3 Ways to Improve Customer Retention
Are you looking to build a loyal following among your customers? Great marketing strategies brought them to you, but now it’s your job to keep them. Marketing can only do so much and it is important to understand that there is nothing more effective than customer care when seeking to grow your market. Poor customer service is one of the leading reasons why so many consumers hop from one company to the next, and if you want to keep your current customer base while adding new customers along the way, it would pay to focus on making improvements to customer retentions skills.
Here are 3 of the most important to begin with.
1. Stop Talking and Start Listening
Sometimes it’s hard to stop talking about the products or services you are promoting because you, personally, know what they can do and how effective they are. Unfortunately, all the benefits you might be talking about may not be what the customer is looking for. Instead of giving them a sales pitch, why don’t you listen to exactly what it is they are looking for? What brought them to you may not be what they need, but by listening to them you may be able to provide them with an alternative solution. Consumers are literally fed up with high powered sales techniques and above all, they want to be heard!
2. When You MUST Talk – Give Them Something of Value
Sometimes you don’t need to say very much at all if you can point your customers in the direction of where they can find the information they are seeking.
For example, you are explaining a new electronic device your company just launched and a very important feature is the amazing circuitry on the printed circuit board or PCB. Many consumers are technologically challenged, so why not provide an extensive FAQ on your website? Give them information on exactly what a printed circuit board is and why its design is a critical element in your device. Perhaps any safeguards you’ve built in against hardware Trojans can be mentioned so they will know that you care about their security as well as making the almighty buck!
And Air New Zealand helps its customers work out what sort of holiday they prefer using a simple quiz. This groups customers into segments which will affect future messaging and content served to them. Gamifying customer segments increases engagement and helps customers to self-identify as different to the brand.
3. Improve Your Own Knowledge
It’s important at this point to know the difference between a consumer who knows little about electronics, for example, and a consumer who is market savvy. Just because they don’t know what a PCB is or how its design can impact the device you are promoting, doesn’t mean they can tell the difference between a salesman and a tech-savvy associate! If you want to retain customers, it pays 
to learn as much as you can about the products and/or services you offer. You never know when that one answer to an important question a customer comes back with next week is the main reason they stay with your company for future sales.
In the end, it’s all about hearing what your customers are saying so that you can give them well-informed answers to any questions which might arise. If they can believe in you, the person they are communicating with, they can believe in your company. Salesforce says that as many as 70% of customers look for that all-important connection. Do you want to retain customers you’ve sold? Listen to what they are saying! Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.