5 Proven Ways to Retain Your Customers

In today's highly competitive business world, investing in your existing customers has never been more important. The aim is to keep your customers for life by implementing proven strategies to impress and retain them.

First, you can determine how much a customer is worth throughout their time with you by calculating their lifetime value (LTV). You want them to buy from you regularly and tell their friends how great your business is, so they buy from you too.

Follow this formula to work out your customers' LTV:

Proven Ways to Retain Your Customers

Before spending money to attract new customers, exceed your existing customers' expectations to keep them coming back for more.

1. Educate and Inform Your Customers

• Use methods such as blogging, podcasts, and articles to engage your customers to keep them interested.

• Provide content to help your customers use their purchases effectively.

• Offer additional webinars and live-streaming sessions to explain how to get the most out of a product or service.

• Use chatbots on your information pages so your customers can quickly find the information they seek. 

2. Wow Your Customers with Exceptional Customer Service

All businesses must cover the three principles of respect, service, and response regarding customer service.

Respect

• Respect the customer and always communicate with them in a professional manner.

• Apologize if things go wrong and consider mistakes an opportunity to improve.

• Stay focused on finding solutions.

Service

• Make sure you deliver on your promises.

• Ensure the consistent quality of your product or service.

• Over-deliver and find ways to elevate your company above the competition.

Response

• Deal with questions and problems quickly and efficiently.

• Set response times and stick to them.

3. Use Automation to Serve the Customer

Automation will save you time and smooth the customer experience. Test first to ensure everything works correctly and doesn't cause more problems. You can use automation in many areas, including:

• Customer queries & problems – e.g., support desk software

• Customer communication – e.g., live chat

• Customer feedback – surveys

4. Show Your Appreciation for Your Customers

The more you show that you appreciate your customers, the more likely they'll be loyal and keep buying from you. You can show your appreciation in many ways, including:

• Share your customers' posts.

• If your customer has a business, become a customer.

• Be a resource for them.

• Give back and reward your customers with bonuses, free content, and incentives.

5. Start a Customer Community

Building a customer community is a perfect method for engaging more deeply with your customers. Communities keep customers involved in your business and build loyalty. Here's what you can do to start building a community:

• Set up a customer-exclusive group on social media.

• Write a blog post about why you started your business and why you're starting a community to build the 'know, like, & trust' factor.

• Plan 30 minutes per day for the next two weeks to be active in your group.

• Offer your members exclusive rewards.

Conclusion

To sum up, customer retention is vital for your business success. You can measure and improve it by using the LTV metric and applying effective techniques to delight and loyalize your customers. Some of these techniques are personalizing your communication, rewarding your customers, asking for feedback, and providing excellent customer service. By doing so, you will increase your revenue and build long-term relationships with your customers that will benefit your brand reputation and growth.

Download our Customer Retention Idea Generation Worksheet

written by Anne Albright