Marketing services aimed at customer attraction are rather expensive. Most of the profits are often brought by regular customers. Customers who return to the company are proof of high brand loyalty.
The main task is to keep and increase the number of such clients. But many e-commerce companies don’t pay sufficient attention to this aspect and lose opportunities to make their business more successful. Some companies remember regular customers only when they start to leave. Thus, it is important to build a strategy for customer retention and prevent customer churn. Here are seven tried and true ways to improve eCommerce customer retention.
1. Keep website secure
2. Create a Loyalty Program
Harvard Business School shows us that an increase in regular customers by 5% raises profits by 25%. Loyalty is profitable because retention costs are less than attracting new customers. The probability of selling to an already “established” client is 60-70%, but the likelihood of selling to a new client is 5-20%.
If you want your target customers to contact your online store, a good idea is to create a loyalty program. For example, when running an online business, you need convertible visits. This works for very different types and scales of businesses. Every online seller has to consider one important thing – how to put customers first in everything. And that’s where reward programs come in.
When you want to create a loyalty program, start with studying the loyalty programs of successful companies. For example, Amazon Loyalty Program gives rewards and attention to all customers. Inside its comprehensive loyalty program are data-driven metrics. This allows giving loyalty rewards to regular customers who reach a set threshold with the various brands that sell on Amazon. Clients who have an American Express Card can easily use their points to shop.
It is important to choose a loyalty program that suits your business. The program should be multilevel and designed for a long period of customer retention.
3. Invest in Omnichannel Marketing
The number of points of contact between customers and companies is increasing. For example, a few years ago, the average consumer could contact a brand through one, less often two or three channels. Clients could come into a store, find a catalog in the mailbox, see an advertisement, or call the company on the phone.
Nowadays, customers have a wide choice of touchpoints:
- Social networks
- Messenger
- SMS
- Callback services
- Applications
- Live chat
- Chatbots
- Online marketplaces
- Company websites
The omnichannel approach presupposes that stores use various sales and marketing channels. In this case, customers can make purchases or communicate with the company through any convenient channel. It allows businesses to maintain a history of sales and communications.
With the omnichannel approach, customers can naturally navigate through all channels, and the history of their communication with the company will be preserved.
Omnichannel is important because it allows to:
- Increase market share
- Improve operational efficiency
- Increase customer lifetime value
- Reach new customer segments
4. Create Special Offers for Customers
A good way to increase customer retention is to use various promotions and special offers. A well-built strategy allows you to replace the share of the customer base that any business loses from time to time and stimulate repeat purchases from regular clients. The main task is to convey information about promotions and discounts to the largest possible target audience. You can use emails, social networks, banners in a display network and on your site to keep your clients informed.
Do you know how to improve customer retention via special offers? The most effective ways are:
- Random reward
- Package offer
- Weekend offer
- Personal selections
- Small gift
- Loyalty points
- Birthday gift
- Offers for subscribers only
- Gift certificates
- Family purchase
- Review bonus
- Gift for subscription
This list of special offers and promotions is not full. You can add anything you like to it.
5. Slash Customer Response Times
Clients from all over the world appreciate good customer service. They don’t like to wait. They want to be heard and served quickly and efficiently. You need to create a well-trained customer service team or outsource to a company that can take care of it. Adding a free live chat or chatbot to your site is also a great idea.
There are some good ways to improve response times:
- Set a goal—A good plan is one that places the customer’s needs at the center. For instance: every customer who sends an email during business hours should receive a comprehensive response within two hours.
- Start with the first response time—Getting a quick and helpful response builds trust in your team and product and creates a positive impression.
- Set a quality standard—Speed targets must be consistent with a clear quality standard, and interactions between services must be assessed as a whole.
- Identify and correct your mistakes—Regularly ask customers about their wishes for improving the quality of service.
6. Use Marketing Apps to Re-engage Customers
Advanced companies actively use apps for customer retention. The biggest advantage of using apps is automation: you define action, and the app sends messages to customers automatically when you need.
Here are some examples:
- CRM—It’s a software that combines sales, marketing, and customer service information in one database.
- Email marketing tools—Shopify store owners, for example, use Shopify email marketing apps to send newsletters and bonuses to existing customers
- Social media marketing tools—these apps help to schedule publication of social media ahead of time as well as track their performance
Nowadays, there are apps for pretty much every marketing need. So, if you’re doing omnichannel marketing, there’s surely a bunch of good apps that can take some responsibilities from your day.
7. Learn from Customer Feedback About Your Brand
One of the best strategies for customer retention is long-term play through loyal and satisfied customers. The path to success and prosperity of any company lies through customer feedback.
Improving the quality of service is one of the ways to use the feedback to get new and retain existing customers. The satisfied ones will share their good impression about your brand with their friends, colleagues, and relatives. You will get free word-of-mouth marketing and get extra sales.
Constant study and analysis of customer opinions about your brand and quality of service will help you to correct your marketing strategy where needed. Clients like a caring attitude, attention, and timely response to their needs. When they get these things, they can stay with you for a long time.
8. Educate Customers
You can use various ways to connect with customers. Most consumers make more purchases when they know a lot about certain services or goods.
Good ideas to educate customers include:
- You can create a blog with educational content
- Hire a professional to create exciting videos
- Develop email newsletters and share them with your clients
- Make a questionnaire for customers about what topics they would like to know about your brand, products, or services.
How to Improve Customer Retention
The importance of customer retention cannot be overestimated. It is a proven fact that keeping a client is cheaper than attracting a new one. Use loyalty programs, special offers, and discounts. Don’t forget to improve customer service and reduce response time.
A significant contribution in any strategy for customer retention is using new technologies. Your investments in omnichannel marketing and engagement of specially designed applications are a way for your company to visibly progress in customer retention.
