One of the hardest things that a business has to do when they are trying to stay open is to keep hold of the customers that come through the door. Each person who gives you their business is someone that you can turn into a long-term option for success, but only if you are smart about how you keep your customers interested.

There is no point in continuing to grow a business that you cannot sustain – if you’re not taking care of your current customers, what would be the point in bringing more on board?

It’s very important that you consider how customer loyalty strategies come into play. What are you offering people? What is it that you do that’s any different to anyone else in the business you are in? You see, your behavior with your existing customers is what will tell newbies whether to sign up or not. If you’re not bothered about people who have already parted with their cash, why would anyone else bother with you? It’s a vicious circle to be stuck in, and if you’re not careful you could be the loser in the situation when word of mouth spreads – and you’re on the wrong side of it. From keeping customer data safe with compliant wrap documents to knowing how to contact your customers from time to time to see how they are, you need strategies to maximize your customer interaction. You need to know that you are doing your very best for the people who are paying you, and for that to work you need a list of top tips to ensure you’re going in the right direction. With this in mind, here are some of the very best solutions to your customer retention issues.

Make Sure That You Stand For Something Great

What’s the point in running a business if you have no ethos? If you want your customers to ignore you, don’t worry about standing for anything – they won’t be standing beside you, either. If you want to appeal to your best and brightest customers, you need to get them to care about you. If you have a goal, shout it from the rooftops!

Have You Worked on Social Proof Yet?

There is a thing out there called social proof, and if you’re not aware of it then it’s time to wake up and get aware! Did you know that negative social proof will stop people from signing up with you? You need to make sure that you are offering positive social proof. Tell people that they will be joining the hundreds of people that you have helped already – let them know they won’t be alone!

Match Their Energy

If you want to appeal to a certain customer base, you need to learn to appeal to their inner ego. You need to craft your brand message so that you match their energy exactly, which means that you need to know their goals and aspirations. You can then ensure that you are attracting the right customers from the get go!

Use Your Words

A big part of the selling process is to use the right words when it comes to interacting with and selling to your customers. You need your website to stand out properly and that means using the right hooks and calls to action to appeal to your customers. The right words can be everything to the people looking to buy from you.

Always Go Above and Beyond

The worst thing that you can do as a business leader is to keep pulling in more customers while not doing enough for the existing customer base. They will feel ignored and you will not be able to keep up with new sign ups because you won’t get the loyalty that you’re looking for. You need to work on going above and beyond so that you can repeat business!

Adjust Your Budget as Needed

Your customer budget could appear like it costs a lot of money, but it doesn’t have to be. You need to remember that you can be frugal while giving back, and you can build loyalty with a small budget. It’s the thought that really counts, and you need to remember that before you panic about whether you are doing enough. It can be a small amount of money that really helps you to appeal to your customers, and so you need to factor this into your budget.

Offer Some Surprise

Those amazing new deals? Don’t just reserve those for your new customers – use them for the existing customers on your list. If you have the cash there to offer newbies money off, then surprise your current customers with a 10% off for the next two months. You’ll be happy to note that you can easily retain customers when you give them a little back!

Where Possible, Always Make It Personal

You can do so much better with your customer retention if your emails are addressed by name to your customers. If you include a personal thank you for shopping with their name on the order, you’re going to appeal to them and they will feel like they are getting a personalized experience. This is so important but it’s worth the extra mile. When they talk about you to others, you will notice that you end up with both loyal customers and new ones that are easier to retain!

Slow Down

It’s nice to turn around your business orders in record time, but there is no excuse for poor quality. If you want people to keep coming back to your business, then you need to think about the quality of the service that you are offering. Slow down and work on offering a solid service that focuses on the quality and not the speed in which you can churn out orders. Speed is good but if it’s going to compromise the quality of what you are offering your customers, it’s time to slow down and realize that they don’t want fast – they want better.

Get To Know Them

You need to reach out from time to time and get to know your customers. You can do this with specific logins to your website that offer surveys from time to time, and you can even work on doing text message surveys, too. There is plenty of information out there that shows that people want to have a positive experience. Don’t be idle: get to know the people who are buying from you so that you can offer them a better, tailored experience for their interaction with your business.

Use Your Platform Effectively

If you want ease of use, a website that you can run yourself without any coding can be a huge help. You need to use your website and your social media platforms effectively if you want to appeal to your users. Your customers need to feel appreciated and that means you have to provide them with easy usage and excellent content – and you can do these things with the right website built for you.

Get Everyone Involved

From the top dogs to the admin in your business, every single person needs to have a customer focus. It should never be ‘what works for us’, but ‘what works for them’ and you need to implement this throughout the entire company. If everyone is involved, you’re going to find it much easier to get your customers feeling appreciated, continue their loyalty and enable them to feel like they are a part of what you’re offering rather than on the periphery. Train your admin team on your loyalty programs and offers, and make sure that you get sign off from everyone to create the best offers for those already paying for your service. Yes, it’s important to pull more customers in, but not at the detriment of the people already paying you!

Have a VIP Option

Where you want to retain loyalty from customers, if you offer them the option to ‘level up’ with your service, you’re going to ensure that they are curious about what more you can give them. You need your customers to be VIPs and if you do that, you will be able to speak to their human nature as well as offer them a whole new arena of customer service. VIPs need more than the regular customers, too, so where you go above and beyond for regular customers, you need to go above that, too!

Give Your Customers a Label

You have to think about how you consider your customers, and that means you give them labels. People will participate if you give them a personality trait and you will even be able to segment your customers based on these traits. Don’t just call them paid members. Use florals, colors, something fun to identify your customer levels and make them all feel valued at the same time.

If you know how to keep your customers, you’re going to be much more successful.