Customer Retention Techniques that Bring Them Back

Customer retention is very important to a business, as any business owner will agree. However, many small businesses make a critical error: they concentrate on attracting new customers while overlooking possibilities to retain and upsell customers who have already agreed to do business with them.

If your company is guilty of this, consider implementing one of the customer retention tactics listed below to keep customers – and their money — coming back.

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Customer Retention Techniques

Make communication your priority

You’ve probably had a bad experience with your phone company or cable provider. You have an issue, but the customer service representative won’t help you unless you threaten to terminate your subscription. If you call the competition, the salesperson will offer you a fantastic deal to persuade you to relocate.

And not be the company that can’t be reached. Emphasize communication, honesty, transparency, and problem-solving with your current clients, even if the lure of additional business is alluring. Give your employees the authority and resources they need to treat current clients as important as the new person “just-looking” in the lobby.

Before people start complaining, be proactive and ask how you might improve things.

Ask about what they think

Create a mechanism for contacting existing clients and asking for feedback on how you can better serve them. People, including your clients, enjoy voicing their opinions. This strategy shows consumers that you’re paying attention while also assisting you in determining exactly what you can do to make them pleased.

After the initial transaction, include this in your client journey. Your clients are accustomed to being reached by this point, but few expect to see additional effort after they have spent their money. This will pleasantly surprise them.

Encourage them to return by including a discount or special offer at the end of your survey or questions.

Organize events that are only open to those who have been invited.

People love to feel like they are a part of something with restricted attendance in this day of free stuff everywhere. You can plan this kind of event to thank and encourage your existing clientele by holding a sale, an early release of a new product, a small party, or invitation-only hours in your shop.

This is even more effective if the event allows for behind-the-scenes access to your work. Clients can become lifelong fans and supporters of your company by receiving anything from a PDF of a preliminary copy of a report to a day-long facility tour with lunch with the CEO.

Set a minimum invitation requirement and make it known ahead of time so that your consumers can engage with you to meet it. Anyone who has purchased a specified quantity or price amount in the previous month, for example, would be eligible.

Set Rewards

There’s a reason why those little punch cards that give you a free sandwich or haircut after buying a dozen are so popular. They leverage human psychology to boost client loyalty and return visits, but they’re far from the only approach to persuade customers to return. Get imaginative with how individuals qualify and what they may earn by using social media, text messaging, and even an app.

When your clients earn points toward a freebie, discount, upgrade, or other rewards, they experience the same dopamine rush that leads to screen addiction and other bad habits. Make a wonderful relationship with your brand out of one of those habits.

Combine this with the first technique on the list. Ask your customers what kind of rewards they desire, and then deliver them to them.

Metrics Can Help You Achieve More

Your churn rate is a quantifiable indicator of how frequently you lose consumers who have already purchased at least one item from you. Calculate it by dividing the total number of clients you lost in a month by the total number of customers you had at the end of that month.

If you had 200 regular clients in January but five slipped off the rolls, your churn rate would be 5/200 = 2.5 percent.

You can tell once you’re doing well and when things are getting tough by tracking your turnover rate. More significantly, you’ll be able to track the success of any client retention strategies you implement.