The holiday season last year set new records. In the year 2021, Online shopping has a more significant role to play. Online retailers and merchants had a bountiful time.
Now, what next?
It is essential to keep the holiday shopping season momentum going into the new year. Your customers you gained last year are a massive asset to your business, especially in the following months when leads may be hard to come by.
Hence retaining digital consumers is vital. It's more important than ever to nurture & care to maintain a long-lasting and profitable relationship with your digital customers, so they stay loyal to your business.
For your online business to succeed, just closing sales is not enough. The key is in retaining digital customers by making them fall in love with your brand. It helps spread positive "Word of Mouth" that's absolutely priceless. In this digital era of automation and innovation, personalizing the customer experience is imperative.
Smart online retailers know that every customer relationship lost, either to competition or due to poor customer support, costs them more. And if you think that cost can be recovered with new customers, think again.
Turns out, acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.
And yet, many online businesses spend most of their marketing dollars only to get themselves in an ongoing struggle of chasing down new customers instead of nurturing the ones they already have.
Source: Constant Contact
By automating business processes and providing quality eCommerce support, you can see success in multiple ways:
The bottom line is: You need to make your customers happy - to turn them into repeat customers, who will bring their friends. You need them to be so captivated that they'll buy into your brand, share it with others, and not turn to a competitor.
But, how do you retain your digital consumers? Follow these tips to make your customers fall in love with your business.
The majority of the organizations do not have a sketch of their buyer personas. To make customers love your business, you first need to know your digital consumer.
Customers are more interested in the buying experience rather than the product itself. Research shows that consumers are willing to pay more for the same product if they are subjected to an engaging consumer experience.
Get data to work.
Perform thorough data analysis to know who are your best consumers. Segment them. While one group can be frequent buyers, another can be higher revenue generators. You may also hit a segment of buyers who were frequent buyers earlier but have not purchased from you for quite some time. Also, data will reveal a lot of consumer buying patterns, their interests, demographics, days and times when they shop, and a lot more.
Once you have the consumer information segmented, you can target them better by sending them personalized content that would be most relevant to them. A simple "We miss you" note OR a handwritten wish on their special occasions can help to strike an emotional chord by showing that you care and win their hearts. Happier and more connected customers will drive more business.
Customers won't always like how you do business. They'll have issues with your products/services or customer service.
When a customer approaches you with their concerns, be polite and patient. It's easy to whisk them off, but it takes courage to stay calm and listen to everything they have to say about their bitter shopping experience. Patience is a key virtue for good customer service.
After the customer is done explaining their concern and venting their negative emotions (anger and frustration out), then respond thoughtfully and thoroughly. Sympathize and empathize! Showing customers that you genuinely care helps win a place in their hearts.
Do not ignore an unhappy consumer. Take extra steps and measures to resolve their issue. Turn bad experiences ins. Once unhappy customers turned happy customers can be your strongest advocates.
In today's digital age, personal is no longer physical.
Even if you don't have a one-on-one connection with customers, you can still add personal touches to your communications. For example, simply using customer names in emails. Tag them while replying to their comments/queries/feedback on social media.
Don't act as a faceless business. Converse with your customers like they're your friends and partners - and see your customers turn as your brand patrons.
It's an age of automation, but don't be a robot. Don't give generic responses that areined to deliver personalized messages. Ask us how we can help reduce your operational costs through process optimization and automation while leveraging data analytics to deliver a personalized experience to your clients.
We all love sales, deals, discounts and offers. When buyers get more value for their money, they'll be more likely to repurchase.
You can run promotions targeting festivals, or other seasonal sales. You can offer discounts or free try-outs or offering bundled products at a discounted rate. The special offers encourage customers to keep coming back to your business to check out deals. When customers love your specials, they'll love your brand more.
Even though the special deals, discounts, coupons, free giveaways might cause you to lose some revenue in thethe repeat business from customers should increase your company's bottom line over time. Continuous specials will continue enchanting your customers for the long term.
Make sure you advertise these specials to your customers in full swing. This tactic only works if customers are made aware of the offers. Create engaging multi-channel (website, email, social media, print, in-store) promotions centered around these specials for full exposure.
Add a loyalty program to your business. Incentivize customers to keep coming back to your business. For example, a customer can earn points, discounts or free stuff after they spend a certain amount at your store and the incentive increases as their transactions increase.
Everyone loves rewards. Rewarding customers for being associated with your business makes them stay loyal to your business.
It takes 12 positive customer experiences to compensate for 1 negative customer experience. This is how sensitive human trust is.
No matter your business size, keep your customers updated when it comes to any positive and negative alterations to your products and services that affect them.
When you have an announcement or news, achievement or event, let them know. Create excitement by telling them about the exciting things going on in your business.
At the same time, it is important to tell your customers about bad things like product shortages, shipping delays, faulty products, etc.
Be honest and transparent about what's happening within your business. Customers will appreciate your honesty. They will get excited about the good things and be understanding and considerate about the bad things.
Transparency in the digital age is a must. It is a critical factor in building trust, satisfaction, and love from your customers. So, what does transparency really mean?
Kindness and gratitude towards a customer are undeniable ways to drive retention.
Craft a heartfelt and relevant thank you for being sent out to your consumer at all the consumer touchpoints. Don't overexaggerate but at the same time, be as appreciative as possible to your customers.
We at TransForm Solutions recognize the value of enriched, accurate, and targeted data. Leverage powerful insights to advance business performance and streamline your customer touchpoints.
Trust TransForm Solutions to be your partner in operational transformation.
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