Customer Retention Strategies for Small Businesses

It is cheaper to retain existing customers than it is to attract new ones. That should make customer retention one of your key tasks as a small business owner. However, customers have a choice and you're up against your competition for their dollar, which is why it's important that you actively use a range of customer retention strategies.

Customer Retention Strategies for Small NZ Businesses

Customer retention is measured by how many of your customers remain with your business after their initial purchase. A high customer retention rate doesn't just mean a better bottom dollar, but also happy customers who have a positive impression of your business. Here are a range of strategies you can use to grow your customer retention rates:

• Treat your customers as people, not numbers - customers are people, not numbers on a screen. It is important that you treat them as such through providing tailored support to meet their needs. Customers want to know that there is a person at the other end of a website, which is why a detailed and personalised About page is essential. 
• Ask for feedback frequently - if you don't know there is a problem, you can't fix it. Accordingly, if there is something great that customers are loving, you won't know what it is unless they tell you. Sending an email around two weeks after a purchase has been made asking for feedback on the product and their experience as a customer helps you celebrate the good things and fix what is not working. You can also use this feedback as product reviews to add to your website.
• Provide fast shipping - once a purchase has been made, customers are on the count down until it arrives. Having reliable and quick delivery options 
• Make refunds and returns easy - buying online means the customer has only product photos and descriptions to go on. When the product arrives and it is not quite right, customers want to be able to return it easily. Having a clear returns and refunds process on your website shows customers that you are committed to providing the best experience and is something you can direct them to when they approach for a return or refund. 
• Focus on customer experience - providing excellent customer service is central to all businesses. Unlike bricks and mortar stores however, customers can't pop into the store to chat. By having easy to find contact details is important, as well as multiple ways of contacting you. Chat features, forms, email and phone contacts are the usual contact methods small businesses provide. 
• Use a great loyalty program - loyalty programs use incentives to encourage repeat purchases, offering discounts, prizes or free shipping options. Customers love the bonuses and you get more repeat sales made. Website World's CMS provides an excellent in-built shopping cart with loyalty points system.
• Keep in regular contact - it is easy for an online business to be forgotten if customers are not kept in contact with. Having active social media accounts and regular emails are just two ways you can keep your business at the forefront of a customer's mind.
• Thank your customers - often overlooked because of its simplicity, saying thank you to your customers is a wonderful way of showing you appreciate them. Customers who feel valued and acknowledged are more likely to stick around and make future purchases.

Finally, having an easy to use online store for customers to purchase your products from is crucial. We recommend Website World, who have been helping eCommerce customers sell online since 2000.