Are you spending enough time marketing to your existing customers? It’s not uncommon for small businesses to spend most of their resources on acquiring new business, but the best way to get more business is to target existing customers.  

If you have customers, encouraging them to make additional purchases is a simpler venture than getting newcomers to make their first purchase. Earning trust is one of the most difficult aspects of customer acquisition. Therefore, repeat customers are easier to acquire as they already know about your brand and trusted it enough to make a purchase.

Want to build a loyal customer base and create more repeat customers? Below are five simple strategies to help you improve customer retention and keep your customers coming back again and again.

1. Loyalty programs

Show your valued customers you care by creating a loyalty program. A loyalty program rewards customers for their dedication to your brand and products. Offering your customer rewards for purchasing not only fosters a greater bond with the customer but also increases customer retention.

2. Reclaim and remind lost customers

Customers who like your products may stop buying them simply because they forgot about your brand. You may also have customers who stopped buying but may be willing to come back. To increase customer retention and reclaim lost customers, remind them of your products and what your brand offers, and include special discounts as incentives. Do not force a sale, however. Show them you value their business and respect their opinions. Not every past customer will come back, but your retention campaign will be worth it if even a small percentage repurchase and become loyal customers.

3. Manage complaints/reviews

It’s impossible to retain every single customer, but with a little effort, you can increase your overall retention rates. One way to do this is to manage customer reviews, especially the negative ones. 

Negative reviews can damage your brand, but if you work to resolve them, they can actually boost brand awareness. For negative reviews, comment with a heartfelt apology and provide a solution for how you plan to rectify the situation. Include a contact number where the customer can reach you directly, and once rectified, report on the review thread that the situation has been resolved. If you delight the customer enough, he/she may report the news on the review thread as well. 

4. Satisfaction surveys

You can’t retain customers if you don’t know what it is that attracts them to your brand and your products. While you can’t enter their minds to extract this information, you can poll them to find out. Survey your current customers to find out what they like about your products and what, if anything, you can do to make their experience with your brand even better. To increase participation, offer an incentive for people who complete the survey.

5. Business texting service

Lengthy surveys can sometimes bore customers and decrease participation. One way to increase engagement and get a better response to your questions is to use a business texting service. Business texting services provide a cost-effective way to send messages simultaneously to all of your customers. Also, texting is highly successful since text messages boast a whopping 95% open rate, and people engage in texting daily. 

To encourage participation in your survey, offer incentives and send short questions that are easy to answer. For example, your restaurant may ask a question like, “New Valentine’s Day menu! Which dish would you try? A: Menu item #1, B: Menu item #2, etc." Participants would only need to reply back with a letter.

For pennies a text, send customer satisfaction surveys to all of your customers simultaneously. CallFire’s business texting service helps you get your messages in front of customers who will take action and engage with your brand. If you would like to learn more about our business texting service and give us a try, sign up for free to get started.