9 Customer Retention Strategies That Actually Work
So many businesses always focus on getting new customers. But did you know, you can earn far more by retaining the ones you already have? It’s as simple as taking care of your customers, and they will take care of you.
In the long run, it will cost you five times more to get a new customer than to retain your existing customers. Retention matters. And today, we’ll tell you about 9 proven strategies that can improve customer retention as an SEO reseller.
Why is Customer Retention Important?
Customer retention means the overall success of your business. Retention efforts should never stop. Just because you’ve earned their business doesn’t mean you’ll keep it. Just a 5% increase in customer retention efforts can produce a 25% increase in profit for your business. Over time, that can really add up over time. Imagine that not just for one customer, but for hundreds or thousands of them. That’s significant revenue for your business that all comes down to helping your customers succeed and stay with your company for their needs.
Customer retention efforts start before the point of sale. From the very first interaction with a potential customer, you need to show them why they should choose your business. Then it goes into the point of sale, you want to help them understand why they made a good decision picking your business. And from there, map out every single customer touchpoint to learn how to make their experience better.
Onboarding is a huge pitfall that most companies overlook. This is a crucial step in the retention process because it’s where expectations get set. Retention matters at every single possible interaction, and touchpoint throughout their journey with your company.
9 Worthwhile Customer Retention Strategies to Try Today
1. Be Genuine and Personal
Consumers today are smart. They know that they can find what they need from various sources. What they want from you is to know why your company is different and how you can help them in a way that they need. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that your method is right for everyone, but for the right customer, your solutions will be perfect.
Literally every tv show, every commercial that involves retail usually has that disinterested customer service agent who really doesn’t care. They’re sitting there on their phone or doing anything but pay attention to the customer. I personally don’t believe most customer interactions are like this. But I also don’t think that it falls on the other end of the spectrum of ridiculously perky interactions either to the point where it feels fake.
My point is, every customer touchpoint should have a human interaction. Meaning, you want them to feel the connection without going to either one of these extremes. People want to feel heard in their concerns or needs. They want you to understand why they’re coming to you and what you can do for them to earn their business. And once they become a customer, retention continues at every single touchpoint. Help your customers get to know your business, be genuine in those connections. And above all, help them know that you care about them as a person first, and a customer second.
2. Stand for Something
When customers seek out businesses to help with what they need, they like to know that these businesses are socially responsible. They want to know that they stand for what is right and have similar values. Your customers love to see that you take a stand when there are wrongs in the world. It’s been proven several times that corporate social responsibility does increase customer loyalty. This plays a big part in customer retention.
And even if you don’t necessarily make public stances about social issues, they want to know your company has a mission. Customer retention stays top of mind when employees know it’s part of your mission as a business. When you have core values or a mission statement like Boostability’s “We help small businesses succeed online”. That helps everyone know our focus and where our priorities lie.
These kinds of mission statements sit at the heart of every interaction we have with our customers. And you can do the same.
3. Make Your Customer’s Goals a Priority
I’m assuming that everyone has heard the term “the customer is always right.” And while I have my own thoughts on that, what is absolutely true is that they know what they want to accomplish for their business. They’re coming to you because they know you can help.
In the case of our reselling partners, customers come to them for help in improving their online presence. And while that’s the goal of every single SEO campaign, you need to listen to the specifics.
Perhaps a customer wants to expand into a new area, but needs to start ranking first. Maybe they want to stay ahead of their competitors. Your customers have their reasons for coming to you and want you to help them accomplish those goals. Listen to them!
Then come up with a plan and a strategy to help them accomplish those goals. And if you do well with those goals, there’s a good chance that your customer retention will also increase because together you can set new goals to work on in the future.
4. Set Clear Expectations Right from the Start
One of the biggest reasons for churn within a business is that a customer feels like their expectations weren’t met. That they were told one thing would happen and then something else did instead. Of course you can’t predict every possible contingency that could happens over a campaign lifetime, you can set clear expectations from the start and be honest with the process for your customers.
Customers also appreciate honesty. For example, if they want to achieve first page rankings after about a month and your sales rep says that can happen, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to retain that customer.
Your customers need to understand that most SEO takes anywhere from 6 months to over a year before their keywords will achieve top search results rankings. They don’t want to feel like they’re being sold the moon.
They want to know exactly how your product works, how it can help their website, about the process, and what you may not be able to help them with. Most of us don’t like to admit our weaknesses, but in the case of customer retention, it could actually help you keep them longer.
