Customer Retention: Proven Ways to Build Customer Loyalty in Retail

It is a well-known fact that retaining your current customers often requires less investment of both time and money than finding new customers. However, many retailers currently struggle to build effective customer retention strategies in today’s overcrowded marketplace.

There are several key benefits to customer loyalty, including a higher chance of having your business referred via word of mouth and more consistent sales over time. If your rate of customer retention has been lacking lately, here are some proven strategies you can use to keep customers coming back.

Improve Customer Service for Customer Retention

Good customer service leads to happier customers – a simple, yet undeniably important part of customer retention. Customer service has a great impact on every stage of the customer buying cycle and any weakness in this area will no doubt be reflected in your rate of retention.

If you want your customer satisfaction to soar through the roof, you need a properly trained workforce, both in-store and online in technical and user support. This process can nevertheless consume a great deal of time and money, which is why many businesses now look to retail outsourcing as an effective solution.

Personalize the Customer Experience

Consumer expectations are constantly evolving and a new era of personalization has arrived in the retail industry. Customers now expect a fully tailored shopping experience when doing business with you online.

Personalization helps customers save time while making them feel valued and providing them with a unique experience. This is now the new norm and is tremendously valuable for customer retention. Fortunately for retailers, personalization can be simplified using customer engagement software like Veras Reach.

Implement a Customer Loyalty Program

Implementing a customer loyalty program is a straightforward and efficient way to encourage repeat purchases. Essentially, a loyalty program offers your customers an incentive or reward for doing business with you a second, third, fourth or twelfth time.

This can be something as simple as getting your sixth coffee for free at McDonalds or something more intricate like a mobile application that reward customers for actions they perform. Other alternatives like points programs don’t simply reward the customer, they also discourage the customer from shopping at a competitor.

Create a Sense of community

In the age of social media, everyone wants to feel a sense of belonging and community. While this can sometimes lead to online bubbles being created, fostering a sense of community with your customers is nonetheless an effective customer retention strategy.

Creating a sense of community largely involves being engaged with your customer base, typically on social platforms. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Start a weekly newsletter
• Become active in other communities
• Host events, both on and offline
• Listen to feedback and make changes accordingly
• Engage customers on social media

Conclusion

When actively reading business articles online, you have likely been flooded with advice about attracting new customers. However, retaining customers is just as important and can often be cheaper and easier.

If you want to develop your customer retention strategies, our retail consulting services can help you achieve your goals. Don’t hesitate to contact us today.