Hello!
Are you holding onto your customers?
According to studies, the answer is probably “no.”
Research from McKinsey and Company discovered that only 13% of the customers surveyed were loyal to a particular brand. Additionally, another 87% of the respondents in the study said that they were happy to shop around to find the right deal.
We’re living in a world where your customers have limitless options for who they want to buy from. There are thousands of businesses out there, and there’s a good chance that many offer similar products and services to yours.
Although there’s always a chance that you could have some customer turnover in any business, there are steps that you can take to improve your chances of keeping your clients, and your revenue from falling.
Here are some of the reasons that your company could be failing to retain customers and what you can do to turn the tables.
#1 You’re Not Providing A Good Experience
There’s more to running a successful business than producing a good product and generating as many leads as possible. Today’s customers consider experience to be the most important differentiating factor for any brand. That means that if you want to hold onto your clients and attract new ones, you need to show your audience that you care about their experience.
The good news is that there are various ways that you can improve your customer experience strategy. For instance, you might start by looking at the reviews and testimonials left by previous clients and finding out what people like and dislike about your sales funnel.
Maybe your shipping times are too slow, or you don’t provide enough options for people to get in touch.
Other options include:
- Simplifying the purchasing process: Make sure that it’s as easy as possible for people to work with your brand. Let your customers check out with guest accounts, rather than signing up for a membership. Provide multiple payment options, and minimal fields to fill out.
- Considering the competition: What do your competitors offer that you don’t? Do you only answer questions through email, while your competition offers live chat? If so, you might need to adapt your strategy to stay ahead of the curve.
- Listen to your customers: Ask your clients what you can do to serve them better. By gathering insights from your customers, you will be able to increase the customer satisfaction of your business. Polls and questions on social media can be an excellent way to find out what your audience needs.
There are many ways out there to leverage customer experience for revenue growthso do not hesitate to invest in it. It will have a great impact on the long run.
#2 Your Products or Service Don’t Hit the Mark
As a company, whenever you sell a product or service, you’re making a promise to your customer. You’re telling them that you can solve their problem or help them achieve your goal.
With that in mind, it’s important to ensure that you’re always working on making your offering the best that it can be. Using the cheapest materials or manufacturers might keep costs low, but it won’t lead to profit if your clients aren’t happy with the results.
Examine your products and think carefully about what you can do to make them more appealing. Perhaps you can work with new suppliers to make your items more durable or attractive. Maybe you can add extra features to your service that helps you stand out from your competition.
For instance, if you’re a business providing content marketing services to clients, then you could also think about expanding to offer things like graphic design and SEO as well. That way, your customers will be able to get more of what they need in the same place.
Test your products and services and ask yourself whether you’re delivering the value that you’re promising your clients.
If not, you might need to:
- Work with new suppliers or source new materials
- Improve your shipping strategy or get items to customers faster
- Change your prices to make your products more appealing
- Add new features, or remove features that aren’t necessary
#3 You’re Inconsistent
Consistency is the key to building an effective brand, and brands are what customers fall in love with. In today’s relationship-driven landscape, consumers want to buy from companies that they feel an affinity with.
This means that you need to build a brand personality and mission that resonates with your target audience.
Creating a customer persona or a series of user personas that help you understand your clients and step into their shoes will help with this process. However, you’ll also need to think about how you’re going to “walk the walk”.
If you build a brand around the idea that your company is eco-friendly and good for the environment, then you need to prove that this is really the case. It’s no good publishing blogs about environmental protection, but using a manufacturer that’s bad for your community.
Similarly, if you tell your audience that you’re going to deliver something at a certain time, make sure that you actually stick to that deadline. Work on mastering your time and work schedule, so you stay on track and keep your clients happy.
Let your customers know that they can trust you and help them to understand what you stand for. This will lead to better relationships in the long term.
To improve consistency:
- Create a set of brand guidelines: Brand guidelines show your employees, stakeholders, and everyone else what foundations your business is built on. They can also act as a compass to help you make important decisions.
- Hold your employees accountable: Make sure that your staff members understand the standard that you expect from them.
- Correct your mistakes: if you’re ever caught doing something that goes against your brand image, don’t just try to sweep it under the rug. Own up and learn from your mistakes.
#4 Your Sales Tactics are Outdated
In the past, a lot of companies relied on aggressive sales techniques that were pushing a customer to buy as much as possible. This meant often using things like pop-up ads on websites to grab a client’s attention or cold sales calls.
However, this process just doesn’t work in the current landscape. We’re living in an environment where ad blockers and junk folders exist.
If you try to strong-arm your customers into purchases, then they’ll ignore you. Instead, you need to employ sales techniques that highlight the values of interacting with your brand.
For instance:
- Create content that shows your audience how much you know about your industryand how you can help them to solve their most pressing problems.
- Build relationships with your customers by interacting with them on social media and connecting through things like competitions and polls.
- Prove yourself with testimonials and reviews. Let your customers speak for you and demonstrate how fantastic your product or service is.
Delivering honest value through things like content marketing and social interactions allows you to build a stronger relationship with your customers. It’s those relationships that will attract leads and turn clients into return sales.
#5 Your Competition is Better
Finally, one of the main reasons that companies lose customers is that they’re not providing as much value as their competitors. If that’s the case for you, then you’ll need to find a way to improve your services or products as quickly as possible.
Keeping a close eye on your competition in the marketplace offers a lot of opportunities. First, it means that you can pinpoint any gaps in the market that other companies haven’t considered. This gives you a chance to unlock new opportunities for sales.
Secondly, watching your competition also means that you’ll be able to see if your competitors have started to provide something that you can’t offer, like same-day shipping, or live chat customer support.
Remember, just like you, your competitors are constantly thinking of ways to improve their client retention and make their business more accessible. Keep watching the market, and you will find new ways to optimize and improve your services over time.
Another way to ensure that you can continue to outshine your competition is to listen to your audience. Remember that reviews and feedback from your existing clients, even when negative, can be incredibly valuable.
If your customers suggest ways that you could deliver a better service for them, then pay attention!
Stop Missing Out on Customers
It takes a lot more than a good product or a decent marketing campaign to maintain regular sales. Consistent and loyal customers are the most valuable asset that any business can have.
Businesses today need to make sure that they’re creating the best possible customer experiences and delivering on their brand promises if they want to be successful.
You might even find that it’s useful to build new proactive strategies for retaining customers into your plan, such as using loyalty programs and VIP memberships to turn clients into advocates.
Remember, as you’re searching for new ways to retain and support your customers, keep track of your results. Measuring the outcomes of your campaigns will help you pinpoint where you should be focusing your budget in the years to come.
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