It seems like businesses are always on the lookout for the new customers, the new demographic, or the new way of exposing their companies. It sometimes seems like old customers get lost in the shuffle and may be taken for granted. Unfortunately, customer retention is not a certainty and you should cater to your established base as much, if not more, than you should cater to new customers. After all, it costs five times as much to gain a new customer than it does to keep an old one. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to keep old customers happy that will, in turn, attract new customers.
Optimize Your Mobile Site
Mobile sites and apps are becoming more and more important every year. When asked, over 60% of customers said that they felt they would be doing more shopping on their mobile device within the next few years. This means that a significant portion of your customer base will either begin to shop online or increase their shopping online. Without a great mobile site to cater to them, customers will likely go to a competitor, whether they like your business or not. This means that your site needs to cater to the mobile user from the search to the sale, and if your site has quality worldwide shopping cart hosting with mobile capabilities for all users, then you may very well be able to attract new customers right away.
If you don’t have a mobile-specific site or a responsive site then it’s vital to start one now. The only thing that creating a mobile site will do is to increase your customer base’s opinion of you and make customers, new and old, significantly more likely to buy a product or service from your mobile site.
Utilize Social Media
Millions of people use social networking sites, most of all Facebook. Being able to interact directly with your customers in this way is of the utmost importance. Not only will you be able to interact with your customers (and the will have a direct line to interact with you) but customers will be able to interact with each other making sure that you’re on the minds of several customers.
There is an important line to be mindful of, the line between “enhancing the experience” and “hard-selling your customer.” While enhancing the customer’s experience with meaningful tips and news relating to your business (with no obvious intention of sales) your customers will continue to interact with your social media. Part of this enhancement is also to provide your social media followers with exclusive coupons, online deals, or even sales exclusive to a specific social media site. All of this will keep you in the mind of the customer, and have them coming back.
Go Above and Beyond for Customers
Many similar strategies that your business can be using for social media can also be used on your main site. Incorporating a regularly updated blog can keep customers coming back to the site itself while providing meaningful interactions with your customers. Another way that you can go above and beyond for the customer is by asking for information about them. This will allow you to cater offers specifically to them, even going so far as to give them exclusive deals and promotions around their birthday or other important times. One of the most important ways to go above and beyond for customers is so simply ask them what they want and anticipate their needs based on surveys and monitoring customer habits. Imagine how impressed an already-loyal customer will be if their experienced changed for the better between their visits!
While it is important to grab the attention of new customers, it’s important to know that old customers will likely grab the attention of new ones for you… provided you continue to cater to their needs.
