How to retain your customers

Udeme Ekwere highlights steps to ensure that customers keep coming back

In any organisation, customers are the most important people. This is because, they are the key upon which the success (or failure) of a business depends.

Usually, organisations are dependent upon their customers; if they do not develop customer loyalty and satisfaction, they can lose their customers, and without customers the organisation would not exist.

Thus, it is said that the customer makes it possible to achieve business aims.

A research by the Harvard Business School, showed that increasing customer retention rates by five per cent in turn increases profits.

This is why it is important for every business man and entrepreneur to do all they can to ensure customer satisfaction as this is at the heart of the selling process.

Experts have said that it costs five times as much to attract new customers as it does to keep an existing one. The relationship between the customer and the organisation is, therefore, an important one which should never be taken for granted.

Business experts have enumerated some essential steps needed for a business man to keep his customers coming back.

Communication

It is hard to create loyal customers if they are not paying attention to you. The quickest way to get customers to ignore you is to not stand for anything.

A study by the Corporate Executive Board that included 7,000 consumers from across the United States found that of those consumers who said they had a strong relationship with a brand, 64 per cent cited shared values as the primary reason. Therefore, if you want loyal customers, you need them to care about you.

The Chief Executive Officer, Total You Consulting, Mr. Tim Ubeh, says that it is important for every business man to focus on attracting his target customers.

He says, “Despite what we often say, most people like things that resemble them in some way and this is an important thing to keep in mind when communicating with customers. In order to attract the sort of customers you want, you need to identify your target customers down to the last detail and then craft a brand message that perfectly matches their pains, goals and aspirations. It is easier to fill this existing demand than to create a new one.”

Selling

Ubeh adds that if customers do not enjoy your selling process, they may never do business with you again. Thus, selling to customers the correct way is an integral part of creating customer loyalty.

He adds that this could be achieved through the use of words they love to hear.

“Certain persuasive words encourage customers to buy more than others, in particular: free, new, and instantly. When customers hear these words (and the promises they imply are backed up), they’ll enjoy their purchases more than they would have otherwise,” he says.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity is the social construct that keeps your customers coming back. The premise is simple: Go above and beyond for customers and get rewarded with repeat business. The execution, however, can be trickier, so below is a compilation of interesting research on how to improve reciprocity with your customers.

Experts note that in doing this, you have to realise that budget is negligible. Giving back to customers can appear incredibly costly, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead, understand that reciprocity is built even with small gestures.

Also, it is important to utilise surprise reciprocity. Experts have said that although reciprocity works incredibly well on its own, research shows that it is even more powerful when started by surprise.

In a study from the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers found that waiters could increase their tips by 23 per cent by the simple act of returning to tables with a second set of mints. The researchers concluded that the mints created the feeling of a personalised experience among the customers who received them. So it was the personalised service received that made them enjoy their experience so much more.

Support

This one is a no-brainer: You cannot create a tribe of loyal customers without an exceptional customer service experience that keeps them coming back

According to experts it is important to note that speed is secondary to quality.

When it comes to customer service that keeps people coming back, research shows that quality matters more than speed. Also customers enjoy businesses who know them.

Ubeh says, “Telling your employees to spend more time with customers might seem like folly, but smart entrepreneurs know that is not the case. Numerous behavioral psychology studies have shown that everybody views their service experience as more positive when they do not feel rushed or ignored.”

Choose the right platform

The best way to improve your online customer service efforts is to utilise the channel your customers most prefer. Although recent research has shown that a majority of people still prefer and use email more than other services (including social networking), you need to pick the channel that makes the most sense for your business.

Hosting companies know that online chats are critical when their customers’ sites go down, but other businesses may have customers who are just fine using email as their primary method of contact.

Loyalty programmes

The key to creating customer loyalty programmes that work is to know why customers use them and what gets customers to keep using them. You can do this by getting ideal customers to be VIPs.