A Better Approach to User Retention to Boost Growth in 5 Simple Steps
If user retention hasn’t been on your radar for your business, now is the time to shift focus and make this the priority. Before we discuss how to improve user retention, let’s look quickly as to why user retention is so important. To start, user retention costs far less than acquiring new customers, with engaged customers being more profitable overall. In fact, research indicates engaged customers spend 60% more per transaction and deliver 23% more revenue and profitability. Overall, boosting your customer retention is twice as valuable as acquiring new customers.
Now that we’ve identified why user retention is important, we’re going to look at the top 5 ways to boost growth with your brand.
1. Create a Retention Framework
A “retention framework” functions as your strategy to successfully retain customers. The foundation of such a framework requires you to align your sales and support teams. While they are two typically separately functioning entities, successful customer retention requires them to work together.
For the customer-based business having your sales team continually bringing in new customers isn’t enough to see substantial, long-term growth. Customers that don’t receive the support they need will end up dissatisfied and will take their business elsewhere.
When your support and sales teams work together, however, you’ll find that the customers your sales team are bringing in are happy and growth will occur. In most cases, this means monitoring the growth of the company so your sales don’t exceed your capacity to support these new customers. The growth of new business should coincide with the growth of your support team to ensure your existing customers remain happy with your services and you’ll be able to retain the new customers your sales team is bringing in.
2. Make Your Product Easy to Use
When creating a new website, one of the most important aspects is UX or user experience. You want to be sure customers not only enjoy using your website but can easily navigate it and find what they need. The same goes for your product. As a SaaS or eCommerce business, you may not have the opportunity to work directly with customers as they begin to use your product.
Start by focusing on the onboarding process, ensuring the process is streamlined and easy for all of your customers to utilize. All user interfaces should be easy to navigate and accessible. Customers should be able to seamlessly switch between your mobile app and desktop interface. If your product or software isn’t intuitive customers are going to leave, regardless of your price point, because in the long run ease of use will matter more.
Once you’ve established a smooth onboarding process it’s time to turn your attention to establishing a pattern of usage among your customers, and ensuring your product or service becomes an indispensable tool or product so they remain a customer.
3. Create a Customer Feedback Loop
A customer feedback loop is another great tool for customer retention because it identifies how your customers feel about your business. Without this information, it’s impossible to understand how to improve your business and what will make your customers happier, and in turn how to retain customers.
The loop begins with creating a process for customer feedback such as a survey utilizing Google Forms or Survey Monkey requesting customer feedback, (this is also a great way to get new reviews!). Once you have this feedback you should analyze the results to identify areas for growth. This is a great way to show your customers that you are listening and care about what they have to say, and in turn is a strong tool for customer retention.
Feedback loops should be a regular practice in your business, but are especially useful during times of growth or when you plan to introduce a new product or service.
4. Maintain Strong Communication Between Your Company & Your Customers
Maintaining communication between your brand and customers relies on maintaining strong relationships with your customers. This concept should be at the core of how your entire team functions from sales to support.
CRM software is a great tool for cultivating customer relationship management. If you already use one, it’s time to put it to use by ensuring you are collecting customer data that can be used to grow your business.
An important piece of data to look at when developing a CRM strategy is your history of client interactions. This allows you to improve on your overall customer service and support offerings.
While customer analytics can help you identify which of your customers are most profitable. This information can help you identify opportunities for product improvements, revenue potential, and help you identify new marketing strategies.
CRM software also allows you to automate communications with your customers, which saves your team valuable time, while functioning as another means of communication with your customers.
5. Enhance Customer Support & Their Overall Experience
Finally, enhancing customer support and their overall experience with your brand is the final piece of this puzzle. Treating each and every customer with white glove support will keep them coming back and happy to maintain a relationship with your brand.
At Re:amaze, we help brands improve their customer support offering through our live chat helpdesk and chatbot software. One of the most frustrating things for a customer is having to wait for answers to a question or problem. With automated chat support many of their questions can be answered by a chatbot, or by redirecting customers to the FAQ section of your website. When an issue is beyond the scope of a chatbot, the inquiry can be escalated to a live agent, who can work directly with your customer to find a solution.
To learn more about Re:amaze and how our chat services can improve your customer service offering, while promoting growth for your business visit our website today.
