Starting the way you’d expect, there are several hacks that help with customer retention in online or brick-and-mortar stores. It’s much easier and cheaper to sell to someone who has already bought from you; that’s a fact. Especially in online stores, repurchase strategies are the simplest ways to start growing, and knowing how to apply them is essential. Below I’ll show you some strategies that can help you retain customers, and then we’ll talk about the technique that really works. Cross-selling and upselling Cross-selling and upselling are long-standing strategies in the world of sales in physical stores and e-commerce. Cross-selling is the strategy of offering products that complement the ones the consumer chose in the store or put in the cart, with bundles and discounts. Upselling is improving the sale by offering a product similar to the one chosen, but with more advantageous prices and quality. These actions need to benefit both the consumer and the company, and they need to be driven by valuable content and completed through quick and easy processes. Cart abandonment Did your customer visit your e-commerce site, browse the pages, put the product in the cart, and not complete the purchase? Most customers who abandon carts in online stores do so because they run into unexpected additional costs, find better prices elsewhere, or were still researching the product. The good news is that, if they got that far, a single trigger is enough to bring them back to buy from you. Cart recovery strategies involve contacting that customer by email to offer discounts, perks, or new terms so they come back and complete the purchase.
If you are not recovering at least 15% of abandoned carts with this strategy, you must be doing something wrong. Have you tried calling these customers who abandoned their carts? I bet a few minutes on the phone can win back another 15% or so of these leads. Segmentation and nurturing Planning segmentation means considering your customer’s presence through content tied to context. The first step to making this possible is capturing customer data through forms and valuable content. Once this data has been captured, it’s time to start a conversation. There are several ways to segment your content according to your visitors’ specific actions. The focus is usually on email marketing, but you can also create actions via SMS, exit-intent pop-ups and push notifications on the website with specific content for each page, Facebook ads, or messages during online customer service. How are you saving your data? Start with the basics: download an Excel spreadsheet from the database and do it manually to test messages and channels. Don’t skip testing just because you don’t have “big data” and an arsenal of “miracle” software. Loyalty programs
Loyalty programs have existed for decades upon decades, and while offering points for every purchase is one way to handle them, there are now countless others. When it comes to after-sales, the best thing to do is to get creative and design programs that fit your company’s profile and speak your audience’s language. You can offer gifts, discounts, cash back, or be bold and create events and interaction groups, generating engagement. It all depends on who you are and how you want your audience to perceive you. But even though these and many other ready-made rules produce results in some respects, what really works in the long run when it comes to customer retention is being good at what you do. That applies to any profession. Having a team that works in synergy, a company that knows how to handle internal conflicts, an adequate internal structure, and high-quality services is worth more than any list of ready-made practical tips. There is no point in continuing to try to implement new systems, spreadsheets, processes, and practices in your company if these points don’t come first. Only with solid foundations can you build a skyscraper.
Prefer the whole book?