Introduction
Excellent customer service is critical for success in today’s fast-changing, competitive business climate. In fact, service may be the most effective approach to set your company apart from the competitors and to keep your existing customers happy. According to Forest Research, finding a new client costs five times as much as keeping your existing customers happy. Small modifications can have a tremendous impact on how customers view your service’s quality and can be the difference between client loyalty and high churn rates.
Knowing the worth of a lost customer is crucial in a competitive industry! To to keep your existing customers happy and you don’t lose a single transaction when you lose a single customer; you lose a lifelong opportunity to earn from that consumer. This obviously has an influence on the company’s bottom line, which has a huge knock-on effect that affects everyone’s job security.
Customer Acquisition vs. Customer Retention
The most common blunder made by organizations all over the world is believing that if they have a great product or service, customer retention will naturally follow. While this may be true in some cases, the unpleasant reality is that it is only a short-term solution. A worse reality is that your clients may simply leave at any time. Because if you don’t attempt, your clients will begin to believe that you don’t care about them.
What is Causing Customers to Leave?
- Inequitable treatment. Customers that feel mistreated by businesses are at the top of the list and would prefer to stay loyal if they had a better customer experience. Customers are upset and disappointed because of ineffective service automation, such as limited access to customer assistance.
- People are willing to stay if they are treated fairly, even though the price is the most important factor influencing churn. It’s a fast victory for competitors to capture new clients when another company promises a better experience at a lower price point.
- Service to Humanity. Customers want to speak with a live person whenever they have an issue. Finding answers on a website or communicating with a bot chat fails to satisfy a customer’s particular demands, leaving them feeling unheard and with solutions that don’t solve their problem.
TIPS TO KEEP YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS HAPPY
Listen to your customer
The first step in dealing with churn at your company is to actively listen to what our customers have to say about their experience. Unfortunately, there is a significant disparity between organizations that believe they provide outstanding customer service (80 percent) and customers who believe they received superior customer service (8 percent). According to an Oracle poll, 89 percent of customers said they would transfer to a competing brand after a terrible experience.
Notice churning signs in advance
The most obvious technique for ensuring client retention is to prevent a customer from leaving. If you pay great attention, you can always spot the indicators of a customer’s impending departure. You must first determine the important variables of client behavior, such as purchase patterns, product usage, and previous customer service inquiries, in order to collect these “warning” signals.
Target customers with a special offer
The more information you have about your consumers, the more you will be able to personalize your approach to each one. CRM software allows you to see a customer’s purchasing history so you can figure out what kind of offer will appeal to them the most and boost relevancy, which will keep your brand in their minds. What you need to do now is revive their interest and convert it into a purchase! You can achieve this by providing unique discounts or added value to your goods.
Automate emails via trigger-based events
Customers go through various steps after completing a purchase. By sending the relevant emails at the right times, you may take advantage of opportunities to strengthen relationships and reduce client turnover. Emails with a trigger have a 5x higher open rate and a 15x higher click-through rate.
Reward your most profitable (VIP) customers
The data acquired in CRM software might help you determine which of your accounts is the most profitable. These are the consumers or key accounts that you don’t want to lose. Let us refer to them as VIPs for the purposes of this discussion. Knowing who generates the most money allows you to better organize your time and resources while also increasing your chances of cross-selling and up-selling.
Personalize your follow-ups
Relationships are formed between people, and CRM software makes it easier for you to see your customer as a person rather than just a number. When you register a new customer in CRM, take advantage of the information they provide, as long as you have their permission, so you may customize future communications. The more data you have, the easier it will be to customize your follow-up strategy.
Keep your follow-up promises.
In business, keeping your promises is the ultimate display of professionalism. You can arrange follow-up calls or emails in advance with CRM software’s scheduling functions or assign follow-up tasks to members of your staff. You’ll be able to keep track of your appointments and finish any duties you said you’d do when you said you’d do them if you do it this way.
Conclusion
It takes more than just teaching individuals to smile to provide excellent customer service. It’s all about treating people the way you’d like to be treated—giving customers what they want when they want it and in the manner they want it. It all boils down to this: effective communication and interpersonal skills equal good client relations.