The usual goal of running a business is to acquire new customers – and for obvious good reason. However, you can get so caught up in marketing campaigns to get more traffic, that you overlook the often superior ROI of customer retention. The numbers are clear (when it’s done correctly); stats show that you can improve your take from 25% to 95% simply by increasing your retention rate by just 5%. This data is shouldn’t be too surprising, once you understand that for the average business, over 40% of the revenue is due to repeat customers.
The question then becomes, how do you target these wonderful people? We’ll provide a handful of surefire techniques to reward your loyal base.
1. Enhance Your Return Policy
Well over half your prospective customers first look for info on a refund/return policy before they purchase; thus, make yours robust and front-and-center. A friendly policy that makes things as easy as possible on the customer helps customer retention rates to skyrocket. It’s been shown to triple the number of returnees.
2. Customer Engagement – Feedback is Essential
The numbers are in: few things keep them coming back like thoughtful, measured feedback to customer inquiries and comments. In some cases, feedback can even be used to encourage more spending, when done correctly.
3. Invest in Automated Customer Relationship Management Software
The right CRM software has been shown to increase customer retention lifetime value of nearly 20%! And, of course, it makes tracking much easier on your end, while offering future opportunities for further improvements in customer relationship down the line.
4. Institute Rewards Programs
The benefits of this one speak for itself. Always measure what you give away in rewards next to what you receive in terms of increased retention; you’ll find that it is almost always more than worthwhile. The biggest reason that customers leave a company is actually when they believe the company doesn’t care about them – with product/service dissatisfaction a distant second.
Rewarding your customers can be a rewarding experience, itself – and it extends beyond even the bottom line. To improve your suite of tools for customer retention and overall business, get in touch with Business Financing Corporative.
