5 ways to Retain your customers

If you want to build a successful business, you must take care of your most valuable asset: your customers. Repeat customers are the most important thing a business can have to ensure long-term success.
Sadly, only 2% of businesses do it well. The rest are concerned about sales and getting new customers. The fun fact is that it costs less to retain customers than to acquire new ones.

Nobody wants to lose a customer. At the end of the day, healthy customer retention reduces the cost and efficiency of running your business, which is a win-win situation. 

Here are 5 ways to retain more customers.

These strategies are easy to implement and cost less. All you need is to start and be consistent.

Improve your product

Yes, you heard me. Improve your product. The product is your business. You should consistently improve it, make it valuable for 
your customers. A satisfied customer is a happy customer and a returning one.

With that said, how do you improve products?

• Know pain points and solve their problem significantly better than others.
• Make the user experience simple and reliable.
• Build products people enjoy.
• Learn what your competitors are doing and improve yours.
• Improve your product delivery by investing in tools that will speed up the process.

There's a saying, quality speaks for itself. Don't you want that for your business? The obvious answer is yes, so do well to improve your product.

Target your best customers

Your best customers are lucrative and highly dedicated. When you concentrate your energy and attention on them, you get the best results.

The big question is, "How do I identify them?" The answer is simple: people who always patronize you, share your vision, put your business first, anticipate and participate in all your engagements. What about those customers that don't fall into these categories? Well, these are called customers of convenience. You can invest time in converting them to your best customers if it's worth the time and effort.

Now, after knowing your best customers, the next step is to design your marketing and experience around them. Doing this will encourage them to return to your business.

For more details on how to know your target audience, and who to sell to, click here.

Improve your onboarding process

Customer onboarding is the nurturing process that familiarizes and comforts new and old customers with your product. A good onboarding process helps a customer learn and understand how to use a product and get value from it quickly.

The most common mistake that business owners make is assuming that their products do what they are supposed to do, or that customers understand how to use the products or get value from them. Don't base your business decision on assumptions.

Try to avoid these assumptions.

• Customers know how to use my product.
• They are getting value from my product.
• They're not frustrated with the features, rules, or guidelines you give.
• Know that customers feel overwhelmed by too many features/poor UX
• That they are having good customer experience

These assumptions cause customer churn( customers that stop using your product or service during a certain time frame). Avoid them at all costs, so as to not lose your customers to your competitors.

Consider using these tips to improve your onboarding process.

• Start onboarding processing as soon as possible
• Make the Process Unique to Each Customer (1:1s offer to help them out)
• Ask for feedback
• Create a learning knowledge base for your product.
• Display to customers their progress through onboarding.
• Gamification (Reward on an accomplishment)
• Track customers' usage of your products.

Improving your customer's onboarding process is a continuous process. If you add a new feature or make significant changes to your product or service, you may need to rewrite it. A thoughtful customer onboarding experience is an important part of the overall customer experience, and both can help customers achieve their goals and build brand loyalty.

Design a welcome program

"First impression matters." This saying is not new. It has the potential to make or break your new customer relationship.

The title says it all; a welcome program is a form of communication with your target audiences, such as social media direct messages (DM's), website visitors, or customers, to onboard, greet, or connect them with you.

“Users who receive a welcome message show 33% more engagement with the brand.”

A warm welcome message for the customers gives a sense of caring and makes them feel appreciated.

What should be included in the welcome program process?

• Always say thank you
• Greet them as a friend
• Introduce yourself
• Get to know them
• Acknowledge their decision to choose your business.
• Express what makes your business special.
• Share how successful customers engaged with your business.
• Connect with them on multiple communication channels.

It is not that complicated; it is an easy process to begin a conversation with your customers, which will result in closing more sales.

Help in writing welcome messages. We have a tool that can ease the creation process. Visit thank message generator

Improve your customer service

Customer service is an important factor in a business's success or failure, and each consumer interaction can be positive or negative. A good customer service experience will almost certainly encourage repeat business and strengthen customer loyalty.

According to research, if we receive good customer service, we will tell two or three people. If we receive poor service, we will inform ten to twelve others.

So how do you improve your customer service?

• Make customer service simple and straightforward.
• Delight your customers by exceeding their expectations.
• Understand customers' needs and put them in place.
• Clear and easygoing communications
• Take their complaints to heart and take action.
• Train and treat your employees accordingly, as they should treat customers.
• Welcome customers' feedback and act on it.

There you have it. Nothing delights a customer more than having a listening ear anytime they have an issue or challenge, and they get resolved.

Note: Customer service is the face of your business because it determines who comes to stay or leave.

That's all the wrap.

Follow these 5 steps consistently and watch your sales increase drastically with returning customers.

• Improve your product
• Target your best customers
• Improve your onboarding process
• Design a welcome program
• Improve your customer service