Customer retention is one such facet in the customer success industry that speaks volumes about the health of your business.
Moreover, it can enlighten if you are veering in the right direction or not. Aside from this, the advantages of a company having high retention score are always better. It will not only augment the sales and revenue bar but also cut down on the cost induced in customer management over a long span of time.
In simpler words, customer retention is imbuing a specific set of initiatives to enhance the overall customer value and trigger them into purchasing again from you. That is the whole point behind customer retention. There are many unsaid practices too that work here in retaining a client. Some of them include saying ‘Sorry’ and ‘Thank you’ whenever needed. When you refrain from doing so, you can see a chance where they too refrain from doing business with you.
It is calculated as the number of clients that stick around with you throughout a year, from beginning to the end. Statistically proven, 84% of the customers admit that the customer experience provided to them is as vital as the services.
Here are some important actionable tips that businesses should imbibe to enhance customer retention.
1. Look into Personalization
The best way to win your customer’s hearts is by giving them personalized attention. They would not like to talk to a robot and receive answers that are overly scripted. Hence, provide them an experience that comes with a human touch. Enable your staff to talk to them and dig into their queries. Seeing a bot answering an important question might turn them off. This way, they might just pick another competition over you, which is a big no-no.
2. A quality Customer Experience does all the Talking
All that makes a critical change in the mindset of a customer is a seamless customer experience. This takes place only when customers get what they have asked for. To truly match their expectations, you must already know their likes and dislikes. Say, for instance, a customer was dissatisfied and agitated with your business. Instead of shooing the client away, try talking to them in a calm manner, and prioritize their needs. It could be possible you might just save a client from churning away.
3. Yes, to Customer Engagement
Always remember that a highly engaged customer will have a considerable amount of engagement with you as a business holder. Start personalizing your business and let them know that you care. One of the greatest steps in a personalized business is talking to them directly. On a given day, pick up the phone and call some of your random clients and know whether your service has been up to the mark or not. Also, know if they need something extra from you. This will create a deep impact on their marketing choices.
4. Give Customer Delight no Backseat
If having a long-term term with your clients is what matters the most, you must render special focus to customer delight. Ascertain their needs, desires, and demands and craft ways of fulfillment.
Additionally, every once in a while, you may handover loyalty rewards or special discount offer to the ones who have always stuck around with you. Further, this will simmer down on the bulging churn and retain a sound customer health score. You never know delighting a customer can bring back a huge stock of revenue, sales, and referrals too. The ‘word of mouth’ technique works really well in the industry.
5. A Nod to Surveys and Feedback
Surveys and feedback are two of the golden rules of ascertaining where you stand in the crowd. These tools can instantly tell you how happy your clients are with your business. You will find a number of metrics to know this, such as the CSAT or NPS. Not just that, they can pinpoint the data into facts and figures and share with you the exact satisfaction rate. The satisfaction quotient can tell you a lot of about your business is going – whether it is being good, bad or ugly. Aside from this, you can monitor the trends too. You can easily figure out which products are getting more notice and otherwise.
6. Rev up the Customer Trust quotient
You will see a huge splurge in customer trust quotient if they have ample trust in your company. How to do that quickly? For starters, never give away false promises, and by ever, I really mean never. Nothing infuriates a customer more than a fake promise.
Over and above, respond to their questions in an instant interval. They would not like to be kept hanging in confusion.
7. Let your clients know your updates
Whether you are changing the product features or updating an old scheme, it is of high pertinence that you inform the users well in advance. It should not come as a surprise to them that an important feature of a tool has been changed and they are still unaware of the same. It will give them the belief that you value their relationship with you. And anyway, they have walked with you in your journey, why should it hurt if they are notified about the updates. Also, you might always bring back a nearly churning away customer from actually churning away with the updated version. You will soon see how they come back to do business with you again.
Final Thoughts
Your business relied on your customers. Especially the ones, who use your product and services, and retain with you. Long story short, they are the ones who have the power to make and break your business. Therefore, always treat them with utmost respect, love, and humility. Show them that you truly value them with your service and experience. Cater them nothing short of the best. Further, it is crucially vital to zero in on your resources and energy and augment the customer experience part. Practice the seven golden rules given and in no time, you will bid goodbye to the customer churn rates and see the customers stick around.
Author Bio:
Simran is a technical writer by profession and currently works at SmartKarrot Inc. a customer success software. She has extensive knowledge in penning down blogs, articles, whitepapers, and reports, etc. In her spare time, she likes to read journals and magazines. If not, she likes to play with her kittens.