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It’s easy to get so caught up in acquiring customers that you marginalize the ones you already have. And though there’s nothing wrong with acquiring new customers—you need them to grow—focusing on prospective customers at the expense of your current customer base won’t do anyone any good. Therefore, you need to find ways to impress your customers—all of them, all the time.
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According to Forbes, a 5 percent increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75 percent. On top of that, it’s estimated that 80 percent of a company’s future revenue will come from just 20 percent of its existing customers. Thus, if you really want to spend your time and resources well, try focusing on how you can wow your current customers and keep them around.
Ready, Set, Impress
In a highly competitive online business world where customers have plenty of choices regarding which companies they transact with, you have to stop sitting back and expecting loyalty from your customers. Instead, your brand should be so impressive that customers feel compelled to stick around.
There are hundreds of brand-specific ways you can impress your customers, but here are a few suggestions to help you proactively implement powerful change:
1. Impress Your Customers with Social Proof
Social proof is your friend. The more you let social proof do the talking, the less noise you have to make. You’ll also find it easier to build trust with your customer base, which is paramount in both customer retention and customer acquisition.
Social proof can be leveraged in a variety of ways. From customer reviews and case studies to statistics and recommendations from industry influencers, how you use it is up to you. Consider starting with customer testimonials, which can increase sales by 34 percent.
2. Respond to Online Engagement
Your customers want to feel like you care enough to interact with them on a regular basis. Thankfully, social media makes it easy for you to connect with your customers. Just ask Hopdoddy CEO Jeff Chandler, who recently spoke with Bridgepoint Consulting.
“You can’t hide from it,” Chandler says. “Social media is out there and gaining traction. We look at it as an opportunity to wow somebody. We get more than 50 comments a day, mostly good but some with opportunities attached. We respond with a two-hour turnaround during business hours or otherwise within eight hours.”
You’ll have to set your own policies. However, it’s a good idea to engage with your customers in a personal and transparent manner. Whether it’s social media, the comments section on a blog post, or your email inbox, don’t ignore your customers. Show them you care by getting back with them in a timely manner.
3. Simplify UX
The user experience (UX) between your brand and your customers needs to be frictionless. When customers leave your website, hang up the phone, or finish reading a post on your blog, they should feel at ease. The simpler these interactions are, the better for everyone involved.
Take your website experience, for example. When a customer is creating an account or making a purchase, they shouldn’t have to fill in a bunch of information or repeat information multiple times. Asking customers to clear lots of hurdles just to purchase something isn’t a smart business practice. Keep it simple, silly.
4. Empower Your Customer Reps
Your brand will, for better or worse, be defined by the interactions your customers have with employees of the business. However, it isn’t very often that the CEO is on the front lines engaging customers. For the most part, this responsibility lands on the shoulders of customer service representatives and salespeople. Unfortunately, they’re rarely empowered to resolve issues on their own.
Want to delight your customers? Train your employees in customer-facing positions and empower them to make decisions. This creates less back-and-forth and removes the need for excessive hold times. In short, it leaves customers with a positive impression of your brand.
Impress Your Customers and Set Your Brand Apart
Finally, always be looking for ways to give your brand an edge, a leg up on the competition. By committing to wowing your customers in each interaction and exchange, you take significant strides toward making this happen.
Customer acquisition and customer retention are both important elements of growth and profitability. You don’t want to marginalize either at the expense of the other. Hopefully, this article has given you some practical advice on how you can impress your existing customers and keep them in the fold.
