Customers are the biggest assets to businesses, a business cannot exist without its consumers.
According to a study, the odds of selling to an existing customer are between 60-70% and 5-20% for new customers.
This is even more important for SMBs because trying to shine as a small business can be tough with the well known big guns around.
They don’t have the budget to carry out large marketing campaigns, their competitive advantage is to retain their existing customers.
Small and midsize businesses might not have an extensive customer base like large businesses, but they can skyrocket their sales through customer retention.
Additionally, it’s a wise financial move for SMBs because getting new customers is an expensive process, it is cheaper to sustain an existing customer base. All you need is to build your customer philosophy.
Furthermore, businesses of all sizes fall as victims of churns and SMBs need to avoid that, and the best way to reduce churn is through customer retention.
You want to establish loyal customers that will come again and again to purchase your products, and here’s the thing: when a customer is happy with a business they spread the news with their loved ones.
So customer retention is not just limited to existing customers, it’s also a gateway to draw in new leads.
The question comes up, what are the best ways to retain customers?
Here are six best customer retention strategies for SMBs:
1- Leverage Personalization
Don’t you love it when someone just gets you and understands your struggles?
Yeah it goes the same for customers, nothing makes customers stick to your business like feeling personally attended to, that’s the power of personalizing your reach to consumers.
Make personalized offers, launch personalized products, and communicate in a personalized manner in your emails.
Customers love to feel special and are treated in a unique way because it makes them feel prioritized.
When a brand consistently personalizes their outreach to customers, it brings about trust and loyalty.
Here’s an example of brand personalization in products:
A hair brand called the function of beauty takes personalization to the next level: They personalized their hair products based on hair type and hair goals, this is how you shop on their website.
You take the quiz and based on your answers a custom made product will be made available for you.
This definitely sets them apart from their competitors.
Don’t assume what your customers think, desire, or expect, instead make an effort to let them speak for themselves.
2- Carry out Surveys
There’s a lot of valuable insights in surveys and feedback because they can guide you through making the best business decisions that would serve your consumers.
Going back to the first strategy, you can’t personalize if you don’t know your customers and one of the best ways to do so is through surveys and questionnaires.
It gives you an idea of what your customers think about your business and how they feel you can serve them better.
Attach a reward to the surveys because people are busy, it will take more than an email urging them to take these surveys, offer discounts, coupon codes or simply any extra benefit to motivate them to do so.
You can offer these surveys before or after sales, in your newsletters, after solving a customer issue, etc.
Here’s an example from Avast, after resolving an issue I had with them they sent me an email asking me to rate their customer care:
It was a simple and quick way for them to know what their consumers felt about their customer services.
3- Measure Customer Lifetime Value
There’s nothing as valuable as repeat sales, it’s way better than just one-off sales from one-stop buyers that won’t bother coming back to your products and services ever again.
Key performance indicator measures how valuable a customer is to your business. Measuring your customers lifetime value gives you insight into how much revenue a customer will generate for your business over time.
This KPI shows you the importance of retaining customers when you compare the long term value a single customer can contribute to your business versus the cost of acquiring new ones.
You will triple your efforts in keeping your existing customers and making them your #1 priority.
4- Have An Active Blog
SMBs best shot at outshining their competition is giving their existing customers a gazillion reasons to stick with them and increase their customer lifetime value.
Content marketing never dies, it is still one of the most effective ways to provide unlimited value to your customers.
You don’t want to be that brand that talks just about their products and services 24/7, that’s a fast proof way to lose your customers.
People love brands that provide them with immeasurable value. It shows that you care about them and they will care about you back.
A brand that has a blog that consistently delivers quality and beneficial content to its consumers will always be cherished over a brand that doesn’t.
When you educate your consumers, it further demonstrates the value of your products and services, you can even stylishly promote them in your blog posts.
A blog also gives you the opportunity to grow your email list, which keeps you personally in touch with your customers.
This strategy not only retains existing customers but further attracts new ones.
5- Offer Stellar Customer Service Experiences
This is an obvious one but it can never be overemphasized. Nothing makes a brand attractive as the quality or excellence of its customer services.
Ensure that your customer care employees are delivering the best service experience, the last thing you want is a bad review of your brand.
After a poor customer service experience, 20% of people say they would complain about social media about the offending brand.
Your brand can have the best products but if customers are not treated right they will abandon your brand for your competition.
When you enhance customer service experiences you will impress your customers and make them loyal in the long run.
Stellar customer service experiences include:
- Delivering beyond expectations
- Immediate response to queries
- Guarantee customer satisfaction etc.
Finally, giving your best to your existing customer base establishes trust and loyalty which increases CLTV.
6- Launch Loyalty Programs
Most businesses are more focused on getting more leads and expanding their customer base, which is not bad, however, they pay less attention to retaining their existing customers.
Think about it, if you don’t sustain that lead you just acquired won’t that be a wasted effort?
For a business debut acquiring leads is the most important, however as you progress sustaining that customer base will be more valuable.
Loyalty programs have proven to be an effective retention strategy for businesses.
These programs motivate people to return consistently because they are rewarded for making purchases and this leads to repeat sales.
It is reported that members of loyalty programs spend 12-18% more per year than other customers.
Loyalty programs also give you valuable insight into customers’ favorite products and buying routines.
Conclusion
The best way to skyrocket your sales as a small business is to pay extra attention to your existing customer base.
This is not to say you shouldn’t try getting new leads, by all means, do so, but don’t get carried away with acquiring new customers that you neglect the existing ones.
Therefore, consistently seek out ways to strengthen your relationship with your customer base.
Finally, go ahead and implement these strategies in your business models to get results.
