7 Common Retention Problems and How to Solve Them

Investing in customer retention is mandatory for every business! Unfortunately, companies are mostly interested in attracting new customers rather than building a strong connection with already existing ones.

Establishing a well-recognized and profitable brand in a competitive field sometimes looks impossible. That is the reason why businesses need to use all the resources they have to reach their goal. Investing in the quality of the products and spending more money on digital marketing are some of the common practices. Yet, reaching new customers will not bring additional income if your relationship with the existing ones is not at the highest level. The new buyers will be interested only in one-time purchases just like the existing ones, and your business will continue to stagnate.

There are four different statistics associated with customer retention every business owner should know. According to G2

• Increasing customer retention by only 5% can boost profit by up to 95%
• 90% of profits come from just 20% of customers
• 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers
• The probability of selling to an existing customer is around 70% while its only 20% for a new customer

Keeping your previous customer is a more affordable solution because it does not require additional advertising (investments). On the other hand, according to Annexcloud, attracting new customers and building a strong bond will cost you 16 times more.

All these benefits make customer retaining look like a smart solution. However, is retaining customers easy? No, but there are a couple of ways how you can keep your current customers. Everything starts with proper analysis. You need to find the reason why your current customers are not getting back and find the best possible way to keep them. In this article, we will focus on the most common problems that negatively impact customer retention and share the solutions to them. Let’s go!

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Issue #1: Your Offers Lack Personalization

You are not offering your product to everyone! Your target audience is a group of people that has common characteristics, interests, and concerns. You need to understand why exactly they decided on purchasing the products in your shop. There are probably dozens of similar competitors that can offer the same quality. Were they only curious or you gave them a solution to a concern they have?

Tracking customer’s behavior and patterns is the only way to find the reason why they chose you in the first place.

There are two ways you can successfully complete this part of the job. One way is to talk with the customer personally. Ask them to describe their expectations and concerns. However, most business owners will decide on using different website analytics to get some precise answers. You will find out all the actions people take when they land on your website. For instance, you will check out which products grab their attention the most, how long they are staying on your website, and why exactly they leave it.

Source: Megalytic

Understanding their behavior will help you customize your offers and adapt them to the requirements and expectations of the existing customers.

Issue #2: Customers Don’t Feel Appreciated

Let’s imagine that someone decided to purchase your product once. He liked it, so he decided to purchase it one more time. However, in the meantime, he finds out that another business offers the same product as you. Why would he purchase the same product for the third time from you? If he is curious, there is a big chance he would want to change his purchasing habits and try out the product of another brand.

Here comes the moment when you need to react! Every business owner needs to make his customers feel special! You can do that by developing a loyal customers reward program and offer the current customers some special options.

Forbes confirms that e-commerce businesses with customer loyalty programs can increase the average order quantity by almost 320%. However, the same research also says that ½ of the customers join loyalty programs because they want to earn rewards on everyday purchases.

The types of loyalty programs that will make customers feel appreciated can be different. For example, the points programs are simple and effective at the same time. For every product that the customers purchase, they get a specific number of points (usually proportionately to the price of the products). After they collect, for instance, 50 points, they can get a discount of 50% on every product you sell. The way Starbucks did it can serve as an inspiration.

Source: referralrock.com

Issue #3: Customers Are Not Satisfied with Your Product

Your product is going to be the best one on the market for you. However, you need to understand that the customer's point of view is different from yours. You need to directly ask for feedback and find out all the pros and cons of the products that you are selling.

One way to find out whether the customers are satisfied with the features of your product is by allowing them to leave a review. However, the reviews are not always going to give you precise information. For instance, the customer can give you 3* without leaving any additional comment. Instead of that, you should use surveys!

If you contain an email database of all your previous customers, you can ask questions such as “How satisfied were you with the product”, “What would you change about the product”, “Would you recommend this product to a friend”, etc. Use the online survey creators to make things easier.

Source: Survicate.com

Source: Survicate.com

Issue #4: Customers Interested Only in One-Time Purchase

The customers came to your website because you are offering a product that they need. However, will they even check out other products that you are offering? If they don’t need them, probably not. However, here comes the moment when you need to make your offering special and more personalized. The best way to keep their interest high is by offering some special discounts.

For instance, let’s imagine that you are selling clothes. A person that purchased a T-shirt may need a pair of jeans to make an excellent combination and look more attractive. However, there are probably some other places where he can buy them. For example, there may be a store that only sells jeans, and it can offer a wider range of options.

However, what if you offer them a discount? For instance, when they finish the purchasing process, a new window on your website can pop up saying “Do you want to check jeans and ensure a 20% discount?”.

The product description, as well as the benefits those jeans can bring, will complete the rest of the job. However, the customer will have in mind the offer you have for him. Because of that, he may get back after a couple of days to check out the jeans you were offering. You can additionally try to remind him of the benefits he got from purchasing the previous product. That will confirm everything your other products feature quality as well.

Source: wordstream.com

Issue #5: You Focus More on Getting New Customers

As previously mentioned, there is no need to invest additional money to attract new people when most of your current buyers are interested in one-time purchases. Instead of that, you should try to interact with the existing ones.

Email newsletters may be an excellent option to improve the connection with your customers. For instance, convince them to subscribe to a newsletter by allowing them a 10% discount on all the products. After you collect their emails, send them the latest updates and offers related to your brand. You can also notify them about the discounts you are offering and convince them to purchase your products once again as well.

Source: sedineblue.com

Source: sleeknote.com

Issue #6: Customers Can’t Reach You When They Need Help

Your customers will always have some questions. For instance, they would want to find out more about the products (even when the product description is clear in some cases). Despite that, if the product they ordered has some damage, they would want to replace it, and you need to help them as quickly as possible. Finally, if the product you are selling requires some knowledge or skills, you will probably need to provide your customers with some additional explanations.

It doesn’t matter which problem or concern your clients have. They will all primarily try to contact your customer support.

There are a couple of things you will need to do when they do that. First of all, people that work in customer service must be professionals with good communication skills. Despite that, you need to allow buyers to contact you in different places: social media, email, by phone, etc. Additionally, you can use chatbots to improve customers experiences to the fullest. With that type of service, the level of their satisfaction will be high, and there is a big chance they will come back once again.

Issue #7: Customers Don’t See the Value of Your Products

Amazing features of your products will probably impress the customers, but they won’t get back to you because of them. Instead of that, they need to clearly understand the value of your products.

Highlighting the value of items you are offering is impossible without good content marketing retention strategies. Saying something “I sell the best product in the world” is not going to help a lot. Instead of that, you need to talk about the ways your product will improve the lives of people. It has to look like a perfect solution to a problem or concern they have.

Of course, no one expects business owners to be good content writers as well. If you are willing to improve your skills, you can do that by reading a lot of books, attending content writing courses, etc. Yet, in case you don’t feel like you possess that type of talent, collaboration with professional writing companies is the best possible alternative. Professional content writers will know to make content more valuable and engaging.

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Conclusion

To conclude, there is no reason to look for new customers if the relationship with the existing ones is not at the highest level. The customers need to feel appreciated and special when they make the first purchase in your shop. You need to show respect and reward their desire to support your business. How you will do that depends on the problem that you have. However, the purpose of all steps we analyzed is the same - give your customer VALUE. Are you ready to do that?