Customer Retention – 6 Top Tips
Customer Retention – 6 Top Tips
Brands all over the world are being impacted by the annoying and unfortunate effects of supply chain delays, rising customer acquisition costs, and on the horizon recession fears.
The average online shopper is switch from one brand to the next at ease and with paid social and search costs hitting all-time highs, it is ever-so important to mitigate risk during this uncertainty. Businesses are re-evaluating their marketing strategies to put retention efforts first and establish long-term loyalty among their shoppers.
However, today’s consumers want more in return for their loyalty to your business. They have high expectations but let’s not forget, meeting these expectations can definitely pay off in dividends. Selling to an existing customer is up to 14x more likely than selling a new one.
Here’s 6 of the best tips that we came up with:
1. Gaining the consumers trust with social proof
The first step in your retention strategy is compiling customer reviews, which is not only a great retention strategy, but also an acquisition play. Engaging shoppers straight away can be done by highlighting reviews and visual user-generated content (VUGC) across customer touchpoints, which then also establishes trust and puts them on track to becoming repeat customers.
An interesting yet non-surprising fact is that 94% of purchases are for products with 4 or 5 star reviews, which itself perfectly displays how much trust consumers put in the experience of shoppers who have used your product and given it a good review. How do you get more positive reviews? Well, the simple answer would be making a good product or service, however other ideas would be that you could offer rewards or points as part of a loyalty program in exchange for their good feedback. User-generated content (UGC), like written reviews, photos and videos, boosts brand trust and, ultimately, sales.
2. Encourage loyalty program sign-ups
Loyalty programs are a great way to empower brands and give motivation to customers to undertake desirable actions, such as returning to your eCommerce site to make repeat purchases, becoming followers of your social media accounts, signing up to any subscriptions that you offer, and so many more.
Accenture reports that customers who belong to loyalty programs generate between 12-18% more incremental revenue growth per year than those who do not participate.
The first step to successfully launching a Loyalty Program is sufficient promotion. It is vital that you make shoppers fully aware of your program and encourage sign-ups with exclusive offers, like double-point campaigns.
The way in which you choose to promote is up to your budget and how hard you want to push it, with options such as SMS, email, social media, and banner ads all having varying prices and limits. You must explain clearly what you are offering when promoting, as you don’t want a wave of complaints or questions as to what the loyalty program actually entails. The bottom line is that any form of increased promotion leads to increased engagement and in the long run, CLTV.
3. Treat VIP customers as VIPs
Once joining your loyalty program, these new VIP customers will instantly expect the VIP experience, such as access to perks, points for purchase, discounts, gifts, and, most importantly, personalized experiences.
You mustn’t give the revisiting customers who went through the effort to sign up to your loyalty scheme to be treated as if they were measly one-time shoppers, people want to know they are VIPs when they have signed up to be one. According to McKinsey, 71% of customers expect personalization, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t find it.
Delivering VIP-level experiences starts with sharing data across your tech stack, like SMS marketing and customer help desk solutions, and creating a unified view of shoppers. SMS marketing provides the perfect channel to connect with customers and elevate their shopping experience.
4. Let shoppers know what good you’re doing
In today’s eCommerce landscape, corporate social responsibility sells. So whether you’re a sustainable brand selling refillable products or a body-positive underwear brand, customers want to know your brand values and how you’re working toward fulfilling them. In a State of Brand Loyalty 2022 report, over 84% of global respondents said they are more inclined to buy from a brand whose values align with their own.
It’s important to communicate these goals — and achievements — to shoppers. For example, let customers know how many pounds of carbon they sequestered by choosing slower shipping times or how much they raised by donating their loyalty points to charitable organizations. These mission-focused values resonate with shoppers long after their initial purchase.
Plae, a specialty footwear brand for kids, allows shoppers to donate their accrued loyalty points to a cause. Shoppers can donate up to 4500 points, equivalent to $45, to Plae’s current recipient, Race4Good. As a result, customers feel empowered to contribute directly to a cause they stand behind. These efforts have resulted in 26% higher CLTV among loyalty members and a 2.7x higher repeat purchase rate.
5. Have a personalized conversation over text
Especially in today’s society, personalized communication is extremely valuable to customers, with worrying things such as supply chain delays, the brutality of the holiday shopping season, and the general anxieties over orders. If you take time and handle the listed issues with genuine care, concern and sincerity, this will massively help in your bid to get customers to return.
You can get these personalized and helpful experiences through to your concerned customer over a SMS channel system. Texting allows brands to easily and quickly communicate transparently with customers, showing the customers that you as a company care about each and every customers personal worries. For example, you can use the SMS channel to simply ping customers about any delivery updates, loyalty points, exclusive offers, or customer service cases.
SMS is essential for building trust and keeping customers coming back, with around 47% of eCommerce consumers saying that receiving a text about their loyalty points or rewards would encourage them to make a purchase.
6. Hiring an eCommerce Developer
An eCommerce Developer can greatly help with the topic of customer retention, with their extensive knowledge in SEO techniques, UI/UX design and their overall awareness of how the eCommerce industry operates. For companies that either feel they need some expert guidance or who simply don’t have the time or skills to do the things we listed above, hiring an eCommerce Developer to do it for you is a great option.
You can find eCommerce Developers easily too, with handy websites such as Developer Connection that search for the perfect developer for you, using their extensive contacts, in-depth filters and helpful staff.
The option of hiring an eCommerce Developer is something I highly recommend, as you can never have the perfect setup, so getting a professional who knows their way around the eCommerce industry and eCommerce sites to look over your businesses eCommerce setup is perfect for taking your site to the next level.
