Year after year, improving customer retention is consistently a common goal is businesses across the country.
Why? It takes more money to acquire a new customer than it does to keep the same audience coming back for more. No, really…it does.
It is more fiscally responsible and smart for organizations to focus their efforts on improving customer satisfaction than it is to beef up new customer acquisition strategies.
To help get the ball rolling, our Voice of Customer (VoC) research firm will provide 4 strategies to improve customer retention rates in this blog post.
1. Conduct a Customer Retention Survey
The best way to make sure your customers remain happy and loyal to your company is by asking for their direct feedback. Understanding your customer’s satisfaction is not an area where you want to make assumptions.
Conducting a customer retention survey is simple, cost-effective, and offers real data into where there are gaps in your organization leading to poor retention rates.
This type of market research can be conducted at multiple touchpoints of a buyer’s journey. Doing so allows your team to understand strength areas, but more important bottleneck areas that may be discouraging a positive customer experience.
Instead of conducting a general survey on all aspects of doing business with you, a customer retention survey allows you to pinpoint the exact stage of the customer journey you need to change and improve.
2. Speak with Lost Customers
Another great option for increasing customer retention in 2020 is to survey or interview those who once did business with you and now are not.
Conducting a lost customer survey typically requires the help of a research firm, like Drive Research.
It is important to partner with a third-party because this audience will feel more comfortable providing their honest feedback than if you are to reach out directly.
Think of it this way...
If you experienced bad service at a restaurant and voiced your complaints through an online survey – would you be comfortable with your waiter following-up with you to discuss your poor feedback?
I certainly would not.
A customer research firm can create and distribute a survey on your behalf or by blinding the study altogether.
A lost customer survey asks questions such as:
- Why did you choose [INSERT COMPANY NAME] to begin with?
- What caused you to leave [INSERT COMPANY NAME]?
- Are you currently working with a similar company or brand instead?
- Why did you choose [INSERT COMPETITOR COMPANY NAME]?
- Is there anything [INSERT COMPANY NAME] could do to earn your business back?
The answers to these questions can help your company focus on areas of improvement so that your current customer base doesn’t follow suit of this lost audience.
3. Create a Customer Experience Program
Regardless of what audience you choose to survey (current or lost customers), it is important to collect this type of feedback regularly.
Creating a CX program with a VoC research company allows your team to rely on relevant data and keep the pulse on changes in customer satisfaction over time.
The best way to know if organizational changes regarding customer programs, processes, and procedures are helping retention rates is to measure satisfaction levels before and after.
It is no wonder more and more businesses are developing formal customer experience (CX) programs to help provide their organization with strategic insights that they need to grow.
Here are 3 reasons why every company should have a formal CX program in place.
4. React Quickly to Resolve Issues
For the sake of improving customer retention, it is key to pay close attention to where your organization can most improve. These are typically areas labeled as low satisfaction.
For example, an eCommerce site conducts an email customer survey each time someone purchases a product. The eCommerce site notices an increase in complaints regarding their returns policy and processes.
Most of their audience believes they should be able to make a return up to 30-days vs. the current policy that says refunds will be made up to two weeks.
As a result, the eCommerce site quickly changes its policy and promotes the change through email, social media, and on the homepage of their website.
By acting quickly on poor customer feedback, your audience is more likely to use your brand, product, or service again – even if they had a less than perfect experience the first time.
Contact Drive Research for Help Increasing Customer Retention
Drive Research is a national market research company located in New York. Our customized VoC surveys provide affordable and actionable insights you need.
Interested in receiving a proposal or estimate for a customer or lost customer survey? Reach out through any of the four ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Carroll
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Coordinator. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
