While it is seen as accepted wisdom that an existing customers is some six or seven times cheaper to keep than attracting a new one, it is nevertheless quite a tricky art keeping customers coming back for more.
The key thing is that you are looking to build a relationship with these people – but you have to make sure that you understand their needs, likes and drivers as much as you might your work colleagues or even your other half.
Read On:
Emails that entice customers back
Do you know how valuable your customers are?
What data should you collect from customers?
So what do you need to do for the perfect marriage?
Service is king
According to a survey as far back as 2009 carried out by Accenture, the biggest reason for customer churn isn’t price but quality of customer service.
Bain & Company back this up, suggesting that a customer is in fact four times more likely to defect to another retailer online if they experience poor customer service. There is also anecdotal evidence that suggests that it takes 10 to 12 positive experiences to make up for a bad one.
So it pays to get the customer experience and the service right if you want consumers to remain loyal and keep coming back. Of course this involves myriad things – many of which are outlined below – but in essence you have to offer the best service you possible can and go the extra mile when ever possible (and economically feasible to do so).
Also going out of your way to offer great service will lead to customers not only coming back, but also to telling their friends – so it also generates new business.
Keep it fresh
While the level of service has to be exemplary, you also have to keep your site fresh and new looking – while retailing familiarity of course – so that there is constantly a reason for consumers to come back of their own accord, as well as reasons why you can contact them and legitimately offer them a reason to revisit your site.
Fresh offers and fresh goods are of course always good, but failing that regular blogs or new and interesting content – tips, advice, reviews, profiles of staff etc – are all good at keeping the site fresh and hopefully a place that your customers feel they want to come visit. It also helps develop a personality around your brand and building a more personal relationship.
Welcome back
Repeat customers come back to you because they know you and you must show them that you know them. So make it easy for them to log back in – or even better remember them.
Try and offer the ability to let them store payment details and delivery addresses so that buying for existing customers is simple.
Also, many consumers these days are pretty much permanently logged into a social media site, so let them log in to you using their Facebook or Twitter account. Its all really part of making it easy for them to buy from you.
Reward loyalty
Often considered the most obvious way of retaining customers, loyalty rewards are – along with special offers and personal offers – are powerful tools to use in encouraging return customers.
According to research in the US by Zendesk, loyalty rewards were a driver for return custom for 39% of consumers, with strong sales support and customer service tickling 20% and personal offers at 14%.
In fact, Zendesk found that 54% of respondents said they would consider increasing the amount of business they do with a company in return for loyalty rewards.
But cheapest isn’t always the best way to get people to shop with you and cutting prices in what ever way can be detrimental not only to your bottom line, but also to your appeal to customers. So handle with care when it comes to rewarding loyalty through money off.
Instead think about how else to reward loyal customers with the chance to buy unique goods, or to get first dibs on new stock or even the tried and trusted way of accruing points – that can then be used to get money off.
Rewarding word of mouth
E-commerce Nirvana lies in where your loyal repeat customers keep coming back and they tell their friends about you and they become loyal repeat customers and your business grows. This nexus is what any business should always be striving to achieve.
So encouraging your loyal customers to become your advocates is crucial – and you need to look at how to rewards these loyal brand ambassadors.
Of course the same rules apply here as they do to rewarding simple loyalty: by all means incentivize, but don’t cheapen your brand’s standing or your quality of service.
Free shipping
Often the most overlooked aspect of e-commerce is that, compared with the bricks and mortal retail environment, it charges for shipping. One of the clearest ways to build loyalty and to keep customers coming back – and indeed in getting them to tell new customers about you – is to offer free shipping.
The addition of shipping costs at checkout is the biggest cause of cart abandonment. Offering free shipping can cut this, but it can also be the USP that keeps customers coming back to you. You just have to weigh up the cost verses the reward.
Having a reliable courier to handle the last mile is also crucial to customer loyalty and that ‘feel good factor’. Make sure you have the best delivery that you can. It may be a third party, but the customer will associate it with you, so pick one that offers updates in delivery times and a flexible service.
Stay in touch
As you will have gathered, keeping consumers loyal is akin to having a relationship: in fact you are in a relationship with them and so you have to treat them well, spoil them occasionally and above all stay in touch.
No one likes their other prospective other half to stop calling (unless they look like they may boil your bunny…) So stay in touch using email and SMS and social media.
This can involve just gentle nudging to come and have a look at the new deals on your site, or it could be a special personalized offer as a reward or it could simply be to say “Hi we haven’t seen you in a while”.
Whatever it is it has to be personal, useful and above all human. No one wants to be in a relationship with a machine.
But it takes a bit of thought as to how to make it work.
These communications – love letters if you will – need to be regular enough so that the consumer doesn’t feel you are hitting them out of the blue, yet they have to be infrequent enough so that they don’t feel completely bombarded and stalked by you.
They also have to offer something that the consumer will feel is valuable to them and not just clogging up their inbox. Tread carefully.
Speak Your Mind