Customer retention: What is it? How can it be improved?

Nowadays it is very important for businesses to create strategies that allow or improve customer retention. The growth of a business is not only based on getting new customers but on keeping those who already buy our products or services.

What is customer retention?

By customer retention, we understand the activities that a company performs with the aim of reducing the rate of abandonment or loss of customers, which means, increasing customer loyalty. 

It is about performing actions to meet and go beyond the expectations of the clients, therefore improving the customer experience. Achieving a high level of satisfaction in our customers means that they will continue with us in the future and possibly increase the value of their transactions.

Customer retention is not only related to the products or services offered by a company, but it is also connected to other factors such as customer service, value proposition, and brand reputation, which play a key role in fulfilling this goal.

How to improve it?

It is essential to work on every point of contact between the brand and the customer to transform them into successful experiences. There are many strategies that can be carried out to improve the customer experience and therefore retention in a company:

Improve customer experience: It is about improving the customer’s contact with the company after the purchase. This factor affects the perception of the bran, good customer service management will reduce frustrations, improve users sense of importance, and benefit the customer experience.

Reward the most profitable customers. Thanks to the databases we will be able to identify which customers are the ones who bring the most value to the company and perform actions such as promotions, discounts, or cross-selling, promoting their loyalty. We must implement rewards appropriate to the level of value they contribute and their characteristics.

Customize. It is important to perceive customers as unique and different persons. Customizing and personalizing communication can positively influence the experience, as it will increase the customer’s sense of belonging and importance.

Feedback. Listening to customers is very important, whether it is through reviews or through opinions in any medium. This will help us to better understand customers, understand their needs and expectations, and be able to create strategies to delight them. In addition, the information obtained can be useful to improve databases and carry out segmentation processes to offer personalized services.

Facilitate processes. Eliminating unnecessary steps and simplifying them to the maximum must be a philosophy strongly rooted in the company. Customers are looking for easy, effortless solutions to meet their needs.

If the processes are more focused on this philosophy, there will be greater customer satisfaction and experience. One of the actions that can be carried out for this is, for example, integrating the company’s traditional and digital channels, which will provide the customer with a faster and more productive interaction.

Customer retention affects a company’s profitability positively, and at the same time, improves competitive differentiation, therefore, this is a key element to be included in business strategies.