One of the obsessions of a marketing entrepreneur is user acquisition, but this is not the only one, retain a customer and the churn rate are also issues that concern (and a lot) professionals.
There is no doubt that 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 retain a customer as to their loyalty? A new customer can be up to 25 times more expensive than a repeat customer, who we just have to keep happy and content.
Here are the 5 most effective strategies to retain a customer without being a hassle.
How to retain a customer?
Customize messages and offers
Segmentation of your customers based on their buying habits helps you design your marketing campaigns to retain a customer based on a specific group. The messages that you will send to each group, for example, through a weekly newsletter, should be highly targeted, and the offers tailored to achieve your goal.
Similarly, if you want to reactivate a customer who has not bought for a long time, you can offer him a promotion based on the latest products or services he bought or based on complimentary products since you know that they are the ones that 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 retain a customer is no longer possible.
It is normal that, on more than one occasion, your customers have some difficulty in using any of your products or services. Having an educated customer service team, predisposed and capable of solving any problem will leave the customer satisfied, and the difficulty they may have will go to 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 it is with a new client, or with a client of all life.
Ask your customers what they need
An effective way to retain a customer is to ask your customers what they need before launching a new product or service. In this way, not only will you have more guarantees that your new product will be a success, but you will also make your customers feel that, in some way, that product is also “theirs”.
Another option is to first 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 they will surely appreciate that their suggestions are taken into account to finish outlining the design of a new product or service.
Use social media
The use of social networks is a very good tool to retain 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 the perception that users have about 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 a customer. For this reason, reporting clearly and transparently is especially important in the event of a social media reputation crisis. To prevent bad news or a bad customer experience from spreading across the network, it is important to have a protocol or action plan.
Thus, whoever is in charge of social networks will know how to act in the event of a crisis of this type, and will be able to do so quickly. Acting fast and well in these cases has a lot of impact on 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.
