Boost Customer Retention, Loyalty and Revenue

Introduction

This holiday season One of the most fundamental issues to any company engaged in online e-commerce is whether to place more focus on customer acquisition or customer retention. Of course both are extremely important to making your Holiday sales success, however frequently much more effort is placed on acquiring new customers. This would make insight due to the fact that most of a company’s initial revenue is generated by new customer acquisition. However, if a company doesn't care what happens to a customer after they are "on board", the company will have a high decline rate and not do well long-term. Apply some innovative ideas for making your customers happier with your holiday sales and stay.

• Encouraging Referrals - Once you have loyal customers that like doing business with your company you can launch a customer referral program to reward your customers for developing the word about your company to their friends and family members. This can be performed through an online referral system that can keep track of referred customers and reward the referrer with a gift card or cash. Customers referral programs can be a very strong word of a mouth marketing tool and open up an entirely new channel of revenue. satisfied customers always tell others about your company and what a good experience they had.

• Post-purchase Customer Relations: There are several ways to treat a customer favorably after they become your customer. Whether you are a one-off sample purchase or have the ability to sell additional items to your customers, treating them fabulous after they purchase is a must. You may even want to have someone in your customer support center place calls to your new customers to welcome them as a new customer and to ensure them that their order is being processed soon and correctly. This is also a great opportunity to buttress the sale and up-sell additional accessories and products they may want. Up-selling should always be done tastefully with the customer’s genuine interests in mind never pushy. Members of your customer service staff can also order follow-up calls or emails a few of weeks after the purchase to see how it’s working out for them. Again, this buttresses the fact that you as a company are sticking by your customer and really care. This will make your customers more liable to purchase from you in the future. Don't forget to send the customer review email!

• Great Customer Service - Right from day one, your company should place a strong emphasis on customer-relations and treating your customers like they are the most important people in the world. Make sure your customer service staff answering emails are treating your customers like gems is a must. Having a company conception in place as it relates to treating your customers really well is always a good move as well. You can also analyze the entire consumer experience on your side of the homepage on through to confirmation page to make sure your customers are being taken care of from the opening of the process until the end. Having good "autoresponder" emails, that look personalized, is also a good measure to have in place to make your customers feel warm and hazy about their purchase. always be upfront department and clear to your customers and prospective customers as to exactly what they have purchased, the benefits, and how long their order will take to arrive. Managing customer expectations is always a good policy because it relieves pressure on your customer service staff to answer questions that could have been answered on your site or through the ordering process. prepared really good and comprehensive frequently asked questions (FAQs) can also reduce needless calls to your customer service department.

• Customer Loyalty Program - This is one of  #1 recommendations for companies. There are some great, mobile apps that can be used to create an instant customer loyalty program. It's great for local businesses. There is also great web-based customer loyalty like Sweet Tooth. Make sure to execute a great loyalty program so your customers purchase and refer more frequently. these few ideas for increasing your company’s focus and emphasis on customer retention. Having as long a lifetime value (LTV) for your customer base can really increase your company’s value and make you a more attractive buyout candidate.

• Handling Complaints Well - Your customer service department handles complaints that can make or break your company’s retention and long-term revenue growth. Generally, customer service reps are scared to report complaints to their managers unless they are encouraged to do so. That's why we always recommend customer service be handled in the USA by your in-house call center. Outsourcing this aspect of customer service can be a trial and cause your customers a lot of frustration, risking your relationship with them. Complaints, if customer services department handled well, can be a source of loyal customers. See at complaints as an opportunity to build the relationship with the customer and make them admire your company.

Also read: How to Conduct a Customer Behavior Analysis