Businesses today spend a tremendous amount of time and resources trying to attract new prospects and converting them into paying customers. While it is certainly important to bring in new business, if you do not also spend time retaining your current customers, you could see your business experience declines in revenue, reputation, and growth. The steps below can help you to reduce customer loss while increasing customer loyalty.
Why Are New Customers Leaving Your Brand?
First and foremost, recognize why your brand may be losing customers. The most common reason for customer loss is poor customer onboarding. This could be related to confusion from customers regarding how to use your service or product, or it could be related to a high rate of customer assistance calls. Whatever the case may be, it is important to understand why your customers are not sticking around. The best way to do that is by leveraging customer activity data. Data-driven marketing is growing rapidly. When data is used in relation to improving customer loyalty, you can see what it is that makes current customers stick around. Collecting and reviewing data about customer actions helps you to determine whether customers are experiencing problems in the initial onboarding process, whether they have been unable to explore key product features, or whether they may simply be confused.
Response Time Matters
Once you have an idea of why your customers may be choosing to leave, you can then take actions to encourage them to stay. Remember that a happy customer is a satisfied customer who will naturally tell his or her friends about their wonderful experience with your brand, which can in turn lead to not only a higher level of customer loyalty but also increased customer growth. One of the best ways that you can boost customer loyalty and reduce customer churn is through quick response to any customer enquiries. When a customer has a question or is experiencing a problem, he or she wants a response right away. The longer your brand takes to respond, the greater the chance becomes that you will lose your customer.
When it comes to responding to a customer enquiry, response time is just as important as the actual response you provide. Research from Business 2 Community shows that when customers communicate via email, they expect a response within four hours. Customers tend to expect a far faster response, within one hour, when communicating via social media.
Built-in Innovation
While many of the problems related to customer loss occur during the initial onboarding process, thus preventing a new customer from becoming a loyal customer, the most confusing loss can occur when a loyal customer suddenly decides to exit your brand. Many brands mistakenly assume that customers are price sensitive and will stay if they receive the lowest pricing in the industry. This is actually not always the case. In fact, new research shows that customers have a greater tendency to demonstrate loyalty to a brand if that brand is able to deliver an innovative, pleasant, and even joyful experience. There is now so much competition, that brands simply cannot afford to provide generic experiences. To thrive, you must differentiate. When you are able to do that, you might be surprised to find that customers are not only more willing to stick around, but are also more likely to pay more for your product or service.
How can you make even an ordinary product or service something extraordinary? Begin by thinking outside the box and looking at ways in which you can make the use of your service or product more enjoyable. This could be through communication efforts, customer service, or the way in which you construct your brand identity. Everything that you do and say reflects upon your brand. The more pleasant you are able to make interactions with your brand, the more likely customers are to remember it and choose your brand again, even when faced with alternative choices from your competitors.
Leave a Reply