For any business, there is a need to split their focus on two particular aims:
- Bringing new customers into the business
- Retaining established customers
While many businesses tend to focus on bringing new customers to their business, it’s not uncommon for customer retention to receive far less attention – but established customers have a critical role to play in the success of your business. Your established customers form the bedrock of your company; the customers that you can count on returning to your business time and again, and thus helping to underpin your company’s future success.
For your business to enjoy the benefits of a strong established customer base, you will need to focus on customer retention strategies – and here are three particularly beneficial ideas in this regard to keep in mind:
1. Invite Loyal Customers to Join an Advisory Board
If a customer has been buying from your business for a long time, then it is reasonable to expect that they feel somewhat invested in your brand. Your business has become the one that they depend on for a specific need, which creates a sense of familiarity and trust.
To take this a level further, you could consider asking long-term customers to join an “advisory board” for your business. In exchange for coupons or discounts, customers can provide feedback on everything from new product ideas to what improvements could be made to your service. Not only will this advisory board be genuinely useful when planning the direction of your business, the customers involved will also feel even more connected to your business due to their direct involvement – which should help to secure their loyalty for many years to come.
2. Go Above and Beyond to Reward Loyalty
Rewarding loyal customers is one of the simplest, but also most effective, customer retention strategies in existence. Loyal customers will want to know that their dedication to your company is appreciated and capable of producing benefits that cannot be accessed by newer customers.
There are several different ways to reward your established customers, ranging from loyalty schemes to inviting long-term customers to attend special entertainment events or new product launch parties. In addition, the occasional “thank you for being a customer” goes a long way, especially if you include a discount code with the message.
3. Be Ever-Present
Some customers will place repeat orders as and when required; your business will become their “go to” for a particular product or service, and you can always expect roughly the same volume of orders. However, other customers may sometimes need to be reminded about your business. It’s not that they haven’t placed an order because they dislike their company; it’s just that life is busy, and your company can fall from their radar.
To combat this, it can be helpful to seek to be ever-present in your customers’ lives. Provide incentives to follow your business on social media, so your posts can act as a constant reminder; work with a mobile app development company in order to create an app that your customers can download, and thus see every time they scroll through their apps on their phone; and send the occasional email or even mailshot drawing attention to any new products you may be offering. All of these services will really help to ensure that your business remains visible and memorable to your established customers, which should in turn encourage them to place repeat orders.
Wrapping It Up
Bringing new customers to your business will always be important, but customer retention is also critical to the success of your company – so consider implementing the strategies above, and your business should be able to flourish thanks to your reliable, loyal, long-term customers.
