Customer Experience
Article written by Indhuja Lal
A dilettante bohemian soul mesmerized with the magic of words, sworn to be unpredictable, and spellbound with the simplicity of humanity...
17 min read
31 May 2024
When studies prove that 73% of customers stay loyal due to exceptional customer service experiences, you can clearly see the utter need to provide enhance CX to improve customer retention. But how? Confused? Worry not, we’ve got you covered. In this blog, we will discover why crafting memorable interactions is the cornerstone of modern business triumph- from increased customer retention to a competitive edge!
But first let’s get the basics cleared.
Customer retention is the ultimate element needed for the survival of your brand. Customers can make or break your company. Brands are competing and trying out all the best strategies to stop their competitor steal their customers. From the local brand slashing out prices to Wendy’s funny and sassy tweets, businesses are trying to create an impression in their customers. Customer churn can be a financial blow that is hard to overcome. The companies that have had a comeback is very few and it is not wise to see how strong your luck is.
To make it simpler,
So, the solution? Improve your customer retention beyond the average rates in the industry. How? Let’s see.
If there is one brand that even the haters secretly admire and aspire to be, it must be Disney. Look no further to see how to make your customers happy and loyal. ‘The Happiest Place On Earth’, Disney Land has more than a few strategically planned programs to keep their customers loyal.
Have you not thought about it? Billions visit Disney land a year? What is it that they have and the other theme parks don’t have? Do they have more rides? Reasonably priced food? Or is it the rapidly moving queues that are doing the trick?
No! It’s their hard-core loyal customers!But, how did they create such a strong base?
By delivering flawless customer experience to each and every one.
For instance, you know how kids stand in queue for hours only to find out they are not tall enough to take the ride. These sort of thing happens at every theme parks. The disappointed kids go and stand in the next queue. Disney found a way to cheer up those disappointed kids by introducing queue passes which they can use to skip the queue in their next ride.
This is how you make a frown into a smile. Disney manages to do this in every aspect of their entity. Their employees go through very strict training to ensure that their customers are given a magical experience as promised by the brand.
| Customer Retention Rate = ((CE – CN) / CS) x 100
Where: |
Customer retention is not as tricky as it sounds if you are passionate about your customers. One of the easiest and popular ways to retain your customers is, cross-selling and upselling.
Cross-selling is about creating the desire to purchase complementary products to the ones they already have. Like buying matching shoes that goes just right with the dress they have already brought. Many catalogs present their products with a note that recommends another product to get maximum satisfaction. On the other hand, Upselling is about creating a desire to try out a more expensive product of the same company, more or less like upgrading.
Read More: Customer Retention Strategies From The World’s Best Brands
Here, we are going to discuss 7 more secrets that we feel will help improve customer retention.
Designing a loyal program with certain perks would help you a long way in securing a strong base of loyal customers. A study claims that 46% of shoppers consider an effective loyal program while making their decision to purchase. Loyalty programs are like an open letter to your customers showing your appreciation towards the customers. Developing an exclusive program for your loyal customers acts as a reward and inspires your other customers to be a part of it.
Having such an effective and well-organized loyalty program for loyal customers can boost customer growth and improve customer retention. They would feel validated and feel like they are benefitting much more than the other customers. This encourages brand loyalty.
80% of your company’s revenue is coming from just 20% of your existing customers according to Gartner Group statistics. As explained before, a solid customer base is beneficial in all the ways possible. And one quick way is to create a loyal customer base is to foster a community exclusively for your customers.
This promotes an exclusive tone to their relationship with the brand, boosting loyalty. From movies to cafes, having a private community enhances constancy. You can use such platforms to break news and discounts. This gives your customers an excellent opportunity to share and help each other.
We all love surprises, and customers are no different. The brands who manages to do so would definitely leave a mark in their customer’s heart. It is the emotional element involved in your customers’ equation with you that is going to make them stay. Be it surprises or a note of appreciation, a level of personalization is established between you and the customer.
It could be a surprise discount for a special occasion or a bouquet to show appreciation. Even big brands like Apple and Lego have broken the internet with their act of thoughtfulness.
It is extremely important for you to be socially responsible and stand up for a cause. Brands have evolved from product-centric to value-centric today. The customers prefer authenticity rather than quantity. Businesses must be socially active and that can range from bettering the community to stronger ties between the employer and employees.
From Microsoft to BMW almost all the giants are coming out in public with definite stands on political, economic and social issues. Customers no longer judge a brand by the quality of the products. It is about how ethically the brands carry themselves in the society that is taken into account.
All the other strategies to improve customer retention can work only if this one is flawless. This is the pillar on which customer experience management stands on. If you want to serve your customers better you need to know what they want. You cannot go by hunches or guesses anymore.
Bad decisions cost you. Other than bad design or feasibility, it is the lack of knowledge about your customers that cause the product to fail. A competent feedback can make all your problems go away.
There are millions of examples to show how feedbacks can save a company and how not having one can break a company. It can be leveraged for making the various data-driven decision from a new product rollout to improving a product to designing the theme to your advertising. The information collected can be used to enhance your brand image. It also helps you to check out whether your customers actually see you the way you want them to see.
Differentiating you from your competitors is essential to improve customer retention.
You can use advanced platforms such as SurveySparrow for this. Create, share, collate and analyze data and enhance CX!
Well, this is a good enough policy in life and business. It saves you from disappointment and helps you to win them over with excitement. You should never give big promises to your customers. It will put off your customers and leave a very bad remark of you. You are risking trust and loyalty. To improve customer retention you should always keep surprises in store for them.
Personalization often helps you to over deliver and impress your customers. If you are consistent in your service you can be sure of winning many hearts for you to keep.
Creating an emotional and personal connection with the customers is very important in Disney. And with thousands of people coming in every day, you might think it is impossible.
Experts claim bad employee experiences as the root cause of all this. If the management treats the employees better, the employees treat the customers better. Employees are the real asset of your company. Giving them adequate training to handle all that is thrown in their way makes them more confident and positive. This positivity would be sent across to all your customers.
Not all customers are easy to handle, not all customer needs are feasible. Having an employee who is passionate about your company would be ten times more worth than a customer.
That’s it! Customers choose to stay only if they feel valued. With the number of choices increasing in the market, the decision-making process gets too complicated. Now that we know how to improve customer retention, it is time to put these steps to action.
You cannot always use the same loyalty program used by a brand to retain your customers. Resolving customer complaints and referral programs are widely used and are very effective. But deep market research would bring out the unique preferences of your target audience into the light. With the help of consistent feedback and market research, you would be able to recognize the strategy and in which method it should be used to impress and to improve customer loyalty. And it is easier to sell to your existing customers than to brand new prospects.
Before you go, why not give SurveySparrow a try? Its free!
A. Improve customer retention means enhancing efforts to keep existing customers loyal, reducing churn, and fostering long-term relationships for sustained business success.
A. The 3 R’s of customer retention are Recency (recent interactions), Frequency (repeat engagement), and Revenue (maximizing customer value) to solidify loyalty and engagement.
A. The 4 levels of retention strategies encompass
Thousands of brands trust SurveySparrow to turn feedback into growth. Try it free today!
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