So many of us know what Customer Retention is all about. We can imagine it in some abstract but clear way. It’s too easy to say that the customer keeps on buying your product or service instead of switching to a competitor, so this is something you aim for when you create your content marketing strategy. But how exactly do you go about doing that? What are some examples of tools and strategies which can help retain customers? And I am sure that no matter the industry type (B2C, B2B) of your company, there is something here for everyone! That is what we will deal with today.
Before getting down to business, though, let’s look at why retaining our customers should be our highest priority. With the help of statistics, we will realize why this is such a pressing issue and how it can affect our revenues:
Many customers (SIX in every 10) who have been with a company for only one year will not be with that company anymore after two more years have passed. That’s almost 70%! It would be great if there were no ‘bad apples’ amongst them at all, but even in best-case scenarios, a good chunk of your revenues will go down the drain. This means you need to retain 100% of your existing customers to keep the same earnings as before. And this does not even account for acquiring new ones.
Do you know how much money it costs to acquire a new customer?
According to ServiceNow, the answer is $154. It’s not just that big companies spend these amounts of money on advertising or some other forms of promotion; this also includes the salaries of your employees who interact with customers and all sorts of expenses related to their training and so forth. During my years in business relations, I ran into a customer service department that spent over 1 million euros annually on marketing. That was a massive chunk out of their budget, which they tried to cover by cutting corners here and there. Thus the low-quality service unless you pay more for premium support – a race to the bottom.
When a customer switches from one service provider to another, there is a 65% chance that they will stop using your product or service within just 12 months. What’s more, 60% of customers who plan on leaving don’t bother telling you about it. In their minds, it’s already a done deal. So unless you have some retention strategy in place, this means losing them and all their money while they do nothing but keep consuming what you’re selling at premium prices while not paying for it (i.e., not paying your company).
This is why the ‘price’ we pay for each new customer acquired isn’t always monetary: without knowing it, we end up spending a lot of our resources on keeping them with us. Crowdsourcing techniques can be used to get new ideas on what customers want and how they will act
But it’s all worth it if you manage to keep these ‘new’ customers for longer than just one year! Even though the numbers are more or less the same (a bit more than 50%), their behavior is quite unequivocal: they tend to stick around for, say, 10 years. Now that’s something you don’t see every day! And while some cases are exceptions to this rule (e.g., when your product or service is so irresistible that people cannot give it up), it pays off to focus on retaining your existing customer base over finding new ones.
Tips to retain customers
Let’s see what you can do to keep your customers around with the help of RemoteDBA.com. Like any company, you already have some existing tools at your disposal for this purpose; the challenge is putting them to use in ways that will work. There are many more options if we brainstorm enough but here are 27 examples (some of which also come with tips on how to implement them), ordered:
- Appreciate customer loyalty by giving discounts and coupons
- Ask customers what they expect from you via surveys
- Buy ads promoting your product/service on social media and treat these accounts as their own by responding personally to questions
- Call/email your customers often to check whether everything is OK
- Compete with other companies to retain your existing clients (e.g., offering better deals than they do defensive price-matching, etc.)
- Conduct phone interviews with customers to understand how satisfied they are and what you can do for them
- Design incentives that encourage people to refer new customers (e.g., provide a free product or service when the person who was referred makes their first purchase)
- Develop apps which allow users to manage their account without having to log onto your website (e.g., online shopping cart widgets, special mobile access codes for specific events or occasions, and so forth)
- Don’t forget the high-value customers: offer special discounts and free services just for them (e.g., birthday promotions)
- Encourage customers to provide you with feedback via social media and respond personally to these comments
- Exchange customers with other companies that buy from your suppliers or support your industry in some way (i.e., cross-promotion)
- Follow up on any issues faced by a customer until all their concerns have been resolved
- Include pictures and videos of happy customers on your website and use testimonials as often as possible
- Help customers find what they’re looking for by adding
- Introduce ‘friends & family discounts
- Limit the number of times users can log in to their account in a certain time (e.g., 2-3 times per week or month, depending on your business model)
- Make it easy for customers to contact you – create a free phone number and a toll-free email address, for example
Offer referral bonuses for anyone who sends new clients your way (e.g., offer $50 cash or an equivalent discount off their first purchase as a reward). Outsource customer support to third parties who are experts at doing this kind of work (i.e., hiring dedicated professionals who will resolve any problems the customer might have)
