In a tight economy, consumers are ever vigilant about how they spend their money. And while businesses shouldn’t ignore efforts to gain new customers, programs that focus on customer retention often offer a better ROI for your marketing efforts.
Customer retention programs offer these valuable benefits:
- A direct connection to repeat sales. With marketing touchpoints that nurture relationships with your customers, you’ll increase the likelihood for repurchasing behavior, with your customers choosing your business again and again.
- Improved cross-selling rates. Experts agree, and history shows, that existing customers who are loyal to your business are more likely to buy your other products or use your other services. ROI increases when you optimize your marketing efforts toward repeat business.
- Lower overall costs. The average costs to market to existing customers come in well below the costs to market to new customers.
- Better customer value. Because it costs less to connect and nurture existing, loyal customers, those customers hold more value for your business.
- Lower “sticker shock.” Loyal customers shop differently from new customers. When they trust you, and look to your business as an authority, they don’t necessarily need to be offered deals or discounts to continue using your business. Because they’ve already accepted the built-in value of your products and services, they will more readily accept your prices, too.
- Decreased costs for advertising. Satisfied customers provide the most valuable advertisement in terms of “word of mouth” recommendations. When satisfied existing customers use your products and services, they share that information with family and friends, providing a low-cost means to further spread the word.
Customer retention programs give your business a firm foothold in today’s economy, benefiting from all the advantages that they offer. Contact Continuity Programs today to find out how our customer retention programs will increase cross selling, up selling, lead generation and customer loyalty. We offer a comprehensive strategy for increasing marketing ROI, with company branded, personalized marketing campaigns.
Satisfied customer image via Shutterstock