Customer Retention strategies are extremely important for the future of any digital business. Global surveys show that businesses lose up to 20% of their customer base per- year. On the other hand, businesses that manage to increase their customer retention rates by as little as 5% see a growth of 20-95% in their business. This dramatic shift in numbers makes customer retention extremely important for any eCommerce business.

Companies that focus on good customer Retention Strategies outlast markets and trends. These companies also own the trust of their consumers which is the holy grail of marketing in general. The use of great customer retention strategies can give your business the momentum it needs to become the next big thing.

Through this post I look look at the 10 ultimate customer retention strategies that can help your business boom!

Leave no customer issue unresolved:

The central part of any customer retention strategy should be to leave no customer issue unresolved. This means that your customer service has to be top notch. Remember, you can’t win it all when it comes to customer support. However, what really counts is that you reached out to every customer who had an issue. Even an acknowledgement that their problem is being attended to can set the customer at ease. You will then find it easy to sell and resell to customers who have earned your trust.

Research well to develop a great product:

Nothing helps customer retention more than a great product. If your product is unique and offers high value for money, customer numbers will gradually increase. Put time into researching ways to improve all aspects of your products consistently.  A great example of this is Apple. Apple consistently exceeds expectations technology expectations of its users. As a result its users swear by it.

Use a personal approach:

A personal approach is the best approach to dealing with customers. If you make your customers feel valued, that value will pay you back in numbers that impress. Make every customer feel like they are the only customer in the world. Reach out to your customers as often as you can to keep the human interaction high. As an entrepreneur-CEO it may not be possible for you to personally interact with every one of your customers. So you have to instill this thought in your customers.

Another great way of doing this is by Sales Automation. Sales automation systems like Hubspot can send out personalized mailers to your customers automatically on your behalf. Suppose a customer is visiting a particular product page often. Then sales automation systems can automatically send out personalized emails from you with a discount offer or a mailer with customer reviews etc to help the customer make a decision. The customer will never know that it is an automated message and will feel that you really care.

Focus on speed and quality:

Any business today has to face the twin challenges of speed and quality. Customers remember bad experiences and pass on the word just as easily as they pass on the good word. So focus on customer issues with speed. At the same time, don’t lose out on the quality as you do it. The solution essentially has to be quick and quality. Customer retention depends on a synchronization of both of these aspects of your delivery.

Offer benefits to loyal customers:

Your customers are the greatest asset for your business. As part of your strategy to keep your customers, you should offer benefits to your regular customers. Use your creativity to give your customer that little extra that no one else is offering so you can set your brand apart using your strengths.

Collect customer feedback:

Collect customer feedback regularly to set up a communication loop between you and your customers. Besides the feedback collected on delivery, you can also do surveys via email to get valuable data. One very successful strategy is to send periodic emails for collecting feedback from customers using your product. If you can show your customers that you are constantly trying to improve their experience with your product, your customer retention numbers will improve gradually.

Educate and inform your customers:

Selling is not the only aspect of marketing you should be focusing on. Educating your customer about your brand via social media or email marketing campaigns is important too. Educate your customers about how your product is made and how it will be made. Giving customers a look into the effort that goes into making your product ready for them humanizes your business. It is a great way to rapidly boost customer retention numbers if you can get it right.

Have Customer Friendly Policies:

As a business grows, so does the need for creating policies around the business so that it can sustain itself without micro management by the senior management team. However, it is very easy to get caught up in making iron tight policies where the focus on the customer is lost. Great customer retention strategies require focus on the customer at all times. Customers won’t give two hoots about your policies. What they need a solution which takes care of their issues. So while setting up policies, it is very important to ensure that they are customer friendly.

Sometimes there may be some loss of control, but as long as that is within the overall risk appetite, it should be acceptable. One of the best ways to ensure higher customer retention is to empower employees to resolve customer complaints on their own, as far as possible.

Collect More Product Reviews:

In a world dominated by digital marketing and digital content, reviews contribute a lot to customer retention. Your brand needs to be able to build trust among your customers. Bringing all your reviews together in one place is extremely important. Reviews help you understand what is working well and not working so well with customers. Sometimes Reviews help you troubleshoot problems in real time. Small changes to product or services based on solid customer feedback can help you make a huge difference to your sales and retention. Use can use a review management platform like aveJana to increase your customer retention numbers.

Use engaging content and encourage UGC:

Encourage your customers to share their experiences with your products. Some of the most successful current day marketing campaigns have relied on User Generated Content to work wonders for their business. Customer retention gets a boost when your customers share stories about their good experience with your products. User Generated Content is increasingly becoming one of the most important aspects of digital marketing and can’t be ignored when making up a strategy to retain your customers. Encourage your customers to share videos or photos of them using your products. This goes a long way in generating a buzz and leads to higher conversions.

Conclusion:

Customers today are well informed about products and trends. They are also highly sensitive to content and advertising. With the regular changes in search engines and the algorithms behind them a dynamic customer retention strategy is a must for eCommerce businesses. Customers who feel they belong to a brand will stay loyal till they have an experience that forces them to feel otherwise. Good customer retention strategies can really boost the health of a business for the longer term.

The post The 10 Ultimate Customer Retention Strategies appeared first on aveJana.