The majority of companies say that retaining a customer is less expensive than acquiring a new one. Customer retention is a critical sales cycle factor that you should track!
Customer retention is a metric that measures customer loyalty, or the ability of a specific company to keep its buyers over time. It goes beyond identifying the number of loyal customers; customer retention can reflect or predict customer satisfaction, repurchase behavior, customer engagement, and emotional ties to a brand.
Below, you will find 3 key tips that will help your company better understand your current level of customer loyalty and what steps you could take to improve your retention rate.
- Collect Current Customer Retention/Loyalty Analytics:
Looking at your customers’ data over time can give your company many valuable insights to mold and shape your business into one that nurtures a loyal consumer base!
There are countless variations on how you could collect this information but start with determining your customer retention ratio, repeat purchase ratio, net promoter score, customer effort score, customer satisfaction score, etc. Once you obtain this information, you can choose to compare numbers to similar businesses in your industry as well as your company’s past performance.
2. Focus on Increasing Customer Relationships and Experience:
One key element to retain customers is to focus on providing excellent customer service. This includes not only interactions at brick-and-mortar locations, but online interactions through social media. To do this effectively, you must respond quickly and transparently to complaints or concerns from your customers.
3. Reward your loyal customers:
Providing consistent and desirable rewards for doing business with your company can help incentivize loyal customers. As you plan your promotions, how can you use them to gather insightful feedback about your business? Take the time to track the effectiveness of each promotion to see what matters most to your customers.
Maintaining a consistent text/app/email reward service will also aid in keeping your product/service relevant to the consumer. For example, a passenger-based motor-coach business could offer a church organization 20% off every fourth trip booked.
Try out these tips today to keep your loyal customers lined up and ready to buy! Are there any other tips we missed? We would love to hear from you in the comments below!
