No business can survive without paying customers. No matter how high quality the offering, if you can’t appeal to your audience and establish a foothold in the industry, your chances of survival go out the window. Thus, many companies, both large and small, emphasize the importance of keeping their customers happy. They also understand that it’s much cheaper to retain customers than acquire new ones.
However, many companies also fail to hit the mark regarding customer relationship management and retention. Their strategies fall off in the long-term and sometimes even have no value to provide. And to address this growing issue, we will be redefining how a successful CRM and retention strategy functions.
Don’t They Mean the Same Thing?
In theory, both concepts may seem interchangeable at first because their overall goal often coincides with each other, but the difference lies in how they go about reaching these goals. CRM revolves around developing a healthy relationship with customers, a proactive approach to making the customers want to stay. Meanwhile, a retention strategy is more reactive in nature and changes customers’ mindsets who want to leave. Of course, it’s safe to say that these strategies rely on similar factors too.
- Personalization: Building a connection with a new customer is one of the most challenging gaps to fill, which is why many companies place a strong emphasis on effective client onboarding processes. True personalization steps in as a technique of seamless transition and makes the ordeal tailored to the interests of the client.
- Segmentation and Profiling: Customers don’t fall into a one-size-fits-all strategy. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, varying preferences, contrasting engagement levels, and unique needs. As such, segmentation and profiling ensures that communication is well-suited for the audience and that no messages come off as spam.
- Content: A compelling CRM and retention strategy relies on relevant and meaningful content to regularly discuss with your customers and clients. Content that resonates with them personally and comes in the form of added value from your business.
- Customer Service: Once again, customer service is an essential factor in CRM and retention. When clients feel valued through timely responses and accessible conversations; it benefits both reactive and proactive approaches. Good customer service highlights a company that understands its responsibility to their client, making your business look more appealing and trustworthy.
Basic Principles
Apart from the factors that help guarantee success, there are also basic principles behind an effective CRM and retention strategy to produce results and build a healthy brand image. Furthermore, excellent implementation of these principles allows companies to raise their prices without affecting retention rates because customers and clients recognize the value of staying with your brand.
#1 Frequency
Frequency is one of the most straightforward principles to understand but can be easily messed up. In common practice, most companies think that sending out as much as you can and as often as you can is the only way to go, but this leaves potential customers feeling that you’re trying to force something down their throat.
Sadly, there’s no real one-two combo because customers have varying opinions on how frequent bumps, emails, and notifications should be before they become annoying. However, consistency of when you upload and providing actual value are simple ways to work around the negative light of newsletters and emails.
#2 Timeliness
Surprisingly, when clients receive these updates can also have a strong impact, and when companies bump their newsletters at the break of dawn or late at night, these are often received annoyingly. A potential customer could be in the middle of something urgent or trying to cool down for the day, only to be rudely interrupted by an unexpected vibration.
Our suggestion is to go through your analytics and see what time of day gets the most clicks, the longest engagement time, and received more redirects back to your official website. This will give you a strong grasp on your customers’ behavior and help you capitalize on opportune moments where your client is most likely to respond positively.
#3 Value
Finally, you want your message to give value because this is what sets you apart from other companies in the same industry. If your communication is all quantity but lacks depth and substance, this can cause potential customers to look the other way and choose your competition’s services. Ensure that your information is relevant, accurate, personalized, and delivers your unique selling proposition to grab the customer’s attention and make them click.
Implement Cross-Selling and Up-Selling Tactics
As a side note, if you’re done going through the factors and basic principles, now’s the perfect chance to insert a bit of cross-selling and up-selling tactics into your CRM and retention strategy. Since performance is often measured through the number of sales you can make, this is also a great way to gauge the effectiveness of any changes to your current strategy.
Data Won’t Lie
Before you consider your options, we want to remind you that the effectiveness of these methods can vary from one business to the next. But, one thing’s for sure is that data won’t lie, so make sure to run your analytics and observe which of these principles offer a great return on investment.
