Customer Retention and Acquisition: It is one thing getting a customer for your business, but it is quite another to keep that customer.
There are so many things that could happen to stop them remaining with you and going on to be a valuable repeat customer.
In business, it is repeat customers that you really want to really encourage, the kinds of people who love what you do and are happy to spend money with you time and time again.
Here are some possible reasons why customers may decide not do carry on doing business with you:
– they are unhappy with your customer service
– you make it difficult to buy from you
– it is hard to get information on exactly what you offer for sale
– they feel that they are not important to your business
– the overall ‘customer experience’ is not good.
The good news is that when it comes to customer retention, using email marketing software such as RocketResponder could really help with all of the possible reasons shown above for customers deciding to take their business elsewhere.
Let’s take each point in turn:
Your customers are unhappy with the service you provide them.
This is easy to put right. If you have the mindset that you want to retain customers for as long as you possibly can then you will work hard on keeping customers happy.
One great way is to use email to inform your customers about your business and to let them know how they can contact you if things go wrong. Use a short email series when a new customer joins your list to show that you care about each individual customer and how you go the extra mile to ensure that your service will meet and exceed their expectations.
You make it difficult for customers to buy from you.
It is amazing how many businesses fail here. If you do business online then there must be a quick and easy way for customers to buy items from your website. The process should be clear, obvious and very easy to complete.
You can also make it easy to buy from you by sending out emails to your subscriber list which contain information on your current offers, special deals, seasonal promotions and so forth. Also be sure to include a link in the email to the sales page for the deals, services or products that you are highlighting.
Nobody will ever complain that you make it too easy to buy from you.
It is hard to find out what you offer for sale.
Once again you cannot be too obvious about this. Your website, if you are online, should clearly state what you sell so that there is no doubt in the visitor’s mind whether or not they are on the right site for what they want to buy.
Once again use emails to highlight your latest offers. The great selection of email templates and images inside RocketResponder really let you show off what you are selling to maximum advantage and, of course, you can upload your own images to send to your customers via email.
Your customers don’t feel that they are important to you.
This is a really big mistake and one you don’t want to make. Remember that by building a list of customers or subscribers you are building a list of individuals.
When you email your list, always address the emails to the individual and write as though you are writing to just one customer. Imagine your ideal customer and write your emails for that individual. Just doing this will go a long way to ensuring that all your customers feel valued and important to your business.
Your overall customer experience is lacking.
These days, increasing numbers of customers want to do more than simply buy something from you. They want the buying process to be an experience which begins with them thinking about making the process and continues right through to using the goods or service that they have purchased.
If that process is pleasurable then it is more likely that you will retain more of your customers and attract new ones.
This is one of the reasons that you will want to send out emails on a regular basis to your customers. Say you are introducing a new range of goods in two month’s time. Well it would be a great idea to explain ahead of time that you have exciting new goods coming soon. You can give more and more details as the launch approaches to build up excitement in the minds of your customers.
Then when you are ready to go live a series of emails explaining that you can now buy, and a direct link to the sales page, should really pay dividends.
Finally remember that you will be adding new subscribers to your email list all the time and this is how you can do well on the customer acquisition front.
When someone joins your list and sees that you have a well-structured series of emails to show that you care about your customers and really want to help them, then they will be more likely to want to go on and buy from you.
Using email for customer retention and acquisition is not difficult but it is a really important step in both processes. With RocketResponder we have worked hard behind the scenes to ensure that getting the right message to your customers is fun, really quick and easy to do.