5. Provide Excellent Customer Service
Having and providing excellent customer service to your customers is pivotal in extending the retention of existing clients. Excellent customer service entails being up-to-date, hospitable, friendly, and knowledgeable.
Providing excellent customer service adds to your customer retention strategy by building trust with your clients. Trust takes time to build with your clients and customers. As long as you are consistent and genuine with them, the connection will grow over time.
There are a variety of ways for your customer service team to improve customer retention. One of the best ways is by staying in frequent communication with your customers and clients. Checking up on your customers by sharing updates, wins, and even losses creates a better relationship over time.
Being honest and genuine with your customers shows through your customer service intentions. Without providing excellent customer service, your customer retention could diminish.
6. Be Transparent
In a similar vein, being transparent with your customers shows a sign of respect towards your customers. If we didn’t have bad experiences, we wouldn’t know how to move forward and progress. When something bad happens, such as a drop in traffic or a loss in keyword positioning, it’s best to bring these changes up to your customers.
While having bad news to deliver may not be the easiest thing to do, it shows a sign of dignity and consideration to your customers. Customers generally appreciate the honestly and transparency into what is going on, rather than discovering it themselves.
When you do have to deliver the bad news, make sure to share it first. In this way, the good news will help soften the blow of the bad news. Being transparent with your customers or clients helps improve customer retention in the long run.
7. Be Proactive
While it’s important to be transparent with your customers, being proactive and on top of what’s happening goes hand in hand as well. There are lots of ways to increase customer retention by being proactive. One way of doing so is anticipating your client’s questions and concerns.
While you’re keeping up on their needs, be informed and do research on the issues at hand. Don’t wait for your customer or client to reach out to you about a drop in traffic. Be on top of your mistakes and own up to them. From there you can update goals and create a game plan on how to progress in moving forward.
Being prepared and on top of the client’s issues creates a great impression on the client. They will feel valued and prioritized when you’ve done the research to resolve the issue or help build momentum about their business in a positive manner.
8. Educate Your Customers
When your customers and clients invest in you, they look up to you for guidance and advice in your field. This presents an opportunity to educate and inform your customers. There are topics that may take a while to grasp, such as SEO, and it’s important to take advantage of opportunities to educate others about it.
For customers, most of the time they don’t always have a strong understanding of the strategy or all that happens in the background of attaining results for their business’ website. When you take advantage of educating your customers on the topics, it sets an understanding to be able to discuss results and progress.
When you take the time to educate your clients or customers, it’s up to you on how much or how little you want to go into it. SEO is a complex and length topic, so breaking down a few of the basics may be all you need to get started. Resources such as Boostability’s Sales Support help educate our partners to then be able to educate their customers.
There is always room to grow and learn more about SEO. Helping educate others along the way helps increase customer retention in feeling supported with service and training for all.
9. Engage, Listen, and Respond to Your Customers
Keeping communication constant is important in increasing customer retention. However, your customers and clients won’t always be available at the same times you are. One way of improving customer retention is engaging, listening, and responding to your customers.
When you’re not able to immediately talk with your clients, sending a customer survey to collect feedback is one of the best ways to retrieve information. Giving your customers the opportunity to respond in their own time gives them the chance to express all of their thoughts and concerns in detail.
When they’re presented with a deadline or do it in a timely manner, they might not be able to provide valuable and informational feedback for you. Once they give you feedback, you can listen to their reply and respond appropriately to the customer.
Another way to respond to your customers is through feedback they have given you through posting reviews. When responding to your reviews, it’s important to respond to them, even when they’re negative, and to do so in a timely manner.
There are also scores such as the NPS score that shows the percentage of customers ratings towards recommending your company to someone else. Negative feedback from reviews presents an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and move forward. Doing this also can help improve your NPS score.
Showing your clients and future customers that you’re working on improving your mistakes and their user experience goes a long way over time.
Improving Customer Retention
As you can see, there are a variety of customer retention strategies that are proven to work. It could be through providing excellent customer service, educating your clients, or being genuine and personal with your customers. Focusing on improving customer retention helps take care of your customers and in return helps you as well. It helps your business see an improvement in customer retention, efficiency, and overall revenue.
When you partner with Boostability, we give you and your clients the tools to succeed online and make your business more profitable. We provide tools such as high client retention, turn-key solutions, and full-service while label SEO services for your business.
With over 15 years of experience as the leading global provider of white label SEO marketing under our belt, we have helped thousands of businesses like yours becoming renowned for their SEO capabilities. You will also receive access to our transparent reporting dashboard, Sales Support, and a team of dedicated experts working on your behalf.
