Enthusiastic passion propels many small businesses into existence. You‘re confident you’ve got something excellent to offer and might envision buyers swooning at first sight with credit cards in hand. If only it were that simple to make a sale, right? Instead, it can be an uphill battle convincing wary strangers to indulge in their first purchase, and for good reason.
While impulse purchases can occur, often your potential customers are looking for incentives to choose you over other tantalizing options. New customer conversion takes time, effort, money, and a solid strategy. Your reward for these investments doesn’t need to be limited to a single sale, however.
Establishing a customer retention program will help you generate ongoing transactions from the same customers. In fact, a BIA/Kelsey survey found that 61% of small businesses claim half their annual revenue can be attributed to repeat customers. Furthermore, those returning customers are spending 67% more than new customers.
This means that staying on the radar of existing customers can lead to startling profits you’ll definitely want on the books. Ready to find out how to meet customer expectations so you can improve their lifetime value?
6 Tips to Create a Business People Can’t Get Enough Of
You might ask, customer retention programs are based on what concept? Successful customer retention encourages your customers to make you their go-to for whatever you specialize in. You should be the first business that springs to mind when they’re looking to make a purchase you can fulfill.
Increasing customer retention is kind of a big deal. Econsultancy’s research found that 83% of companies say it’s far less costly to retain customers than gain new ones. Repeat business is never a given and you often have to put some effort into creating loyal customers who can’t get enough. That means that you need to not only provide quality products and services but also excellent value, customer service, and convenience.
Below are a handful of strategies that help brands stand out among the competition and improve customer retention.
Join the Customer Journey
What’s going on in your customer’s mind as they embark on the customer journey? A good way to find out is to take an active role throughout the process. As your customer ventures from awareness to consideration to decision, be prepared to interact along the way.
This means targeting the right platforms for advertising, opening communication channels, and providing educational information. Show window shoppers how your brand can impact their lives in positive ways that can’t be ignored.
Then, when your customer has converted, stick around and listen to their feedback, too. Find out what would bring them back around again and attempt to fulfill those needs.
