I know you, like other businesses have a customer base that you have worked very hard to attract and retain through a combination of marketing, social media and brand strategies. You have invested a lot of time and effort (and probably money) to gain your customers’ trust, so it makes sense that you want to keep them. That’s where a strong focus on creating a “Magical Customer Experience” to build customer loyalty and retention comes in handy.
To improve customer retention, you have to look at your entire customer experience. Your customer experience is everything the customer thinks and feels when they first come in contact with your business or staff. If you create a seamless unique experience that makes customers happy every step the way, you’ll have a much better chance at retaining them. However, if your business falls short of customer expectations, you risk losing those customers for good.
What is customer retention? Customer retention refers to the ability of a business to retain its customers over time, focusing on keeping existing customers on board by building good customer relationships. Customer retention is influenced by the customer experience and focuses solely on customers who have already completed a transaction with you.
But retaining customers is about more than just transactions—it’s about relationships. Research shows that customers view their relationships with businesses as similar to their relationships with their friends. By focusing on the relationships you have with your existing customers, the right retention strategies can turn retained customers into loyal customers, meaning they will continue to choose your business even when presented with other options. These long-term relationships are key to creating the kind of customer loyalty that will also help you weather the ups and downs in today’s unusual Covid-19 environment.
Here is why it matters and some strategies that can help you improve customer retention.
Keep Your Team Engaged With Your Customers:
Make sure your team is communicating with clients and staying engaged. It’s important not only to build new relationships with clients, but to maintain that relationship through communication, such as video chats once a week, phone calls and even hand-written letters. Communication should be a natural habit in a good business/client relationship.
For example, when your team communicates with clients, talk about more than just business. Find out how they are doing, (particularly during this Covid -19 environment) what they’ve been up to and what they’re looking forward to. Also make sure to recognize important events like a marriage, anniversaries, a new addition to the family, birthday, new job, etc. Relationships with your clients should be deeper than business-level. That’s how you can make a true impact on building relationships with their customers.
Reward customer loyalty in a meaningful way:
To retain customers, you want to provide the best possible experience at every stage of the customer journey. Once a customer has made a purchase, you should show them that you truly appreciate their business. An email thank-you note or hand written note is a good place to start. Here is an example of a nice note I received from a restaurant I recent visited.
Also, reward your customers with incentives such as a loyalty program or provide a little something extra such as a discount code or special offer to motivate your customers to come back and purchase again from your business.
Retaining customers and building customer loyalty doesn’t happen overnight. It will take time and effort to grow your relationship with your customers and earn their trust. One of the best ways you can earn their trust is by providing an exceptional “Magical” Customer Experience from start to finish. It goes way beyond just providing good customer service.
Keep your customers coming back by investing in your customer experience journey. Want better results? Contact John today and get started on your “Magical Customer Experience” with a FREE Discovery Call with John today. I promise you it will be Magical!