Your customer retention rate tells you how many of your customers are staying with you, rather than defecting to a competitor.
Of course, every business wants to retain 100% of its customers (and increase the amount they spend!), but you’ll need to implement effective retention strategies if you want to keep hold of your customer base. To get started, take a look at these four ways to increase customer retention:
1. Automated Payments
When customers sign up for automated payments, remaining loyal to a brand becomes a passive action that requires no effort on the part of the consumer. Conversely, switching to a competitor requires effort and input. Due to this, customers are more likely to remain with an existing supplier if they’re signed up to make automated payments.
What’s more – this can be cost-effective for your company too. As well as increasing retention rates, Yodlee ACH payment solutions offer competitive transaction rates that can lower your operating costs. With real-time verification checks and fraud reduction protocols when you use Yodlee ACH payment solutions, you can even optimize business security while reducing your spend and growing your customer base.
2. Loyalty Incentives
When consumers receive something in return for their brand loyalty, it encourages them to continue using the same vendor, supplier, or retailer. Loyalty incentives have been an effective way to increase retention rates for some time, but the digital revolution has enabled businesses to implement more exciting and rewarding schemes.
You might want to reward loyal customers with voucher codes to secure a discount on their next purchase, for example, or you could invite regular customers to exclusive online events and promotions.
3. Enhanced Convenience
When your business provides a customer with increased convenience, it’s a surefire way to gain their loyalty. Consumers will often choose to engage with a business simply because it’s convenient for them to do so, even if they end up spending a little more. Whether it’s free delivery, hassle-free returns, or expedited shipping options, there are numerous ways to differentiate your business from its competitors and offer enhanced convenience to your customers.
4. Re-Targeting Campaigns
Many companies lose customers simply because they don’t bother to re-engage them once they’ve made an initial purchase. However, failing to run re-targeting techniques means that your churn rate is likely to increase, and your retention rate could plummet.
Re-targeting existing customers allows you to build on the relationship you’ve already established and gives you an opportunity to reinforce your brand attributes. By doing so, you can retain more customers and ensure they remain in the sales funnel.
Maximizing Customer Retention
Companies typically invest a lot in customer acquisition, but this will only pay off if you successfully retain the customer you’ve gained. With the right retention strategies, you can boost your customer base and grow your market share, while generating increased profits. Furthermore, implementing the right retention strategies gives you a chance to increase the average customer’s lifetime value, thus increasing your marketing ROI and your revenue.
