Focus on Customer Retention: The key to expanding your business horizons

Get closer to your customers and understand what they need even before themselves.’ -Steve Jobs

No matter how good your product is, it is of no use if your targeted audience does not approve of it. Customer retention is as necessary as making durable products. Research shows that if a customer has bought something from your website or mobile app, there are 60% chances that he/she makes one more purchase. On the other hand, if a new customer comes to your platform, the chances of that customer getting converted into a buying user are only 20%. The 60% chances of the customer coming back happen when you give them their desired product and better customer experience.

In simple words, customer retention is an art of keeping your previous users intact so that they would come again to your platform. Many successful businesses work on this very fundamental of keeping the old ones alive.

Whether you realize this or not, but customer retention plays a vital role in increasing the magnitude of profitability for your business. Thus, it becomes essential to understand the methods of customer retention to make your product building worthwhile.

Execute extensive customer surveys

Executing optimal customer surveys is one of the main ways of understanding what your customer needs. It also helps the business to know where the customers are facing difficulty in your product and allows you to get rid of it. Never make the mistake of assuming that you know your customers in and out. Customer surveys assist you in gaining in-depth knowledge about the psyche of the user and propelling you to build a more customer-centric product. When you ask your customers about the shortcomings of the mobile app, you get the most unbiased and raw reviews. The customer feels wanted and honoured. This method would fuel customer loyalty in just the correct proportion.

After doing the survey, make sure that you implement all the changes in your product before rolling out the next version. Keep your customers in the loop about the changes that you made and how valuable was their feedback in the whole process.

A personal touch can weave magic

By incorporating personal touch with your customers, your mobile app can scale ahead of its competitors by leaps and bounces. You know that much of the customer data gets stored in the CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Thus, it becomes easy for the organization to track the customer’s record and indulge the conversation with them at a personal level. You can always check the customer's track record, difficulties that they have faced in the past with your mobile app, their buying pattern and many more. Personalizing your interaction with the customers makes them believe in partnering with your product for a long time. They also see that with your personal interaction, the user is not dealing with an organization that sends invoices.

You can do simple things like wishing them on their important days, by sending push-notifications according to their likes and many more. These small gestures help in building your brand loyalty with the customers and give you free of cost positive 'word of mouth' publicity.

A Stringent CSR activity

Treat your customers as a community that you are serving with your mobile app, and thus it requires some commitments. Understand that your customers have become more socially conscious, and with the advancement of technology, they take note of every small thing that is done by you for society. A neat corporate social responsibility program can do wonders for your product and increase the goodwill of the company to an unprecedented level. A CSR activity is easy to handle.

For example, make a rule of donating some percentage of your profit to a nonprofit organization. Organize some events with the locals, charity from the CEO's fund. It can go a long in having your business established as a significant player in the industry. Apart from bringing positivity in the society, it spreads the right word about your organization and the customers that are associated with you also feel proud. They realize that your company is not just here to garner profits and revenue but to do good for society as well. The brownie points out that the organization gets by the acts of charity stays with the users and helps in increasing customer retention.

Also Read: Mobile App Marketing escalating the growth of Businesses Worldwide

Accept your mistakes and apologize

Well, here lies the most crucial aspect of customer retention. Mistakes are part and parcel in any business around the globe. The mistake can be as big as a data breach or as small as missing a number or two in the billing process. The core here is, whenever you commit a mistake, make sure to say sorry and apologize to your customer. A research done by Hubspot found that 96% of the customers do their shopping again from the company who is willing to accept their mistake and rectify it. You need to devise a plan for the failure of your product, how are you going to solve it, apologize and make sure that the same mistake won't happen again. Honesty is respected everywhere, and it plays a mighty important part in boosting your customer retention rate. You can accept your mistake publically by writing a blog addressing the problem or privately by sending a 'Sorry' email to the customer. Many companies feel that apologizing for their mistake will show them in a bad light, but the reality is far different from this assumption. Therefore, make sure to say sorry earnestly and see that the mistake is just a slip, not a fall for your product.

Make your customers informed

The process of the user visiting your website or mobile app should not stop after just one round. Whenever the customer is there at a platform, show him/her relatable options to the product that they are searching. This will not only increase customer engagement but will also provide the user with knowledge about the products that you have. It will help in bringing him or her back to the forum with a positive mindset and a tendency to shop more. Make sure that the options that you provide must not hamper the customer experience; otherwise, it could go against you. The procedure should be hassle-free and neat. Also, keep an eye to competitors as to what they are doing to inform their customers.

Related: How to improve Mobile App Customer Experience like a Pro?

Conclusion

Your organization must use customer retention to their fullest of advantage in the present situation of cut-throat competition, and loyalty becomes very important. Not only does customer retention lower your product marketing expenses, but it will also be handy for the organization to think about raising the standards of customer service. The key is to maintain all your focus on what the customer needs and mould your product accordingly in a timely manner. Rest everything will fall into place.