How to retain your customers

Given today’s business environment, companies are looking to the long-term value of existing customers, and marketing departments are taking control of the buyer’s life cycle. Forrester has predicted that retention marketing budgets will increase by 30% in 2021. But increased spending doesn’t always translate into improved customer retention.

Oftentimes, the only thing setting a company apart is the experience, not the product. That’s why customer retention has jumped to the top of the CEO priority list. 44% of consumers rarely-to-never complain to a company regarding a negative experience — they simply disappear. 96% of customers will leave a brand if they experience bad customer service, and 62% of customers would be willing to pay more for good customer service.

Using email to retain customers may seem counterintuitive. After all, the number of emails a person receives in a day exceeds 100. But win-back emails can be an excellent way to reengage customers. Make sure customers leave their email address with your company, whether you ask for it when they make a purchase in-store or during the checkout online. As your email list grows, develop a consistent schedule for sending emails.

Text messaging can be used to increase customer retention. However, sending too many texts or messages with irrelevant information are sure ways to annoy customers. Instead, focus on sharing information regarding sales or promotions. When properly configured, texts can show open rates, opt-outs and link clicks. With these metrics, marketing departments should adjust their content to guarantee a better response from consumers.

The average person spends more than two hours on social media sites per day. And much of that social interaction is through mobile apps such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. Make sure your company has a social presence that is active and engaging. With 4.2 billion people using social media, the right message can remind customers that your company exists and is worth doing business with.

Outbound calling might seem too ‘old school’, but it is a method that can work when it comes to reaching customers. Use outbound calling to reconnect with customers or to check in with existing ones. The essential element to keep in mind is to use the conversation to learn more. Ask questions on how they are enjoying the product or what they liked best regarding the service. If customers believe your brand is interested in them, they will be more likely to remember the brand when they make their next purchase.

When customers contact you on their preferred channel, the customer success team should know how to communicate. A customer success model uses foresight to avoid intense interactions — so much foresight, in fact, that it starts before your first interaction with a customer. It requires customer industry and product research, an understanding of the problems your product solves, and knowing the tools they already have.

Customer feedback is a beautiful asset for any business, and it can be used in different ways. Feedback is used as a tool to understand customers’ experiences better and elevate their future experiences. Regular customer satisfaction surveys help calculate the NPS score and surface underlying and prominent issues that users face.

When a brand is authentic in its interactions, almost 40% of customers said they’re more likely to feel a personal or emotional connection to that brand. However, being relevant to thousands or even millions of people at the same time is not humanly possible without AI. To make sure customers get the information and content that is most relevant to them, intelligence needs to be implemented from commerce to contact center to chatbots.

Connecting interaction data, individual preferences and brand content with machine learning and deep learning enables businesses to improve customer experiences. It used to be that only the largest tech-first companies could use technologies like AI and machine learning to their advantage, as they could afford herds of data scientists, but that’s no longer the case. The democratization of AI means any company, regardless of size and expertise, now has the capacity to deliver an AI-backed online customer experience.

Integrating intelligence into service and support throughout the online customer journey can help brands drive repeat business and even spark word-of-mouth referrals and NPS. Winning brands are using AI to reinvent their service to incorporate powerful, intelligent self-service for existing customers — and also to carry that intelligence to agents.

TMP’s role

Here at TMP, our team will promote your product and make sure that the CX cycle continues. We can set up auto-reminders on your behalf or reach out with our team to add a personal touch to your customer engagement. Whether it is through a coupon, refund, or a simple apology, our team will do what’s right to retain customers.