10 Customer Retention Strategies that Work

Customer retention.

Not exactly the most glamorous part of lead generation, but an essential part of any business strategy.

Why?

Bringing back old customers is cheaper than getting new ones in.

They’re already familiar with your brand, they have rapport, and you don’t need to spend new marketing dollars to convert them.

Do customer retention initiatives always work? Well, they should. They are designed to generate favorable results in order to boost the popularity and patronage of a brand. 

The ultimate goal is to come up with techniques that will keep customers happy enough to keep on coming back for more. 

In today’s guide, we take a look at customer retention strategies that work!

1. Offer a distinct customer experience. 

What will truly differentiate you from your competitors is the unique experience you give your customers, the kind they will never get from another brand.

When they experience something special, they are bound to fall in love with your brand, especially if the effort makes them feel important. 

This is why strategies like ABM work because they provide customers with a boutique experience that they can’t find anywhere else.

2. Gain trust.

During the beginning of lead gen you’ve probably relied on a lot of trust signals to establish trust.

Why stop the process?

Brands that want to establish their trustworthiness often focus on delivering quality products and excellent services, two attributes that are very attractive to customers. When they see a genuine commitment to quality and excellence, they begin to trust the brand. 

Read more: Reciprocity – Why You Should Give it to Your Customers for Free

3. Solicit feedback from customers.

You can’t growth hack if you don’t track right?

And, the best way to get analytics is by finding out the pulse of your customers.

Whether it is good or bad feedback, soliciting ideas from customers is always a healthy exercise. Much can be gained from learning what people think of a brand and what they expect from it. By generating feedback, business owners can get fresh ideas for future innovations and projects. 

4. Listen to your customers. 

Listening to customers does not end with simply hearing what they have to say. Genuine listening results in taking action – making necessary improvements where they matter the most. When they are heard, they feel a special kinship towards the brand and its creators.

Engage in social listening, have a customer care team in place, whatever it takes to make sure you’re acting on your customers’ needs.

5. Remember their customer profile.

Do you keep track of what kind of customers you have?

By simply keeping track of what kind of customers you have, you can better serve them.

This is useful if you want to tweak particular campaigns for them or offer them exclusive deals. By doing this, you provide a bespoke experience that will help them stay with you longer.

6. Offer a customer education program. 

Educating your customers on how best to use or maximize your product or service is another way to attract customer retention. When customers understand what they are buying and how it impacts their lives, they will not only patronize the brand they will also promote it to their family and friends. 

7. Be adaptable. 

When you adapt to circumstances affecting your business and the lives of your customers, you have the ability to come up with new ways of doing things without compromising the value of your brand. One huge example is the pandemic and how it forced business owners to innovate and become more creative. Being adaptable will make customers feel valued as you will continue to offer them your product or service despite the situation. 

Read more: The 30-Minute LinkedIn Profile Optimization Checklist

8. Manage expectations well. 

When customers begin to patronize your brand, they tend to set higher expectations, which will prompt you to constantly upgrade, improve, or add value to it.

Take it all in stride and be pragmatic about what people expect from your brand. If it veers away from your vision, you do not have to accommodate it. If it challenges the current features of your brand, be bold enough to try something new. 

9. Connect with your customers using multiple channels.

The omnichannel strategy works.

You can choose from social media, emails, texts, or calls, depending on what your customers are very comfortable using. Some like receiving newsletters via email and some like to be reached through social media.

Whatever their preferences may be, it is important to be able to engage them on all available platforms.

A lot of people are against this because you might come off as a stalker, but here’s the thing.

You don’t have directly communicate with them.

Sometimes a couple of subtle brand reminders on other channels can even allow you to upsell or just plainly remind them that you still exist.

10. Keep a customer communication calendar. 

A customer calendar gives you an overview of the number of times you engaged a client, the last time that a customer sent a message, or when a membership is about to expire. 

Keeping a calendar will help you establish consistency in reaching out to your customers. By being consistent, you are making your presence known in a way that will eventually invite loyalty. 

Changes in customer retention strategies are bound to happen in the future, which will force business owners to come up with new approaches that will keep customers loyal. These changes will depend greatly on the demands and trends of the times. 

What is noteworthy, however, is that the psychology of consumers almost always remains the same over time. Business owners can, therefore, trust that with the right kind of stimulus, customers will respond as expected.

Takeaways from Customer Retention Strategies

If you want a simple guide to customer retention, remember this:

“Always keep your customers happy”

Why?

It results in more upsells, better relationships, and quite frankly makes delivering value much more fun.

Plus, getting better reviews will never hurt your bottom-line!