Companies lose $75 billion a year due to poor customer support that ultimately causes these customers to disconnect with a brand and switch to a competitor. Even more shockingly, half of them leave after only the first unsatisfactory experience. Business owners are on the mission to hunt new leads, strategizing and investing in all possible channels to capture their attention. Although research shows that 44% of businesses prioritize generating new leads over current leads retention, it costs around 6X more to ACQUIRE a single new client than it does to RETAIN an existing one. Amid the endless fight for the people's attention, you can do your business a lot of favor by perfecting conditions for your current clients to thrive instead of gambling on wandering leads. Trust me, your ROI will soar and your happiness will follow.
What is Client Retention?
In a nutshell, client retention is the process of taking all possible actions to maintain as many clients actively engaged (through recurring purchases) as possible. It’s the final but very critical phase in the customer lifecycle.
Why care about Client Retention?
Research from Harvard Business School shows that you can boost a company’s profits by as high as 25-95% through increasing customer retention rates by 5% only!
Moreover, retained clients are easily converted to loyal clients, who effortlessly expand your reach through Word-Of-Mouth Advertising.
Take a look at these numbers to get an idea of how valuable this can be:
- One word of mouth impression boosts sales 5x more on average than an online paid impression.
- Family and friends' recommendations are trusted by 92% of customers more than any other form of marketing.
Why Do Clients LEAVE in the first place?
Now that we are clear on how retaining clients is critical, let's get down to the nitty-gritty stuff: The Strategies.
1) CRM Software Integration
The more you interact with your customers and fulfill their needs, the more likely they will stick to you in the long run. You can do that by integrating CRM software into your framework.
a) Observe "Warning" Signals
If you observe closely, you can detect early signals of your client's impending withdrawal before they quit your services/products. For instance, you can use your CRM software to identify your client's behavior in the last quarter, such as their purchase pattern, their customer support inquiries, and service utilization. After that, you can take action based on these data like follow-up emails to ask why they are not purchasing and prevent them from leaving.
b) Revive Their Interest in an Existing Product
One of the most popular tactics for its consistent effectiveness. It is quite common to witness a client surfing your website to settle on a certain product's landing page before leaving. You can pinpoint that client through your CRM software and then freshen up their depleting interest by sending a special deal on that very same product they were interested in.
c) Personalize Your Interaction
CRM software makes it easy to view each of your individual clients as a person rather than a number. Following your client's consent, the CRM software draws in the available database allowing you to personalize the communication and tailor your follow-up strategy.
d) Offer a Customer Loyalty Program
This is a pretty easy method to elevate customer retention. When a client is given additional value for purchasing from you, through a VIP rewards system or a points program, it makes it much harder to switch to any other competitor for their next investment.
2) Establish a Thriving Community
Another very promising tactic is to build a community that is deeply intertwined with your brand's vision and services: offer your members unique perks, organize offline meetups, or launch content contests on social media with attractive prizes like a free membership to one of your services.
3) Utilize Marketing Automation
Use marketing automation to remind your clients that you care about them and THEIR special dates: memorials, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. by granting them exclusive discounts relevant to those dates. You can also deliver automated offers like those connected with global events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday so your clients remain on the lookout for your updates.
4) Enlighten with Valuable, Free Content
Offer free educational material (blog, podcats, interviews, webinars, etc.) to your clients and let them perceive you as an expert in your field. They will be likely to purchase more services as your brand will have a subconsciously established authority in their minds. "If this expert I know is selling something, it must be worth it" is a thought that would pop up when they are viewing your product/service or making a buying decision.
5) Boast Your Competitive Edges
How distinct are you from your rivals? What benefits do you offer to make you stand out?
Answering these and other relevant questions will help you zoom-in on your competitive powers and, consequently, highlight them more. If you can showcase your uniqueness adequately, your clients will find it hard to resist and remain glued to your brand.
So, retaining customers is no longer an option!
Having a CRM, creating community, introducing valuable content, and automating marketing, all are essential keys and useful hacks that would help your business to have more exposure through profitable loyal customers.
If you want a consultation on how you can apply these hacks to your business, email us at: info@vanillasm.com.