Customer experience professionals might be the most valuable players in their company’s success in 2021. You hold the key to customer retention.
Nearly 60% of the businesses that had to close temporarily due to COVID-19 won’t open again, according to the Yelp Local Economic Impact Report.
Many just couldn’t retain the customers they had before they were forced to shut down. And some companies will see struggles into the next year.
So retaining customers is more important than ever.
Here are five best practices to keep customers happy and loyal:
1. Personalize every experience
People feel more disconnected than ever. So any experience that helps customers feel a little more important or closer to others will likely engage them and make you more endearing.
Start by looking for touch points or areas within your customer journey that are generic – by nature or design. How can you make them more personal? Is there a way to call on a previous experience so they feel remembered? Can you add a benefit – such as a usage tip or sincere compliment – to a routine contact?
2. Communicate with relevance
You can retain more customers by staying top of mind. That means staying in touch with relevant information and without overdoing it.
Communicate strategically – not just more – with customers. It’s all about good timing and good content. Try to send emails weekly with valuable content – such as bullet-pointed tips on how to get more life out of your products or value out of your service, a research-based white paper on industry trends or sometimes more informal content like a list of motivational quotes.
3. Meet more people
In B2B, you might help one person within your customer’s organization. And if that person – a buyer, department head, VP, etc. – leaves or changes roles, you might lose the personal connection you’ve shared over time.
To retain more customers in 2021, focus on increasing the number of people you are connected with inside a customer’s organization.
One way: When you help customers or give them an added value – such as a sample or white paper – ask if there are others in their organization who might like it, too. Get their colleagues’ contact information and personally send it.
4. Connect personally
The coronavirus put a monkey wrench in actual customer meetings. So many organizations and customer experience professionals ramped up what they could – social media reaches, email and webinars.
While we can’t predict what’s ahead, try to make plans now to “see” customers in the new year. Schedule unique Zoom events. Send gift cards for coffee shops and invite a group of customers to join in a focus group coffee meeting online. Make more phone calls and have more real conversations.
5. Be meticulous about retention
Many customer experience professionals go into a new year with plans to work on retention. Then things go sideways, and other, new demands pull them away from retention efforts.
Don’t let it happen. Instead, assign someone the task of setting aside specific times monthly to check on customers’ activity. Have they contacted service? Did they purchase? Did they request anything? Did you reach out to them? If there’s no contact, reach out with something relevant and timely.
