As a business owner, there are lots of things that you will come to know over time. And one of those things is increasing customer retention. It is one thing to hook customers for a sale, but a really different thing to keep the customers and keep them coming back time after time. At the end of the day, your business isn’t going to work without customers, so having a focus on customer service and keeping customers coming back should be a priority. So with all of that in mind, here are some strategies that you can use to help to improve your business customers service, to keep customers coming back again and again.

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Share Values With Your Customers

As a company, have you decided what your company stands for? All companies or brands need to have some values, whether it be ethical sourcing, cruelty-free products, or just helping life be easier for parents, you need something. And in actual fact, it has been found that nearly 65% of consumers have cited the brand’s values as a reason for why they shop with them.

Having a customer align with your company values can definitely be a big driving force for customers. So if you want to have customers that are loyal and keep coming back, they need to know what your business stands for.

Does your business have a higher purpose than just making money? Think about the impact you want to make in the world and share that with your potential customers.

A lot of people will do business with a company or even work for a company based on how they give back to the community. Giving back to charities or supporting worthy organizations in addition to your company values is another way to attract new customers and build a loyal organization.

Provide Excellent Customer Service

If you have what a customer wants and at a price point that they like, then they will come to shop with you. But if they have an awful experience as they try to purchase or something goes wrong in the process and you don’t help them to fix it, then it will taint their view of your business.

Which is why basic customer service skills are so important for all different aspects of your business. If a customer has a bad experience, then you bet that they are going to tweet about it or tell their friends about it, and that can leave you in a negative light.

Likewise, if they have a good experience, they will give you a glowing review to the people that they know. So make sure that customer service skills are up to scratch.

Customers have so many options to get similar products and services elsewhere besides your company. Unless you happen to be the sole provider of your offer in the marketplace, a current customer can quickly change companies if they have a bad experience. This makes quality customer service a must have for your business if you want to retain customers long term.

Transparency To Increase Customer Loyalty

If you want to know how to increase customer loyalty, then being transparent is another thing that is high up on the list. It does go hand in hand with providing excellent customer service, as sometimes, things do just go wrong.

But if you try to deny what has gone wrong or aren’t clear about a situation, then it can leave a bad feeling with your customers. We all appreciate honesty, so if something has gone wrong, it is such a good idea to own up and be honest, rather than cover things up.

Customers need to be able to trust brands in order to stick with them and keep coming back to them. In this day and age when corporate greed has gotten the best of some companies, being transparent and honest is a deciding factor for many customers. 

Most customers will remain loyal when a company admits they made a mistake and attempts to make it right, vs a company that tries to cover up their mistake.

Build A Community To Grow and Retain Customers

Using social media can be such a good thing for any small business. It can be used for questions and customer service, as well as being able to create a community around your business.

It can have fellow customers connecting and sharing reviews or ideas, as well as being a way that you can share insights with them through blog content or video content perhaps. Get your customers involved and as them to share their images of your products in their home or your recipes that they have created; whatever your business is.

Social media and blogging is a great way to engage with your audience of potential and current customers as well. People like doing with people and companies that have a human side, rather than just faceless companies.

If it isn’t you personally being out there in the marketplace putting out content and having a presence on social media, at least have someone in your company doing that. Developing a relationship and providing value to your audience goes a long way to keeping customers loyal and bringing on new ones.

If you’d like to learn more about creating engaging blog posts that drive new business to your company, check out this free PDF guide on how to write the perfect blog below.

Build a Mailing List

Social media is all very well, and creating a community around it as discussed above is a really good thing. But another thing to be working on is creating a mailing list for your business. When you have the email address of previous customers or prospective customers, it can make a big difference.

You have something that can then land in their email inbox with your brand name on it. You can send them updates about new items, launches, discounts, and even things like money off or exclusive offers for joining the mailing list. Also, you can use it as a way to gauge interest and get feedback from customers too as you can follow up after a purchase.

Properly utilizing an email list is another great way to grow your customer base and develop a relationship with your audience. Most companies make the mistake of not building an email list or just having a very poor offer of just joining a newsletter list.

Certainly having a newsletter list is important, but most people don’t care about your newsletter list. You want to create offers that your target market actually wants and give those away in exchange for their name and email address.

Lead with value first, before asking for an email. If you are struggling with building your email list check out the video below and my post on how to build an email list.

Appreciate Existing Customers To Improve Customer Retention

There can be lots of offers for new customers and things to entice new customers in to shop with you. Energy providers and things like internet providers can be pretty good at this, by offering exclusive discounts or money-of periods for new customers.

But existing customers of these providers can feel a little neglected as they are receiving the same service but will be paying more for it. So make sure that you don’t have the focus only be on getting new customers. You should make sure that you are looking after existing customers too so that they don’t decide to take their custom elsewhere.

You may also consider setting up an affiliate program for your customers. This means that they can actually earn commissions on the referrals that they bring to your company.

An affiliate marketing type setup is almost like building a sales force that you only need to pay when you actually make a sale and generate revenue! This could be another great way to reward your existing customers for their word of mouth advertising.

Get Your Employees On Board

Your team and the people that you have working for you are going to be key in how well your business runs. And if you are going to have a big focus on customer retention, then they need to be on board with it all and trained in all that you want to do with it.

If they don’t know of your brand’s values or vision, that can be a hard thing to show in their work, which reflects badly and customers see it. They need to be trained on how to be transparent and provide excellent customer service so that they can do all that they can.

If they aren’t sure what to do then it has a knock-on impact and can lead to some unhappy customers. You may also want to incentivize your employees to create the right habits. 

Use the concept of celebrating what you want to duplicate. This means that you create rewards or recognition around those who are performing the way you want. Just make sure the reward is in line with the tasks you are focused on. Don’t give away an all expense paid trip for example for someone who just got one 5 star review.

Develop Reliability For Your Customers

When you are spending money, you want to know that you are giving your money and details to people that are reliable and will make things happen in the right way.

If someone orders something online, for example, and it takes so long to arrive or even get a confirmation email, or you don’t answer the phone or reply to customer emails, then it won’t show that you are reliable or trustworthy. This isn’t something that appeals, and as a result, you can lose customers.

Implement these tips on keeping your customers happy and it can increase the retention of customers for your business long term!

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Mike MacDonald

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