Why are customer loyalty and retention important?

Customer retention increases the lifetime value of your customers and increases your revenue. It also helps you build incredible relationships with your customers.

Why are customer loyalty and retention important?

Customer retention increases the lifetime value of your customers and increases your revenue. It also helps you build incredible relationships with your customers. You are not just another website or shop. They trust you with their money because you give them value in return.

Giving employees the responsibility to do what it takes to solve customer problems (within reason) can reduce customer frustration. When analysing customer service performance, some companies can be guilty of focusing on metrics around managing call volumes and wait times, but overlook the more important question of whether customers' questions are being resolved and they are happy. Zappos has always had a relatively generous returns policy (and a reputation for good customer service). It can be easy for the customer-company relationship to fall victim to the routine that everything is going great, that you know what kind of work the customer wants (and will approve) and that you understand what works to achieve their goals.

You may find that clients with a certain budget or of a certain size of company are more likely to drop out than others. They are also 50% more likely to try new products than new customers because of mutual trust with your brand. Nurture your customers and you will have loyal followers who will buy from you again and again. Think of interesting and gentle ways to further increase your company's brand credibility with the customer.

Good customer service can help attract new customers as well as encourage existing customers to stay loyal. However, this quickly becomes boring, and it is easy for the customer to wake up one day and realise how uninspired and unmotivated the company's team is. Customers who buy frequently from your company will also see areas for improvement, so don't be afraid to ask. Still, if it's data you want, a lot of research has been done on acquisition versus retention, and all of it has found that economics favours retention as the most economically viable approach.

Your marketing budget goes further by prioritising existing customers at the retention stage of the buyer's journey. Without this, most interactions are a surprise and, in reality, customers don't like surprises even if they say they want to be associated with a more innovative, fun and risk-taking company. Also, use a project management tool so the customer can easily see how far along the team is on a project.

Mamie Dardashti
Mamie Dardashti

Hardcore organizer. Total twitteraholic. Amateur internet aficionado. Infuriatingly humble pop culture buff. Evil beer nerd.