7 effective ways to keep your customers from leaving

The easiest way to grow your customer base—and profits—is to stop losing your existing customers. And the easiest way to stop losing your customers is to keep them happy.

The average business loses around 20% of its customers each year. Imagine the difference it would make to your bottom line if you were able to slow that loss and retain many of those customers!

Just how much of a difference does customer retention make? Two experts make their case in Leading on the Edge of Chaos, a book on finding opportunities amid uncertainty:

• Acquiring new customers can cost as much as five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers.
• A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%.
• Increasing your customer retention rate by 5% can increase business profits by 25% to 125%, depending on your industry.
• 80% of your future profits will come from just 20% of your existing customers.
• Customer profitability tends to increase over the life of a retained customer.

In summary, it makes good business sense to keep your customers happy. And here are some guidelines to help you accomplish that:

1. Build a customer database

Collect information about your customers: what products and services they’re interested in, what their buying and spending habits are, what contact they’ve had with you, whether they’ve had any problems or complaints, whether they’ve referred any new customers to you, and any other information relevant to your business.

The more you know about your customers, the more effective your communication with them will be and the easier it is for you to identify different customer segments and to see who your most important customers are.

2. Keep in touch

Stay present in the minds of your customers by giving them information that they’d find interesting and relevant. Email newsletters are a good way of providing regular updates, like details on special offers or promotions.

Consider sending targeted newsletters to different customer segments and to your key customers, which can help to build relationships. Customers appreciate when you make an effort to know what they’re interested in and keep your messages relevant.

3. Offer customers multiple communication channels

Think beyond just answering your phone and responding to emails, and consider expanding into platforms like social media and blogging.

A good way to choose new communication channels is to run a poll (on your website, newsletter or brand page) to ask your customers which platforms they prefer, so that you can ensure you’re focussing your efforts in the right places.

4. Target your most valuable customers

The 80-20 rule states that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. It makes sense to specifically target promotions and special offers to customers who are likely to generate the best returns. The more of your marketing budget you put towards promotions with higher ROI, the larger the return will be.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore the other 80% of your customers though! Provide great value and service to all customers, while concentrating marketing dollars where they’ll do the most good.

5. Recognise customer loyalty

Thank customers for choosing you over your competitors and for referring their friends and colleagues to you. There are many ways you can do this, ranging from a personal thank-you phone call or message (more affordable for smaller businesses), right through to finder’s fee or a fully-blown loyalty program with rewards and cash prizes.

You are four times more likely to close business with an existing customer than you are with a new prospect (Customer Winback by Griffin and Lowenstein)—so reward the customers that stick with you.

Treat customer complaints as a gift

Most customers who are unhappy don’t complain: they simply walk away. When someone takes the time and effort to complain, they’re giving you the chance to fix things. Tell them that you take these issues seriously, get them to explain the problem and ask them how you can fix things.

Resolve issues as quickly as possible. If you’re able to do this well, you can often turn the customer around so that they become a strong advocate for your business. In summary, you should treat your customers in the way they want to be treated.

7. Provide excellent customer service

Develop a company culture where everyone sees customer service as a priority. Listen to what your customers have to say and then respond. Make customers feel that they’re receiving individual attention and not that you’re just following a script.

Ensure that your Customer Support team are properly trained to assist customers and have the resources and freedom to address their issues promptly. First impressions are extremely important. Customers often make their decision whether to buy from your company within the first few seconds—make sure every experience they have with your business is a good one.

Customer loyalty starts with communication

When you improve your communication channels, you improve customer experience. Alltel specializes in providing business communication systems that let you connect with your customers better. Contact us at 1300 ALLTEL