How important is it to retain customers in your business?
Every entrepreneur wants consumers to buy from them again, right? After all, with the increase in competition, keeping the public that already knows your product or service becomes even more important.
In a market as dynamic and volatile as the current one, it is necessary to innovate to guarantee this preference. However, finding new ways to retain customers is always a challenge, isn’t it?
But do not worry. In this content, we will tell you the main reasons to invest in customer loyalty and the best actions to put into practice. Check out!
How important is it to retain customers?
Retaining customer loyalty is important not only because it is an established business goal. The reality is that this is an extremely useful strategy for you to create a business model with recurring revenue . Furthermore, once retained, the consumer increases both the frequency of purchases and their average ticket.
Furthermore, there is the competitive advantage that loyalty represents for an enterprise. After all, anyone who already knows your product or service understands all the advantages of purchasing it. Thus, the focus is no longer just on the price, but rather on the added value delivered.
What are the steps to retain customers in your business?
To retain customers in your business, you need to invest in accurate strategies. Find out below the best ways to achieve this goal and start retaining your audience!
Understand the customer’s pain points
The customer’s pain corresponds to the problem they seek to solve through your product or service . Understanding this key point allows you to highlight, in advertising and during services, all the differences that meet these needs. It also enables improvements that meet these demands.
Loyalty arises from the consumer’s perception of the value added to that purchase. The reason is that, by obtaining a solution to your difficulty, it puts your business above others. In this context, invest in actions that help discover your audience’s pain points, such as:
Get personalized service
It is not enough to rely on a quality product or service suited to the needs of the public. Service must be at the same level. One of the ways to optimize this aspect is personalization , which makes the consumer feel prestigious and ends up gaining loyalty.
The first step to this is to have an individual history of purchases and complaints. Only in this way is it possible to know the:
Use different service channels
Social networks, instant messaging applications, telephone, email, website or online store, etc. These are just a few of the many ways a consumer comes into contact with a business today. And know that everyone has a preference between these options.
This variety is essential, as the customer may even abandon a purchase or end the commercial relationship because they cannot be served through the method they chose. In other words, it is necessary to diversify channels to avoid these disorders. It is also necessary to respond to everyone to take advantage of the different opportunities generated.
Invest in after-sales actions
In general, most businesses sell and end their relationship with the consumer there. The interaction only resumes in the case of a new purchase. This attitude turns into a breakdown in the relationship and can cause a loss of customers .
On the other hand, by continuing to contact the buyer, the tendency is for them to feel valued and return. In this sense, there are several resources capable of maintaining and deepening post-sales links. The main ones are:
Qualify and add value
To be positive, the consumer experience must involve satisfaction with both the product or service and the service . Therefore, improving these elements is essential.
Another gain obtained is the greater ability to retain customers, since any problem in these aspects tends to lead the public to look for other options. In order to guarantee the quality of delivery, the ideal is:
Remove obstacles
The effort to make a purchase encompasses several factors. From the means of service to the availability of options when paying, including the usability of channels or accessibility of the establishment.
All of these elements make this process difficult or easier for the consumer. Considering the increasing value placed on convenience as a criterion in consumer decision-making, they have become important tools for building customer loyalty.
In this sense, if you remove obstacles, limits or barriers, the public will tend to choose your business. Some actions that make this objective possible are:
- build a purchasing journey in which social networks, blog and online store are integrated;
- offer understandable, useful and interesting content to lead people to purchase;
- make contact details, policies, etc. accessible;
- diversify payment solutions ;
- eliminate the request for unnecessary information to carry out transactions;
- communicate relevant information, such as delivery delays, cancellations or schedule changes.
What are the main benefits of applying loyalty strategies?
As you have seen, implementing strategies aimed at gaining customer loyalty requires dedication . However, its benefits more than make up for the effort. The main ones are:
- access to continuous business opportunities, by increasing the frequency of purchases;
- increase in the average ticket , through cross- or complementary sales;
- strengthening the brand’s reputation, due to social proof obtained from testimonials from the loyal public;
- less need to invest in attracting new consumers, thanks to word-of-mouth marketing;
- dilution of the acquisition cost, by maintaining a greater number of active buyers;
- increased revenue predictability with the recurrence of transactions;
- ability to map behaviors and predict changes based on the relationship created.
Retaining customer loyalty should be one of the main tasks for anyone who wants to have a healthy and growing business , as it is an important means of maintaining recurring revenue. Given their benefits, strategies for this purpose are worth it.
