many as 63% of customers would come back to a website that offers this feature. With live chat software, you can embed it in your system with added features, such as cobrowsing that can enhance your first call resolution by 18% and lessen call handling time by 14%.
2. Crafting Strategies for Enhanced CX
Did you know that moderate improvement in CX can impact the revenue of a typical $1 billion company an average of $775 million over three years?
Customer data is the most valuable asset of any company and with the coming of AI, organisations can now increase CX by leveraging what they have learnt about the customer and predicting their needs. This will allow you to create custom-built, personalized strategies for different consumers.
Today, many brands are utilizing artificial intelligence in a calculated manner at key touchpoints to deliver new forms of customization, and in some cases, completely new technical capabilities. So, if you haven’t hopped onto the AI bandwagon yet, it’s time to do so.
3. Customer Reward Programs
Customer incentive programs or loyalty bonuses in the form of gift vouchers, free products, bonus items, etc. are an excellent way to keep customers coming back to you. By tracking metrics such as the number of orders, referrals, welcome points, loyalty points, etc., you can determine who are your most faithful customers. It is a great deal for both the customer and the brand because in return for the promise of added benefits, customers will keep visiting you time and time again while you enjoy unprecedented customer retention. Consequently, this ensures better profits and improved longevity of the business. From welcome points to the number of orders placed, there are a number of metrics you can follow to see who are your most valued customers.
4. Regular Feedback
Customer feedback is one area that is immensely advantageous for any organization should they decide to conduct it. Customer feedback helps improve products and services and it is one of the biggest benefits that consumers can provide brands. By collecting the opinion of your customers on a definite level regularly, you can gain valuable insight into what works for your brand and what does not.
This practice has a lot of merits. It can help you measure customer satisfaction by asking them for their personal opinions of your products. This not only tells you how pleased your patrons are with your services, but it also tells them that their voice is heard by you. Apart from that, when you put the information you gained into practice, it shows that you genuinely care about them to deliver the best possible customer experience.
5. Amaze Visitors with Great UX Features
With great User Experience (UX) comes great loyalty. Yes, it is a lame take of an otherwise landmark movie dialogue in cinema. However, the analogy is perfect for capturing the importance of UX for enhanced customer loyalty. As the digital interface is the point of contact with your customers, you would do better to give them a frictionless and straightforward experience so that they are encouraged to prefer your products over others.
Not only does this enhance the value of your brand and improve its awareness through word-of-mouth-appreciation, but it also helps you redefine customer loyalty by knowing why and how you have matched or failed their expectations in certain areas. So much so that, Forbes reported intentional and strategic user experience to be able to boost conversion rates by as much as 400%.
Conclusion
All in all, it doesn’t matter what the size of your organization is, employing these practices is necessary to ensure that customers keep visiting you over and over again. Revamping your current strategies to be more customer-centric can breathe new life into your business. You can do so by providing services that match your customer’s expectations.
About the Author
Sam Makad is an experienced writer and marketing consultant. His expertise lies in marketing and advertising. He helps small & medium enterprises to grow their business and overall ROI. Reach out to Sam Makad on Twitter or LinkedIn.