Keep Your Customers Coming Back: My Best Retention Tips
Businesses are always on a search for another customer. A new customer is although not the one that is going to get your business growing beyond its limits. It is very important to consider your existing customers, since they are the ones who can help you grow. Once a customer knocks at your door, you are supposed to know the skills to make them come back every time they require your service. Below are tips you can use to keep your customers:
#1: Build Loyalty
For you owning a business, building loyalty with your customers is key to your success. There are a lot of things you can do to achieve this. Some include:
– Start a loyalty card program or points scheme that allows your customer base to have something after they are done with you. There are some businesses which suit this program, like supermarkets. These cards will have the customers back for more points each day.
– Offer a discount to those customers who have purchased something from your store in the past. You can even remember the name of the customer and prompt them to come back next time.
– Another creative option you can choose is to send your customer a thank-you card after they commit to your service for a number of times.
These little things are very important in building loyalty with your customers. They remind the customer of their importance in the business.
#2: Communication
Having a customer to come back daily is not easy if they are not paying attention when you speak to them. You, therefore, should maintain constant communication with your customers through either newsletter, social media or events. A scenario that has communication as a critical point is when something has gone wrong with your product or service. You are supposed to apologize to customers and inform them of refunds if possible instead of taking the route of burying your head in the sand.
Clear communication with your customers will have them to understand and gain trust in your business. If you don’t communicate, they will move to your competitor.
#3: Sell Your Products Correctly
If your selling process is not enjoyable by the customer, then they may not come back the next day. It is, therefore, an integral part of your business to sell your products and services in a certain way. For example, you can use persuasive words like free, new and instantly. Most customers will enjoy these words and will come back again.
According to George Lowenstein of Carnegie Mellon University, the use of friction and pain words can significantly lower the chances of your customer coming back. Do not use belittling words on your customers.
#4: Never Neglect Your Customers
While dealing with your customers, have them on the top of your priority. Do not receive calls or play computer games while communicating to your customer. If you have a customer care service, then when calls are made to you, have the customers served as fast as possible instead of having them bored by music or advertisements.
You should make sure that anybody who represents your business treats customers with dignity and respect, and you will be assured of them coming back daily.
#5: Consider The Reciprocity Construct
Do more and more for your customers and be rewarded with repeat business. Executing the reciprocity construct can be done by:
– Realizing that the budget is negligible. Give back to your customers no matter how costly it appears. According to Norbert Schwarz, a psychologist, as little as 10 cents can create a reciprocity between two individuals.
– Offer surprise reciprocity. This, you can do to your customers. It involves rewarding them unexpectedly. It will have them back hoping it happens again.
#6: Remain Human
Have a face or a personality included in the advertising of your product. It will help in retaining the memory of your product in the customer’s mind. Take the time to consider how your brand can be presented in the best manner, and how customers are going to perceive it.
Once you have selected what is going to present your brand, communicate it to customers and every person in the business. You should also be present at many stages of business which will get you interacting with more and more clients. They will come back again.
#7: Keep It Fresh
This works especially for you running an online business with a website. Nobody loves to visit a site and find the same items day in day out. Keep product information and aspects of your brand up to date. Whenever you add an item or add a service, get your customer in the know through your site. If any product runs out, you should, therefore, have it indicated on your site immediately to avoid a customer calling and then gets disappointed.
An easy way nowadays to keep things fresh is by building a blog for your business. Here you ca give your customers exciting news that will help in building your brand.
#8: Support
You will never have loyal customers as long as you do not have a unique customer service experience which will have them back. Always remember that quality is critical than speed. From a research, customers were nine times likely to have themselves engaged in a brand if they evaluated it as either “courteous, willing or helpful”. It is important to that you have your customers spending more time with your business team. Studies have proved that everyone gets more satisfied if they do not feel hurried or ignored.
Understanding the process to follow in order to have your customers back is critical to having your business successful. Building customer relationships effectively is the key to building loyalty with customers. After a customer comes to you once, and they get a nice experience with your service, they are going to be back the next day. Best part is, they are the ones who are going to bring more people to your business.