How to Reduce Customer Churn With These 6 Steps

Customer churn. It’s a metric dreaded by many brands because it highlights the percentage of customers who fail to become repeat customers. There are multiple reasons why customers stop purchasing a product or a service, and often it comes down to the buying experience.

When customers are unsatisfied with their buying experience, they’re likely to turn to competitors for an alternative solution. The problem with customer churn is that it impacts your profits and affects your relationships with both new and existing customers.

So, how can you reduce customer churn and keep your buyers happy? This article will discuss 6 industry tips that you can use to retain your customers and encourage repeat purchases.

1. Figure out why customer churn occurs

Most brands overlook the fact that a single bad experience is enough to steer away customers from your business. Whether it’s a slow-loading website or a lengthy checkout process, these inefficiencies can lead to a frustrated consumer. But how do you know which part of your business causes customer churn?

The answer is simple: post-sales surveys. Post-sales surveys allow customers to rate their experience with your brand and provide details on what they like and don’t like about your business. You get valuable insights that enable you to make data-driven decisions and enhance the customer experience further.

You can also utilize other channels like email, chat, and social media polls to get a pulse on your customers. Gather as much feedback as you can from buyers to identify which areas of your business cause customer churn.

2. Go the extra mile with your customer service

Around 90% of American consumers use customer service as a factor in determining whether they want to engage with a business or not. It’s no surprise that customers want reliable after-sales support because it shows how dedicated the company is to satisfy their needs/expectations.

But what does it mean to go the “extra mile” in customer service? It all comes down to three words; consistency, reliability, and availability.

Customers want a consistent experience when it comes to customer service, whether it be through email, phone, or social media. Your goal should be to provide the same quality of service regardless of which communication channel you use to keep your customers happy.

They also want reliable customer support from their favorite brands. By that, we mean treating each customer’s concern with the utmost priority. You want to take proactive steps in actually solving their problems whether it be refunds, warranties, or defective products.

Lastly, customers demand availability from a company’s customer support team because let’s face it; no one likes to wait for a reply for hours or days, especially if they have an immediate concern. Focus on these three aspects, and you’ll be able to reduce customer churn by a huge margin.

3. Take care of your loyal customers

Brands need to maintain healthy relationships with customers to secure repeat sales and enjoy higher profitability. Since your loyal customers know your business more than anyone, it helps to look after them by offering rewards such as discounts, free shipping vouchers, or redeemable points.

There’s a saying that when you take care of your customers, they’ll take care of you. You may even get referrals and acquire new customers when you reward your loyal buyers. Create a loyalty program to incentivize repeat customers and keep customer churn rates to a minimum. You don’t have to spend huge amounts of money to reward your buyers; you just have to implement a rewards system that works for your specific audience.

4. Increase customer engagement

With the way the eCommerce landscape is booming over the past few years, customers are bombarded with more options than ever before. If you let the competitors stay on top of their minds, they’ll most likely forget about your business, thus leading to customer churn.

To prevent this from happening, you want to increase customer engagement by providing meaningful content on your website and social media accounts. Quality content has always been an effective tool for boosting engagement rates because it helps build brand awareness and keeps your business on the top of consumers’ minds.

Another approach to boost engagement is to personalize interactions with your customers. Tap into your email list and remind customers of your brand’s value. Leverage data from reviews, feedback, and surveys to tailor their experience according to their expectations. You’ll be surprised at how many customers you can retain simply by making them feel like exclusive buyers of your brand.

5. Segment your customers

One reason why customer churn occurs is that brands try to sell products as an all-in-one solution. Within your target audience are customers that have unique needs, and for you to identify them, you need to segment your customers into different groups.

By dividing your target audience into distinct groups, you can learn more about their preferences and create a tailored solution just for them. You can segment customers using their age, gender, buying habits, and spending power. From there, you can start asking questions about their ideal communication channels to deliver targeted content and campaigns with greater efficiency.

You can also create customer persona profiles that will give you a clear picture of who your ideal buyers are. To learn more about this, read our article here. At the end of the day, segmenting your customers gives deeper insights into your core customers and gives you opportunities for new product development.

6. Nail the first impression

Reducing customer churn starts with creating a positive first impression on your customers. The reason why first impressions matter is that customers always remember them. If you fail to provide them with a satisfactory experience, it’s going to be an uphill battle to win them over.

Take a close, hard look at your sales funnel and see if there are any improvements you can make. Is the customer’s buying journey too long? Or is your landing page too slow to load? Make sure to optimize your sales funnel so that customers will have a smooth buying experience and have a positive first impression of your brand. 

In summary

Customer churn happens to every business. While it may not be completely avoidable, there are steps you can take to reduce it and keep your customers coming back to your business. Hopefully, this article provides you with the information you need to encourage repeat purchases and develop stronger relationships with your customers.

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