By Arnab Dey
Businesses spend an incredible amount of time and resources in the pursuit of new customers. It takes a lot of work to get someone to walk through your doors even once. But repeat business is ultimately going to be what maintains and sustains your business over the long term.
Repeat customers spend more time shopping and tend to make larger purchases. They can also be a driving factor in bringing in new business. Loyal customers can give vital feedback for improvements and are more forgiving if problems arise. So don’t leave customer retention on the back burner for even one more day.
Here Are The Top Five Things To Keep Your Customers Coming Back For More:
1. Make Contact Easy
The quality of your customer service can make or break your business. And when it comes to making yourself accessible to your customers, more options are simply better. No one wants to sit on hold or have to wait to have their questions answered.
A contact phone number and email address are just the beginning when making yourself available to your patrons. Website forms, chatbots, social media DMs, and texting all offer additional ease and immediacy for customers with comments or concerns.
Whether you have a contact center of one or 100, you want to offer your clients the very best support possible. Good call center software will help you manage multiple points of contact and properly route inquiries. It can also help you track important metrics that can help you to better meet the needs of your customers.
2. Give Rewards
Customer loyalty is a precious element in increasing both growth and profits. When loyalty is reinforced and rewarded, customers stay more invested in a brand and share their positive experiences with others. While building a strong loyalty program does take resources and planning, when done right, it will prove a worthwhile investment.
There are several ways to approach and structure loyalty programs. Discount codes, punch cards, point systems, and free gifts all help customers to feel like their purchases matter. Offering holiday, birthday/anniversary, or surprise deals are also fantastic ways to reengage customers regularly.
Referral programs give customers special offers for bringing in new business. You can offer discounts for signing up for subscription orders, which also ensures customers do recurring business with you.
VIP memberships can bring brand involvement to the next level by offering exclusive access to products and even events. Try out different methods of rewarding brand loyalists to see what is most effective for your particular clientele.
Related Resource: 5 Things Businesses Can Do Today to Increase Sales Tomorrow
3. Keep in Touch
Communication and relationship building are keys to creating lifelong customers. From customers’ first interaction with you through their purchase and beyond, maintaining contact helps to create positive, memorable experiences. Thank-you notes, newsletters, and email updates all keep your business on people’s minds.
A customer journey map can be a helpful tool for making the most of available points of contact. This visual representation of the customer trek can aid in discovering new times to reach out and reengage.
Send follow-ups if a customer does not complete an online purchase or email an extra thank-you after order delivery. Stay connected, but be careful not to cross the line into spamming your fans.
A strong online and social media presence is also important for maintaining customer contact and engagement. Social media offers unique ways to maintain dialogues with your customers and do so in a publicly visible way. If you can create strong content, you will be rewarded with likes, shares, reviews, and brand ambassadors.
4. Listen to Feedback
To take advantage of feedback, you must first listen — then quickly respond — to customers’ concerns. It’s important that they know you value their time and experience beyond just the monetary transaction.
Customer trust is slow to build and only takes one failed expectation to destroy. Not every problem is avoidable, but empathy and expeditious solutions go a long way toward smoothing things over.
The second aspect of making good use of feedback involves preemptively gathering that data before there are problems. This can be achieved by sending out periodic surveys and polls.
Customers are a great resource for figuring out what’s working and what isn’t. This is another excellent way to connect and build relationships with customers. Take the time to listen to their needs and how your business can better meet them.
5. Give Back
These days, brand reputation is everything. People are more intentional than ever with where and how they spend their money. They want to support the brands and businesses that reflect their values and viewpoints. Make it a point to give back to your community or take the extra steps to ensure your business is environmentally friendly.
Sharing values through your brand can better connect you to the community you serve. It also gives customers an additional motive for continuing to use your products or services. Finally, giving back just feels good! Businesses that participate in forms of giving have better employee morale and engagement, which your customers are sure to notice.
While attracting new business will always be an important part of any business model, don’t neglect the customers you’ve already won over. When you put the effort into ensuring your customers return, you will gain more than just additional sales.
Loyal customers become brand advocates and rich sources of suggestions and feedback. So be sure to leverage your customers for the invaluable resources they are.
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