Customer retention should be your number one priority. It’s a whole lot easier and cheaper to sell more to existing customers than to chase new leads and convert them into first-time buyers.
But lately, that’s been more difficult for many businesses. Skyrocketing inflation makes everything more expensive and forces people to cut expenses to make ends meet.
Folks are going through their subscriptions and expenses with a fine comb, canceling what they don’t need and cutting back where they can.
But before we blame the economy for everything… people are of course still spending money. And there’s steps you can take to improve the odds of retaining your customers.
The most important thing you can do is to actually deliver. Make sure you give people what they paid for. It’s much better to overdeliver than to overpromise. If people start out disappointed, you are in for an uphill battle.
You also need to support your customers. Be available to help them and answer their questions. Nothing makes people cancel subscriptions faster than unresolved support issues.
While these may seem self-evident, here are a few best practices that could give you an edge, regardless of what’s happening in the economy.
- Provide value: When people believe they are getting a good deal, they are more likely to stick around. You can create value by being the best, the cheapest or a nice balance of the two extremes.
- Turn customers into users: it’s very easy to cancel something you don’t use. But when people start using services, like email marketing providers, web hosts etc., they tend to stick around. People simply don’t want to lose what they’ve already built. Focus your training and support to get customers to actively use your product.
- Consider subscriptions: getting recurring payments is powerful, but in times like these recurring costs can hurt conversion rates. Don’t charge recurring just because you want to line your own pocket… but by all means do so if you deliver ongoing value for your customers.
And remember that repeat customers actively make the decision to come back, but loyal customers never left!
