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Gone are the days when offering a quality product or service is enough to keep customers coming back for more. Marketplace competition is intense and without a targeted strategy that addresses both attracting new customers and keeping the old ones, businesses can watch their revenue stagnate or disappear.

Landing new customers is like ensnaring a fish on a line. It is exhilarating for an instant but what do you do after you hook them? In the ever-expanding online marketplace and social media platforms, engaging in custom software development is key to designing a foundation for customer retention.

Building Your Customer Retention Strategy

Creating a customer experience that drives people to return encompasses numerous touchpoints that all need to be addressed independently as well as comprehensively. Every area of customer experience must function well on its own, but when utilized as an overall strategy a company can capitalize on the expanse and quality of its reach.

The best place to begin is the customer onboarding process. You have them, now what do you do with them? A misstep at this crucial point can be the difference between customers sticking around or saying goodbye. This is your opportunity to shower them with some immediate online love.

Customers may find your products or services appealing enough to make a purchase, but if the process contains even a nugget of difficulty or confusion you have already sown the seed for them to question a return. Many online consumers make their first contact with your business via your website or mobile app. Even the most tech-savvy of buyers do not want to waste time deciphering your website’s navigation to get to the point of sale. Website design that provides optimal customer experience is essential to building loyalty and empowering the buyer to return.

It is always valuable to assess the ease with which a customer peruses your website, but it is just as important to provide the components that keep them engaged. Are your customers able to leave feedback? Can they sign up for newsletters that offer promotions or product updates? Can they access educational pieces like product tutorials?

These are all valid questions to ask when designing your first website or looking at updating your current one. Keeping customer experience at the forefront of website design lays the groundwork for a positive and seamless onboarding process that can secure long-term loyalty.

Communication and Personalization

No one wants to feel like the tiny fish in the giant online pond who goes unnoticed or unappreciated. It is not surprising that consumers can feel undervalued when looking at the massive landscape of the online marketplace. Even amid this seemingly infinite universe, business owners are still able- and encouraged- to add a personal touch to make their customers feel they are receiving individualized attention.

For a business, customers are not anonymous people who disappear after making a purchase. Harnessing the power of online communication is a critical part of disseminating a company’s message to build loyalty. Whether using a website, a social media site, or a mobile app, allowing customers to connect with you using these platforms or receiving information from them gives them the access they desire to feel heard.

A few great places to start communication that builds customer retention include:

• Send a thank you email after a purchase has been made. While nothing can compare to a handwritten note, this is of course rarely feasible, an email message thanking the customer by name and identifying their purchase is a perfect first step in sowing the seed of retention.
• Send a follow-up email acknowledging customer birthdays or alerting customers to promotions, new products, and sales.
• Send a reminder email for subscription expiration dates and offer a discount for renewal.
• Never allow a review to exist online without a message from the company thanking the customer for saying something positive or addressing and possibly rectifying a negative message.
• Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are incredibly useful in engaging customers with personalized communication. While they may not be lengthy conversations, they can add a human touch to building a customer’s connection with the people behind a product or service, thus helping to increase loyalty.

Be a Problem Solver and a Community Champion

There may be nothing more negatively impactful to customer retention than a business not exhibiting the skills to problem solve. Problems occur in every facet of life and are included in customer experience. Servers crash and wrong items are shipped. The human factor that exists in business can simply make mistakes. But often it is how a mistake is handled that precipitates whether a customer remains loyal.

The skills required for damage control and problem-solving can often be as simple as saying “we’re sorry and we can fix that.” Most reasonable customers understand that mistakes can happen and appreciate solutions. Executing this part of the customer experience with humility combined with a solution can go a long way in solidifying a buyer’s desire to return. When issues are handled well, the customer will perceive a business as fair, equitable, and possessing the integrity upon which your message is based.

And finally, as consumers become more socially conscious, they expect the businesses they frequent to exhibit similar awareness. Identify an issue that is important to your business or one that aligns with your products or services. And then walk the walk whether you are helping to clean up the environment, providing food for underserved populations, or teaching literacy. Do something good because it is the right thing to do, and your customers will notice and remember.

Have you looked at the customer retention numbers for your business? Are they robust or do they look a little anemic? Custom software development is an essential component of thriving in a crowded and competitive business world. Maybe you need a new website or expertise in mobile app development to help secure the loyalty of customers you have worked so hard to obtain. Talk to an expert web development team today to create your customer retention strategy.