Discover best practices when it comes to retaining customers

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  Knowing how to retain customers is essential for the survival of any business, after all, without an audience, there is no company. But in the midst of increasingly fierce competition, what strategies can make you stand out in the market?

Aggressive marketing may attract attention, but it does not have a good image among consumers. Anyone who knows how to retain customers has already understood that the key is to have intelligent practices that respect your audience.

Want to know how to do this? Keep reading and check out our tips!

How to retain customers?

The public is fundamental for any business, and keeping this audience loyal to your brand is essential. Check out effective strategies to retain consumers:

1. Know your audience

There’s no point investing in marketing and sales strategies if you don’t know your customer well. Today, large companies work with a more advanced concept of target audience, that is, with a persona — the archetype of their ideal customer.

Building personas can help a lot to understand and retain customers.

An example: think you own a women’s formal clothing store. What’s easier: speaking to a female audience aged 35 to 45 or talking to a 40-year-old successful lawyer who owns her own office and wants to show all her success through her wardrobe. clothing? The answer is, obviously, the second option, isn’t it?

To create your persona, you must answer the following questions:

• name, age and gender;
• profession and education;
• social class;
• status civil;
• housing (do you live alone or with your family?)
• hobbies;
• main influencers;
• where do you seek information;
• what technologies it uses;
• behavior;
• frustrations;
• challenges;
• how your product/service can help solve user challenges/frustrations.

There is a lot of information you can obtain to form your persona — the more, the better. You can even have two if you have a secondary client, but it’s important not to create more than 3 profiles to avoid getting lost.

2. Use um CRM

Anyone who knows how to retain customers has certainly invested in a CRM (customer relationship management. It is software that automates and optimizes all contact functions between the company and the customer.

In this program, you can create a database of customers, including contact information and purchase history. This way, it is possible to offer products and services suitable for them, in addition to segmenting profiles into groups and creating specific campaigns for each one.

In addition to being great for small, medium and large companies, CRM software is capable of anticipating customer needs and desires based on stored data. This increases sales and, of course, customer loyalty.

3. Offer top-notch service

The customer only returns to a store when they are well served, and this does not depend on whether it is online or offline. How many times have you stopped entering an establishment because the salesperson was evasive or suffocated with so much attention?

When we talk about how to retain customers, we are referring to a good reception and space for the customer to observe the products and services, clarification of their doubts and respect throughout the sale. The same happens in e-commerce: an easy-to-navigate website, with a security certificate, a chatbot to answer questions and fast delivery keep consumers coming back.

But good service doesn’t just happen during the sale. Contact channels, such as telephone, email and social networks, must also function fully so that consumers can make their comments or ask questions. Also invest in after-sales, asking if the experience was pleasant and how your company can improve, only then will it be possible to retain customers.

4. Monitor social media

Communicating with the public through social networks is interesting for several reasons, such as building customer loyalty, for example.

If you want to know how to retain customers, it is very important to know what your customers think about your company. Today, instead of just commenting among friends, people use social media to talk about their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Watch what customers are saying. What are the biggest complaints? Respond politely, try to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and track the results . If possible, offer some bonus to overcome the problem.

5. Invest in loyalty programs

Offering a discount on their first purchase may attract consumers, but will they return? To retain these customers, offer them reasons to return to shop at your business.

A loyalty program is a series of advantages for those who continue to purchase from your company. You can offer:

• point programs, which culminate in a prize;
• discounts on new products or services;
• an exclusive advantage when purchasing a product;
• exclusive promotions;
• sweepstakes.

To make everything work out, find out what your client wants to gain and work on good communication. Also develop simple rules, so that he quickly understands and is interested in participating.