5 Smart Strategies for Customer Retention in 2019

0
590

Share on LinkedIn

Happy Customer
Credit: Unsplash

These are early days in the new business year and a lot of plans are underway by both individuals and businesses to ensure that success is achieved by the end of 2019. Most businesses have already started deploying strategies to make sure that set goals are achieved.

It suffices to say that this is a crucial moment for every business, as the foundations laid at this early stage will either make or mar the business. However, customers are always a top priority for any business. This is why businesses spend so much on marketing, for both customer retention and lead generation.

As important as reaching out to prospective customers are, retaining old ones are far more important. This is because the successful retention rates of old customers will always be higher than acquiring new ones.
As easy as it may sound, you still have to be smart and strategic about it. There’s still that chance that you may lose customers if smart strategies are not employed.

Below are smart strategies that, when applied, will deliver tremendous results in the area of customer retention.

1. Review your customer relationship

One thing that is constant in life is change. The mere fact that your customers are changing should be the reason to regularly review how you relate with them.

It will be highly inimical to assume that the strategies you used in previous years will always work. You need to re-engage your customers and ascertain where their preferences are focused right now. Use all available insights to know where your relationship with a customer is headed per time.

Even if you might still end up applying some already existing strategies (that have obviously delivered results), you still need to test them and be sure that they still work. Your ability to retain a customer lies largely in the level of relationship you have built with the customer.

This year, you need to do a complete check on the status of your relationship with your customers, especially the very loyal ones. This is crucial because your competitors are also scavenging for your customers and will do everything they can to woo your customers away from you.

You can achieve this by reaching out to them with personalized surveys. This will go a long way to ascertain how a customer will want to relate to your business this year and possibly in the future.

2. Rebrand your business

Whether it is a product or a service that you are offering, you have to rebrand it, if you must retain your customers this year.

People are mostly thrilled with new things – new packages. Your customers want to have a fresh feel of what you are offering them. They want to see you operate in a somewhat new dimension when it comes to doing business with them.

There is a strong connection between the relationship that exists between a customer and a business brand. So when you rebrand, the business relationship that exists with your customers is somehow renewed.

3. Make your website more intuitive

There’s hardly any business that does not have an online presence. It is particularly more convenient and timesaving for them.

The big question is; how is your web interface?

When customers visit your website, they want to have the best of experiences and improving on that keeps them coming back.

It’s not good business to make it difficult for customers to find their way around your website, especially when they are using mobile phones. Your interface needs to be intuitive, user-friendly, and above all, responsive.

According to John Lincoln, the CEO of Ignite Visibility, “the look and feel of a website affects its ranking, because google is doubling down on bad design that prevent users to enjoy their browsing sessions or delay their getting the answers they need.”

You can use a lengthened webpage instead of a short one. Customers can just scroll down to see as much of what they want as possible. It is better for a customer to keep scrolling down for more information than to endure the little seconds that another page takes to open.

When your customers are looking for information relating to the products or services you render, they should be amazed at what they see when your page appears in the SERPs. It’s a great way to spark up the interest of your customers about your business.

4. Employ a very good CRM tool

When it comes to marketing to your customers (prospective and old alike), you need to integrate some Martech tools in your marketing programs. A good CRM will not only manage your interactions with customers, but it will also help you bond better with them.

There are various kinds of CRMs out there. Therefore, it is important to find the best one for your business. Every business is unique, so is there a CRM designed to meet specific business needs.

Integrating a CRM will bring you closer to your customers, without necessarily visiting them at their houses. From the platform, you can monitor how your customers have been transacting with you. With the insights gotten, you can fashion out the best approach to engage, or re-engage a customer, as the case may be.

5. Improve service delivery

Customers are likely going to stay with you if they are satisfied with your delivery. It even gets better when you over-deliver.

There are so many ways this can play out.

When a customer orders for a UHD television, he is satisfied when he gets exactly what was ordered. However, you will lock down the customer and trigger improved loyalty if the customer gets one with a Picture-In-Picture function.

If a customer asks for an order to be delivered by 1600hrs, he is satisfied when it comes to him at the specified time. But, when it gets to him by 1200hrs, you have shown the customer your ability to over-deliver. Certainly, the customer will stick with you based on that.

Delivering above expectations is a smart strategy to use for customer retention, especially with the fierceness of the competitions for customers.

Toby Nwazor
Toby Nwazor is a business consultant with more than nine years hands-on experience in the fields of content marketing, sales, customer service, and business development. He is a class 2018 MBA graduate of ESUT Business School.

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here