How to Improve Customer Retention?

In the ever-changing and relentless world of e-commerce, it seems like each new customer is a blessing. However, getting them to love your brand and come back to it frequently requires not only impeccable service and integrity, but a set of certain promotional skills and a lot of patience. This is why once this trust is earned, it should be greatly appreciated and rewarded whenever possible.

Customer retention is defined as a company’s capability to retain a certain customer for a certain period. Unfortunately, reading peoples’ minds is still not an option, but you can successfully evaluate the level of their satisfaction by the actions they take within your business‘ digital environment. This is precisely how customer retention works, and if its strategies are well-constructed, it is an utterly powerful tool that can improve brand awareness, loyalty, and of course, revenue.

In the following text, we will clarify what are and how to create customer segments, why customer retention matters, and how to increase customer relationship and retention. Eager to know more about it all?  Let’s dive deep!

What Is Customer Retention?

We already defined customer retention at a theoretical level, but let’s see how it works in practice. 

Once a business gets a new customer, the goal is to keep it and maximize its lifetime value, instead of making it switch to a competitor. It is essential to build a stable set of strategies that can lead to success, but unfortunately, many companies fail to do so. Since customer retention is measured at various rates, it is crucial to track their variability, and take certain measures  when you are not pleased with the results.

When you have a significant base of loyal customers, that clearly indicates that your brand is worth all the attention. Still, having a deep insight into its weak points gives us a chance for improvement. This is exactly how a good customer retention strategy can put us in front of the competition and increase customer retention rate.

How To Retain Customers?

We’ll give concrete examples of effective and clear strategies that help improve customer retention in a while, but let us share what seemingly small changes you can include in your business to enrich the customer experience.

Firstly, make sure to be clear about your values. Maybe your business is eco-friendly, or you are ready to donate some income to charity or something similar. Whichever it is, being straightforward about your company’s values will bring you loyal customers whose values align with yours.

Sometimes, all the business needs are some minor changes. Maybe your website needs some upgrade, or your product base is ready to welcome a new edition. Or you can simply include some limited editions to spice things up and see what the feedback is like.

A sure way of improving customer retention is having superior customer service. Everything from poor navigation, only AI chatbots, or never-answering phone services will surely affect a business’ reputation negatively. If customers notice that you treat them more like data rather than a human being, that is a sure way to chase them off.

If you wonder how to grow customer retention and create meaningful relationships with your audience, communicating with them on a regular basis is one of the best ways to do so. Once you know how they feel about your brand, you can act accordingly and try to meet their needs.

Why Customer Retention Matters?

Tracking customer retention rate provides substantial information on how the customers feel about your brand. Increased customer retention, on the other hand, ensures your business sustainability and predictive revenue.

• It Is Affordable

You’ve probably heard it many times, but it is a fact that customer acquisition costs are much higher than customer retention. Companies can save a huge amount of money on marketing and promotion, not to mention the fact that by having loyal customers, you ensure yourself a loud squad of brand ambassadors. Therefore, nurturing the relationship with the current customers is not only utterly satisfying but also budget-friendly.

• It Improves Brand Loyalty

By increasing customer retention, you ensure your business has a base of repeat customers who buy more frequently and spend more money than brand-new ones.

• Identifying Most Loyal Customers

Trust and respect should go both ways in life and in business, so rewarding your most loyal customers should come naturally. With customer retention, you can track the buying behavior, referrals, and reviews, and segment out the most precious brand advocates. Once you make a specific group, you can create a marketing strategy to strengthen the bond and learn how to encourage more customers to become a part of this VIP list. This is a safe way to bring a significant increase in customer retention.

Excellent Customer Retention Strategies

By now, it is probably clear what increased customer retention can do, but how exactly can you make that happen?

• Stay Engaged with Your Customers – Always

If you wish to learn more about what your customers think about your brand, asking them is a good way to start. You need to make sure that your customers’ feedback is valued, so following up on the given feedback is highly recommended. Once you get familiar with the collected data, you’ll have the opportunity to eliminate any dissatisfaction and prove to your customer that their opinion matters. Of course, sending engaging mail after the first purchase, or weekly newsletter for regular customers is a standard.

• Customer Loyalty Program

Wish to know how to increase customer retention, get instantly liked by current customers, and spark the interest of potential ones? Customer loyalty program, everyone. It is a program that comprises concrete rewards for your most loyal customers. Whether you offer free products or special discounts or have created a point system or tiered rewards, customer loyalty programs can and will strengthen the customers’ relationship with your brand.

• Keep Your Customer Informed About the Exciting News

Remember the last time you posted about a new product, feature, or service? It felt so great, right? Make sure to share the excitement with your customers and present them with ways on how they can benefit from the given innovation.

• Include A Personalized Account Option

Having a personal account allows customers to create a desirable digital environment where their needs are met, and their wishes granted. Besides making purchasing and repurchasing easier, a personalized account helps you learn more about your customers and automates the product recommendation process. 

Improve Customer Retention with Akita

Hopefully, we have provided you with some useful information on how to improve customer retention. Now, if you are looking for an all-in-one customer success software that stores all your customers’ metrics, data, and activity, look no further.

Akita allows you to generate any number of customer segments where you can easily track their behavior and get visualized metrics via a diagram. Constantly worried about churn? Akita allows you to set up countless Customer alerts that notify you when a customer is at risk of churn. This is how you can act immediately and take all the necessary steps to re-engage the customer.

This is just a fragment of all the exciting features that let you analyze and get a full overview of each customer in-depth, so if you are ready to reduce that churn, build a powerful customer retention strategy, give Akita a try, and see your business skyrocket.