One of a marketing entrepreneur’s obsessions is user acquisition, but this is not the only one; retaining a customer and the churn rate are also issues that concern (and a lot) professionals.
Undoubtedly, user acquisition is one of the most important pillars and, in general, one of the most relevant business objectives of the year.
However, is the same attention paid to retaining customers as to their loyalty? A new customer can be up to 25 times more expensive than a repeat customer, whom we just have to keep happy and content.
Here are the five most effective strategies to retain a customer without being a hassle.
How to retain a customer?
Customize messages and offers
Segmenting your customers based on their buying habits helps you design your marketing campaigns to retain customers in a specific group. The messages you send to each group, for example, through a weekly newsletter, should be highly targeted, and the offers tailored to achieve your goal.
Similarly, suppose you want to reactivate a customer who has not bought for a long time. In that case, you can offer him a promotion based on the latest products or services he bought or on complimentary products since you know that they might interest him.
Be proactive in customer service
In the business environment, it is better to anticipate and be proactive in solving small incidents than to be reactive and try to solve them when they have already become a problem and retaining a customer is no longer possible.
It is normal for your customers to have difficulty using your products or services on more than one occasion. Having an educated customer service team that is predisposed and capable of solving any problem will leave the customer satisfied, and their difficulties will fade into the background.
Besides, good treatment, education, and the willingness to resolve incidents are basic attitudes of those who work in a customer service department and must be put into practice whether with a new client or with a client of all life.
Ask your customers what they need
An effective way to retain customers is to ask them what they need before launching a new product or service. This will not only give you more guarantees that your new product will be a success but also make your customers feel that, in some way, that product is also “theirs.”
Another option is to develop a prototype and select a group of your best customers to test it for free and give you feedback. These customers will feel special and will surely appreciate that their suggestions are taken into account to finish outlining the design of a new product or service.
Use social media
Social networks are a very good tool for retaining a customer. Through these channels, you can not only know what people think of your brand, but it is also a direct communication channel that helps build good relationships with your customers.
Consequently, getting quick and useful responses greatly improves users’ perception of brands and, therefore, contributes to improving retention.
Communicate transparently
Communicating transparently and honestly is essential to building a brand image that inspires trust and helps retain customers. For this reason, reporting clearly and transparently is especially important in the event of a social media reputation crisis. Having a protocol or action plan is also important to prevent bad news or a bad customer experience from spreading across the network.
Thus, whoever is in charge of social networks will know how to act in a crisis of this type and will be able to do so quickly. Acting fast and well in these cases greatly impacts the customer’s perception of your brand. Whatever caused the bad experience will fade into the background of your client’s memory as long as the reputation crisis is managed on time and correctly.
