Polymatiks

Top 4 customer retention strategies to build customer loyalty

Photo by Cottonbro Studio

Every retailer knows that loyal customers are incredibly valuable. In fact, retention is key in increasing sales and profits, as:

  • Existing customers spend 67% more than new customers;
  • You’re 60-70% more likely to sell to an existing customer (vs. 5-20% to new customers); and
  • A 5% boost in customer retention increases profits by 25% to 95%!

Despite these amazing benefits, 61% of retailers cite customer retention as their biggest challenge. In this article, we outline our top 4 retention strategies to drive customer loyalty. 

Every retailer knows that loyal customers are incredibly valuable…[however] 61% of retailers cite customer retention as their biggest challenge

1. Provide outstanding customer service

While obvious that providing outstanding customer service is a critical retention strategy, many retailers fail to do so and meet their customers’ expectations. Customers want to feel well-served and valuable, just as you do as a consumer. 

Providing outstanding customer service takes effort and can be delivered in numerous ways, from being:

  • Reachable by phone, email, and / or online chat, whatever works best for you
  • Responsive to the questions and problems that your customers might have
  • Knowledgeable about the products and services you sell

Outstanding customer service extends to post-purchase as well, and it’s all about more communication. This can entail:

  • Sending out a confirmation email about their order and its shipping status
  • Asking customers about your service and the products they bought
  • Offering them additional information such as FAQs regarding the products purchased

The good news is that a good number of the customer service activities can be enabled through Shopify apps.

2. Deliver personalized offers

From delivering personalized offers to customers who have yet to make a purchase to curating personalized offers to customers based on their own purchases and behaviors, personalized offers make customers feel special and that you’re paying attention to them. In fact, by delivering personalized offers, you’d be meeting customers’ expectations, as 91% of customers are more likely to shop with retailers that provide relevant offers to products that meet their needs and desires1.

Once again, the good news is that the Polymatiks app can enable you to continuously deliver relevant, optimized, and personalized offers to each customer. Polymatiks delivers these personalized offers in a seamless way, whether it’s through a PRIVATE SALE collection, in a product tile, or in a product page, as highlighted here.

91% of customers are more likely to shop with retailers that provide relevant offers to products that meet their needs and desires

3.Give referrals rewards

You can incentivize referrals, which allows you to tap into your customers’ networks to expand your reach. Personal referrals from already-satisfied / happy customers work great as people tend to trust those they know. Moreover, referrals boost your credibility and provide you with organic word-of-mouth advertising.

Simplicity and automation of a referral program are key to its success, and picking the right Shopify app to enable it is critical.

4.Gather reviews and testimonials

Research has shown that when someone takes the time to write a review or provide a testimonial about a particular product or brand that they like, it deepens the bond they have for that product or brand. These reviews and testimonials do more than just increase customer loyalty – they can help you acquire new customers as well!

Send your customers occasional emails asking them to give reviews and testimonials on your site or on major review sites. Yes, it will require you to put in extra time and effort to attract these reviews and testimonials, but it’s definitely worth it.

Customer retention is key to your brand’s success. Get started by implementing some of the retention strategies outlined, and we’re here to help. Click here to book your demo or email us at info@polymatiks.ai.

1 Accenture

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