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The bad news is, our customers hate us. The good news is, we have a lot fewer customers than we used to!

Did you know that improving your customer retention to around 5% can help you increase your profit to a whopping 95%?

Amazing, isn’t it. How making a few tweaks in your customer communication can leave a significant impact on the way customers buy from you?

“A 10% increase in customer retention levels result in a 30% increase in the value of the company.” ~Ernan Roman

Here are 5 strategies you can use to boost your customer retention rate to around 80%.

Scratch around the right customers

Everything had a dream-like quality. It was the third month of my eCommerce startup & I was garnering a lot of traffic on my website. And with the right traffic, the sales kept growing. It felt like everything was in control. The sales, the traffic, and even the customer service. There was a dedicated customer agent who was responsible for handling myriad facets of customer service. The bubble burst when our customer agent came running up to me one day in a frenzy and asked me to placate a rather irate customer. Upon inquiring, I came to know that the order we delivered yesterday wasn’t wrapped according to how the customer envisaged it, which enraged the customer.

It took me 45 minutes to make the customer realize that the mistake was from his end. When our rider delivered the gift, the wrapping was in perfect order, but it was ruined by their kid before the order could reach the customer.

We develop luxury eCommerce experiences through exceptional execution.

Although we retained the customer, we learned an important lesson that day. Customer retention is a must with customers who are worth it. In his book, ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’, Tim Ferriss talks about these types of customers. Tim calls them ‘Energy Drainers’, since they take up a lot of your time without giving away much value to your brand. The best approach is to fire those customers.

Train your sales team to spot the right customers and ignore the bloodsuckers. Ensure that you’re driving the customer through a proper customer journey pipeline.

Focus on educating your customers

Do you want to know how a digital agency managed to escalate TaskQue’s traffic from 5,000 to 30,000 visitors in 6 months? Of course, you do. Because this case study will educate you on how to boost your website traffic.

You can make product demo videos just like this:

At the grass root level, customer retention boils down to two things: Firstly, keeping your customer engaged. And secondly, the customer is finally able to see value in your product. At times, a customer might not be able to see any value in your product. At that time you need to step-up and show how your product benefits them. You can do this through constant communication and with the help of videos or SlideShare presentations. The key is bridge the chasm between your customers and your team. Automate emails, start a blog to educate your customers, or even come up with product hacks on your YouTube channel.

This collaborative effort will help the customers engage with your brand and to keep you on top of their mind while buying a product they need.

Automate your failed payment emails

“96% of ill-fated customers don’t complain, however, 91% of those will simply leave and never come back.” ~1Financial Training services

When I placed my first order on Amazon, the payment didn’t get through. I made a mental reminder to try again the next day. Surprisingly, Amazon sent an email informing me of the reasons why my card didn’t go through. I sorted out the problem and placed the order right away.

You might be thinking what the big deal is about missing a few payments? Churn Buster doesn’t think so. A company which keeps an eye on failed payments shared stats that more than 50% of companies ignore their failed payments, which actually is a big blow for customers.

The good news is however that you can do something about it. When you are starting out, it is good to respond to customers who tried and failed to pay on your website. But as your business grows, it gets increasingly difficult to keep an eye on it. This is where technology helps you out.

You can automate your failed payment emails and ask your team to keep a watch if things go south.

Keep a watch on your customers

The more customers engage with your product, the more ingrained it will become in their day-to-day lives. For instance, if you listen to Spotify every day or watch Netflix every night, it becomes ever harder to part with them. You are unlikely to cancel any of those activities. Customer engagement is a precious variable and companies can retain their customers if they learn how to watch, analyze, and track customers.

Set up systems to monitor and flag any activity which shows a disengagement of your customers. Develop a system to communicate with your customers and re-engage them before they leave. This can easily be done with follow-up emails and live-chat messages.

Automate customer feedback

Once you’ve gained customer insights, it becomes easier to expand your customer retention rate. It is best to comprehend where your product lacks and which features of your products are winning the hearts of your customers.

Set-up automated email campaigns which allow customers to give feedback after a certain amount of time. Gather that feedback and track responses which can help you improve the customer experience and hone in on your marketing tactics.

That is all for now folks!

Losing customers is not a good thing. But losing your employees is a terrible thing. Basically, when you’re investing in your customers, you are inadvertently investing in your employees. The same tactics which are helping you nurture your customers can empower your employees to achieve the overall goals of the company.

There is much hype surrounding putting people first and integrating a culture of humanity and approachability within your company. When you start alleviating the pressure off your employees, they will be happier to retain your customers without any questions asked.