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If you feel like you are all alone in dealing with your customer churn rate, you are not alone. As any business owner, a major component of being successful is spawning leads with a result of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is most definitely a plus but retaining satisfied customers will increase a company’s viability.
The first step in improving the status of anything is knowing where you stand presently. Churn rate, in a nutshell, is the rate or percentage of consumers that purchase your product or subscribe to your service and then discontinue using your services. You can see why this is important to know. It affects the bottom line. That is why these tips can help you tackle this overwhelming task.
1. Business Phone System
Yes, this is the age of the internet, text, and chats, but there is something to be said for the good old one on one talking to a live person. It’s important to know why a customer quit purchasing your product or clicked that dreaded unsubscribe. Having a productive business phone system not only enables you to hear firsthand details of how to improve customer service but also makes a customer feel important and valued. This produces valuable feedback and can only improve your productivity.
2. Customer Engagement
Now that we have established that having an effective business phone system, including a reliable business phone number, is imperative, all other forms of communication are not to be considered any less important. There are so many avenues that a business can use to engage. Keep customers informed of new product features or events taking place with your business. It’s important that customers feel valued and recognized. This means engaging with email blasts and responding and being present on social media. If a customer feels included and heard, they are more than likely to continue to support a business.
3. Keep the Customer Learning
A customer has landed on your site for a reason. They have subscribed to your service, or they have purchased your product. Now what? Keep them coming back for more. This means posting educational videos about your product. Perhaps a training video of how your product or service can best be used. Keep them coming back and wanting more. This can also have an outcome for some new businesses because people are always sharing things that they learn.
4. Identify At-Risk Customers
As you analyze reducing your company’s churn rate, it should be relatively simple to identify which customer is most likely to leave your site. Which customer has not been contacted or communicated with regularly? Has a customer reached out with a question that was never answered? Did a customer have a complaint that wasn’t addressed? Find and pinpoint these reasons for producing a higher churn rate. Thereafter, you are better armed and prepared to combat these issues in the future.
5. M.V.C. – Most Valuable Customer
We all have and know the customer that we consider the most valuable. It’s the customer that you are willing to go over and beyond to ensure they are pleased and satisfied. It’s not a secret as to why they are considered valuable. They are the ones that bring our company the most revenue. It is most important to identify this group of customers. You can reflect on past communication and dealings with these customers that in turn, created a stable relationship of them returning. Now you can truly categorize your customers and know how to target and engage with each to keep them returning, get them to come back, or persuade a customer to stay.
6. Offer Incentives
Everyone loves a deal, and it is statistically evident that offering a discount or other incentive is the most effective way to reduce your churn rate. Of course, this is effective with the most valuable customers but especially advantageous in retaining customers that may have decided to leave. So many times, a customer is going to unsubscribe or look elsewhere, then voila, they are presented with an incentive that they feel foolish letting them pass by. Now you have lowered your churn rate instantly.
7. Target Your Audience
Yes, you want customers, but you want customers that are long-term. You may initially draw in any and everyone with an offer of “Free” or “Drastically Reduced”, but they are also usually short-lived customers. Your MVC’s will be customers that appreciate the value of your product or the significance of your service. That is the audience you want to target and draw to your site.
8. Customer Service
Maybe this is the most obvious tip for reducing churn rate but is oftentimes an aspect that is disregarded or overlooked. Most customers leave a company because of rude staff, slow response time, or just poor service in general. Look who you employ to handle this position. Your business phone system needs to be made up of people that can be accountable and responsible for handling the customer as you would. This needs to be the best of the best and not just passable. Many customers leave just because the customer service was just so-so, not necessarily offensive. In the simplest of terms, someone who leaves the customer happy.
9. Do Not Ignore Complaints
Did you realize that it can take just one negative review to turn away a potential thirty new customers? So, address any complaints. Many customers will not only stay with a company but will also promote your company to others when their complaints are addressed and resolved.
10. Let’s Make a Deal
It’s inevitable, there are going to be customers that decide to leave. You have one shot attempting them to stay. Use your best salesperson, the kindest customer service representative to use their positive attitude to help secure your customer. Many times, a customer may not want to truly leave, but they want to be heard and understood. Sometimes just having a listening, understanding ear can resolve things with the most perfect outcome, holding onto that customer.
Conclusion
Every company wants to be profitable. A major component of that is keeping the existing customers. It is easier and less costly to retain a customer rather than acquiring one. There isn’t an exact science or method for reducing your churn rate, but these proven tips will arm you with the tools to be most effective.
About the Author
Vibhu Dhariwal is Co-Founder & Director of Marketing at Digital Gratified, a Digital Marketing & Web Development company. He likes sharing his experience in outreach marketing, link building, content marketing, and SEO with readers. To know more about him, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.
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