Don’t have a customer retention strategy? You could be missing out on potentially valuable business from your existing customers — business that’s much more cost-effective to garner and produces a higher volume of sales.
A successful business must balance a focus on new customer leads with nurturing existing customers, creating a convergence of the best of both worlds. Focusing your efforts on retaining customers pays off — both right away and in the long term.
In general, most businesses can spend less to nurture existing customer relationships than to generate new ones. And those customers that are loyal to your business generally comprise a higher portion of overall sales, too. So neglecting to develop a strategy for customer retention can cost you.
Here are three tips for developing an effective customer retention program:
- Vary your method of communication. While today’s society looks more and more to the web, email and social media to communicate with businesses, postal mailings have not gone by the wayside. A successful customer retention program should focus on both methods to garner loyalty, such as postage-paid mailings with a response card, and e-cards. And tools that include two-way communication get optimal results.
- Use a variety of communication touch points. It’s critical to find out what methods are successful for your market niche, and a strategy that develops multiple means to communicate with customers is stronger. You can use greeting cards, e-cards, letters, customer satisfaction surveys and include lead generating response items to form the foundation of your program.
- Develop a strategy over the long term. A series of communications over the years is more effective than random, single point-of-contact methods. This is where your strategy will pay off. Also, by implementing touch points that nurture trust, brand loyalty and utilize opportunities to generate leads, your customer retention success will grow.
As you develop your customer retention strategy, use a variety of tools and communication touch points, along with a program that covers several years. Always keep your company brand in front of your customers. At Continuity Programs, our turn-key marketing solutions get proven results. Contact us today to find out more, and see how much you can increase your customer retention rates.
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