Customer Satisfaction: How to Retain Your Customers

February 8, 2018 Off By David
Object Storage
The average company loses up to 20 percent of its customers per year, and some can lose as much as 80 percent. In terms of actual customer figures, it’s clear that losing already existing custom can make the difference between a successful business and one that fails. If you compound just the 20 percent figure over a number of years, those figures start to add up, and for clued-up business owners, retaining those existing customers is as important as finding new ones. However, keeping existing customers coming back is very often a low-cost mission, and it makes good business sense to look at all of the ways you’re losing out on return custom. 

Keep track
The majority of companies spend a lot of money on making customers aware of their products and services, and then spend little to no time on making those same customers come back. Worse, some companies fail even to keep track of inactive customers and they become complacent as they concentrate on finding new customers. It is only by being aware of your customer base and your relationship with them that you can ensure that they will once again buy your product or service over and over again.

 

Your relationship is key
Building customer relationships is key to retaining them, whether it’s through monthly email updates about new products, improvements, and changes to your company, or even social media conversations about the possibilities of a new product line. Creating new customers may seem like the best way to grow your business, but if you then lose those customers after just one sale, then you have lost a potential regular income that will ultimately affect your end of year profits. Building customer relationships will help you by reducing lost customers, and as a result, your business can continue to expand.

Protect their information 

With so much of our lives spent online, cybercrimes are on the rise, and if you hold customer data of any kind, from email addresses to bank details, then you need to make sure that you earn that trust. There are a number of things you can do to ensure that your customers’ data is kept as safe as possible, through anti-virus software or even dedicated servers. For those that aren’t so technologically aware, there are companies available such as the Access Group that can manage your information security due to their expertise and experience. Losing the trust of your customers through a data breach or malware attack can be damaging to your reputation, and if you need help making sure that you reduce the likelihood of that happening, then it can only be of benefit to you. 

The inactive customer 
Dormant customers are those that purchased from you once and then you don’t see them again. Up to 60% of customers who have used your company before are likely to use you again with a little prompting because they already know you and they know your product. There are a number of ways to re-attract dormant customers. Often it’s a simple case of reminding them that you are still open for business, or occasionally addressing any issues that they may have had. Building this solid foundation of regular customers will ultimately lead to loyal and repeat custom. 

Repeat customers will make an incredible difference to your profits. A one-off sale is great, but if you look at the potentials of turning that one-off sale into a lifetime customer, the combined profits that sale represents over the life of your business starts to add up, and it is in your best interests to maintain that relationship using every tool at your disposal.

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