A 12% Customer Retention Rate – How I did it.
By
Sharon Herrman
·
1 minute read
A 12% Customer Retention Rate – How I did it. 🔥
Too often, when ecomm businesses develop their product, brand messaging and marketing strategies, they tend to overlook how important it is to at least consider how and why a customer would not only return to buy again, but also, would choose to become an advocate of the brand.
Understandably – there are a lot of moving pieces involved in executing a go-to-market plan. But assuming all goes well, the following question is “What’s next?” – and having a plan to build on that early adoption via customer loyalty and retention initiatives can monetize that momentum.
In 2012, I launched a line of pet-themed jewelry, both in customizable and in stock designs, manufactured and assembled here in the US. 🐶🐱🐾
The product resonated well with the market. Within a few years, my customer retention climbed to 12% - certainly a healthy metric in anyone’s book.
By underpinning customer retention to all my strategies, this outcome was nearly effortless.
Here’s how I did it:
1. Quality and turnaround -It almost goes without saying that the product has to exceed the customer’s expectation, and you do what you say you’ll do.
2. Direct customer communication -With custom orders we took advantage of every opportunity to communicate directly with the customer as well as with follow up after shipment.
3. Customer input drove new product development -Customers were invited to participate in prototype opportunities, then we used their reviews on social media and in email to support the new product launch.
4. Featuring personal stories about customers and their pets in social media, paid social media advertising and email.
5. Donating product to grass-roots animal welfare organizations across the country that my customers supported.
Granted, once a company starts to scale beyond a certain point it isn’t easy to maintain an on-going personalized relationship with individual customers.
But this is where larger companies miss out. The surrogates for real-time customer interaction – review platforms, paid influencers, chatbots – aren’t going to find or recognize that insight unique to your business…the one that keeps customers coming back.
What would it hurt to TALK to a couple of customers? 💁♀️💁🏽♂️🤷♂️
How have you personalized outreach to your repeat customers and how has it helped in creating your customer retention programs? Please share!
#CustomerLoyalty #BrandLoyalty #CustomerExperience #MarketingEvolved