Did you realize it costs five times more to find a new customer than to keep an existing customer? While it’s always great to gain new customers — after all, customers are the source of your revenue — it is just as important to retain the customers you currently have. So, for the sake of growing your business, here are nine ways to keep your customers happy to retain their business.
Know the Value of Your Customer
First of all, understand how valuable your customer is. Without them, you would have no business. But with them, all things in business are possible. You know your customer values your product or service, or they wouldn’t have bought from you. Let your customers know how much you value their decision to buy from you when there are so many competitors on the internet.
1. Give Them More of What They Want
Your customer became a customer because you had a product or service they valued. Continue to give them what they need. To do that, you have to stay in front of what the pain points are. You can do this by doing market studies and sharing your insight with your customers. You can even get their opinion to see what they think. When you continue to provide them with what they need, they’ll ensure everyone they know also knows about you. In this way, you’ll not only retain them as a customer, but you’ll also get new ones.
2. Show Them You’re An Expert
Let your customers know you’re the best at what you do. Provide blogs and electronic newsletters filled with information that lets them know you know your stuff. Show yourself as the authority. In this way, you’ll always be at the top of their minds when they need information, a product, or a service related to their pain point.
3. Respond Promptly
Never leave your customers hanging. Respond right away to inquiries or engage immediately after a routine comment on social media or a blog post. Let them know you’re on top of things, always available and responsive. There’s nothing a customer hates more than someone who ignores their messages.
4. Do What You Say You Will Do
Don’t make promises on your site you can’t keep. If you promise something, do it. Don’t offer a money-back guarantee and then refuse to apply the refund due to your lack of satisfaction with their grievance. Giving customers their best experience, even when they’re not 100% satisfied, still keeps them coming back. The one thing worse than bad service is being promised you will do something, and then refuse to do it.
5. Personalize Their Experience
The web can be an impersonal place to be. Customers may not specifically feel a connection with you unless you offer them a personalized experience. Let them know you better by sharing your story, providing photographs of you and your staff. You could even share some special highlight moments or special events from your store. Do something special for the 100th visitor, etc., or recognize them on their birthday. That helps your customers to know you a little more and feel just a bit more connected to your brand.
6. Give Them Special Offers
To truly keep your customers happy, give them something extra. Customers will return to your website when they know there’s something in it for them. People love to save money. If you offer them special savings or discounts or have sales during special holidays like Black Friday, holiday savings, or free delivery over a certain price, they’ll keep returning. This strategy is also good for attracting new customers to your site.
7. Give Them Options
Not everyone is impressed with a boring contact form for reaching out. Your customer may need to hear a voice, or they may need an instant reply. Our society is too technical for them to not have multiple options for reaching you. In addition to the contact form, offer live chat support, text messaging, and a toll-free number. People love continuing to buy from someone they know they can easily contact and communicate with.
8. Invest in a Site Search
Make your customer’s shopping experience as simple as possible. Part of that experience is how easily they’re able to navigate your site and find what they’re looking for. You can expedite this process by investing in a quality site search feature. An aggravated customer who’s frustrated they cannot find what they’re looking for can be easily lost to the competition because they found the competitor’s site to be more user-friendly.
9. Track and Improve on Current Performance
Set monthly goals for your business, then evaluate your success. Focus on what needs to be improved and how you can make it better. Each month should prove to be a better experience for the customer than the month before. Evaluate your customer service, website navigation,
and product options. One way you can do this is through customer satisfaction surveys. That will help you to know where you may want to consider making changes to improve customer retention.
In A Nutshell
A happy customer will always be a loyal customer. It’s the loyal customer that keeps coming back. But it takes a lot on your part to have loyal customers. It’s up to you to give them a reason to want to come back. These are just some of the steps you can take to gain a lifelong customer.