The digital revolution has empowered today's consumers. With competition on the rise and brand loyalty taking a back seat, customers don't think twice before shifting brands. If brands don’t look after their customers well, chances are that they will abandon the brand in question. Brands, therefore, need to have a customer-centric approach to retain their current customer base. Hence, it is vital for businesses to devise ways and means to retain customers. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can provide significant help in achieving this objective.
What is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management is used to control business interactions with customers. It is a plan or a strategy crafted to assist brands in improving their productivity and gaining customer satisfaction. This procedure is solid as it gives a complete view and it supports monitor past interactions, pending receipts, and many others.
Many brands have started using CRM platforms to further their business goals. Understanding the information of each customer is important for sales teams to identify the data when required when dealing with clients. Having important data can prove crucial when giving each customer individualized assistance.
What is customer retention?
Customer retention is the capacity a company had to keep customers engaged with its product or service. It also acts as a business strategy in Customer Relationship Management that seeks to enhance customer loyalty and reduce customer churn. Customer retention techniques include a loyalty or VIP program, personalizing the consumer experience, re-engaging at-risk customers, and placing a high value on customer service.
Customer retention is important as it provides brands with insight into their performance. To improve customer retention, brands must use their CRM system to its full potential.
Here are 10 tried & tested ways to improve customer retention:
1. Find lucrative customer segments: With proper CRM software in place, brands can avail a better view of their customers; most importantly the most profitable ones. Brands can focus on these customers and establish a much stronger connection. With these metrics, brands can also get to know about those customers who can prove to be more profitable if targeted properly.
2. Know the needs and preferences of your customers: Brands can easily learn the needs and preferences of their customers in order to come up with effective solutions. With CRM, their customers can get new ways of communicating with their brand. Customer feedback will provide brands with the information they need to improve.
3. Devise effective marketing campaigns: The traditional ways of marketing haven't proven to be all that effective for a while now, mainly because it makes it tougher to track results. With CRM tools, brands can use it to track their marketing campaign efforts in order to learn what works and what doesn't. When brands track the success of their marketing campaign, they also get to know what’s important to their customers.
4. Improve target marketing: Targeted marketing will enable brands to identify customers who crave higher levels of contacts. Brands that leverage a CRM system properly will be able to identify those customers who need expert sales rep support for better satisfaction. Doing this will enable brands to enhance the overall experience of their customers and improve their business opportunities.
5. Manage customer channels: Brands need to find out what channels work best for their business. When they know their customer's preferred channel, they can put more emphasis on it while further improving it. For example, if a web channel is what a brand's customers prefer, then brands can improve their web presence and leverage their direct sales team to focus on other productive tasks.
6. Track campaign success: A brand's marketing campaign can only be a success if they know its outcome. With a CRM system in place, brands can track the success of their marketing campaigns in real numbers. This will enable brands to change their campaign in between if they are not getting the desired results. Therefore, a CRM system will allow brands to invest in campaigns that are beneficial for their business.
7. Add value-added services and products: A CRM software will allow brands to identify where and how value-driven services and products can increase customer retention, ultimately allowing brands to develop services and products that their customers want.
8. Identify customer patterns: It is difficult as well as expensive to deal with customers shifting brands. It also will hurt your marketing efforts. Hence, it is vital for a business to find out why customers leave. A CRM system can identify these patterns and show ways to prevent it.
9. Enhance customer experience: If a brand doesn’t keep its customers satisfied, they will shift to one that does. CRM analytics and capabilities will empower brands to enhance their customer's overall experience by improving customer relationships while providing excellent service.
10. Lower operating costs: A CRM system will help brands reduce their overall operating costs. With CRM, brands can get a 360-degree view of their customers. This will help brands devise efficient and cost-effective ways of serving their consumer base. It will also allow them to invest in customers who will give them good returns.
Wrapping up
A CRM system is one of the pillars that supports a brand's business and they should find a solution to perfect it. If brands want to grow, customer retention is one of the best options. Not only does it cost less than acquiring new customers, but it will also give a brand's revenue stream a rejuvenating shot.
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