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How To Increase Profits Using Customer Retention?
Auteur n°3 – Benjamin
Customer retention is the key to the sustainability of the business and if you do it right, it can increase your profits. But it is not as easy as it may sound.
Some people confuse customer acquisition with customer retention, both are important but they are essentially different. While customer acquisition means gaining new customers using different methods, customer retention is about finding the reasons why the current customers tend to leave and works on getting them back. The company’s main goal is to create a loyal customer data base, but it can’t be achieved without customer retention.
What can be the reason why clients tend to leave the company?
Customers tend to move on for many reasons, which can include lack of perceived value, poor customer service and difficulties faced in buying process. ”What is the solution?” You may ask. It is taking into account each feedback and following the customer journey to identify the exact reason and work on it on a long run.
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Customer retention benefits
There are many benefits you can get out of customer retention:
Increased profits
Many companies tend to generate profits only from existing clients, never questioning the reason of retention. So if you work on it, you will get bigger cliental and increase your profits even more.
Lower costs
It is more cost-effective to work on your existing clients and make sure they don’t leave, rather than searching for the new ones, which also can be time-consuming and prove to not be as efficient as customer retention.
Increased average order value
When customers start trusting you, they tend to increase the volume of the orders. Hence, you need to give them maximum satisfaction.
Acquire brand ambassadors
There is no better way to promote your products other than having an influencer promoting it. Word of mouth works better than any commercial and it not only gives reassurance to the clients that the product is really good but the real life experience factor makes them trust in you, that is why having a brand ambassador will increase the loyalty of customers.
5 strategies to improve customer retention
Here are some practical ideas you can use, to improve your customer retention:
Engage with your customers
Conversing with the customers is the best way to find more about their interests and involving them in the creation of upcoming products will make them feel like they are part of the brand.
Reduce friction in the purchase process
When buying products, customers also look at the process as well, so it is important to make the purchase process simple, with fast page load time and make sure that staff member is always available when there is an issue.
Improve customer support
Offer multiple ways of how customers can reach you, be it via social media, email or phone call.
Create a community
Create an exclusive membership programs or forums, where you will be able to interact with your customers, talk about their expectations and get a real time reviews of product to further improve your services in the future.
Start a loyalty program
Motivating your customers is a great way to make them do additional purchases. Just make sure that you have appropriate rewards that have significant meanings to attract customers to your brand.
Conclusion
It is not an easy task to keep your customers in the current competitive market, but no one said that it is impossible. Before finding new customers, it would be better to focus on the current ones, taking into account their opinions will help you improve. With the use of word of mouth, your cliental will eventually grow naturally.
A customer relationship management (CRM) strategy is an approach based on data and combines numerous practices, strategies, and technologies. It assists you to establish relationships with your customers on a more personal level by offering customized content. This approach can enable workforce members to collaborate with one another to facilitate the most outstanding customer service. Strengthening a business’s credibility by carrying out stronger customer service practices could enable it to attract a greater number of customers, foster brand loyalty, increase retention rates, and improve its cash flow.
Companies constantly possess specific corporate goals, the vast majority of which are revenue and sales-related. CRM strategy supplies a business with critical information on its sales, marketing, and procurement teams in order to help the company fulfill its objectives and missions. Through the implementation of relevant, engaging content, customer relationship management (CRM) strategies strive to both draw in fresh prospects as well as retain existing ones satisfied.
CRM strategies achieve their goals using an assortment of processes, actions, and technology. The vast majority of businesses start with transactional marketing approaches, however after a certain amount of time, they search for relationship marketing strategies as well. It’s a crucial subject considering it is necessary to have certain interactions with your customers to be able to grow and thrive against opponents in the competitive marketplace. With an efficient CRM strategy, you’ll be capable of instantly recognizing how professionals can leverage data to address the various needs of the customer base they serve.
Why should CRM Strategies Always be in Your Sales Plan?
Implementing a CRM strategy enhances many aspects of your business, including your approach to selling. CRM strategies can be utilized to boost customer loyalty and get better results regarding client acquisition and retention. It also assists you in the decision-making process.
There are a number of different reasons why it is so frequently used during sales. It can assist you to navigate the various components of the sales cycle in addition to swiftly recognizing any prospective customers and future opportunities. You can easily estimate future performance and get an extensive amount of precise information on products and customers.
You will get an opportunity to strengthen not only the customer experience but also the productivity of those who make up your team. It works efficiently for telemarketing and a variety of marketing campaigns. It could help you to increase sales. With an effective CRM strategy, the sales team can more easily organize customer data while making phone calls and improve the efficiency of the sales process.
Define the CRM Vision for Your Company
To develop a good CRM strategy for your company, you must first understand what your “CRM Vision” is and what you hope to achieve with it. Characterize your goals and main objectives. You may wish to boost your net promoter score, acquisition, or retention rates.
Studying customer information, and investing in contact management tools would benefit both large and small businesses in accomplishing long-term goals. Analyzing your customers, company, market, and competitors will help you determine what to do and where your effort should be specifically targeted. These elements will provide a solid foundation for your successful CRM strategy and will help you to achieve real-time results.
Some common aims to consider are increasing customer satisfaction, boosting productivity, strengthening customer retention, improving lead conversion, and so on.
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Identify Your Target Audience
To reach your target audience, you must understand their specific needs. You should be more aware of current trends in the market. It’s crucial to give your customers top priority and accommodate their needs. You could seek the assistance of marketing, sales, and customer service teams to learn more about them. You can use surveys, interviews, and a variety of other methods to obtain feedback and additional details from them.
Take into account various factors when constructing a good buyer profile. For instance, socioeconomic factors, personality archetypes, occupations, interests, dislikes and preferences, and aspirations. It could later help you identify the customers who are likely to purchase from you.
Map The Customer Journey
Track each customer interaction that started with the very first time they come across you. Find out how these individuals discovered you. Was it accomplished via a digital banner ad or an email marketing campaign? This may determine how long or how many different phases an interested buyer needs to go through prior to purchasing your product.
When mapping the customer journey, keep in mind who is communicating with the customer at every point in the journey. Find out which aspects of the interactions between buyer and seller needs to be addressed. Keep an eye on various types of content in order to figure out what customers appreciate and despise. You could possibly run into difficulties that consumers encounter and start improving them.
Describe Your Customer Experience
It’s time to invest in a CRM strategy if you see that there are some changes in your company’s internal environment, such as a declining customer retention rate or a poor net promoter score (NPS). Describing customer experience will help you to discover more important aspects that should be considered in the long run and will help you to develop a better CRM strategy.
Examine every aspect of your customer experience to determine how you can achieve maximum efficiency at every stage. Assess how effectively you are able to evaluate the requirements of your consumers along with how successfully you are able to collect information. Observe your sales process carefully. For instance, are there any sales processes you can automate to boost performance and effectiveness? Make certain that your engagement strategies are effective.
It would be ideal to have a system in place that enables customers to offer their remarks. It could help you gain insight into the experience of customers along with improving many different kinds of factors. Furthermore, when describing the customer experience, think about support; you ought to understand the manner in which you can support a customer after the sale.
Understand Your Products and Services
Understanding your products and services will assist you in improving numerous aspects of your products/services as well as establishing more crucial factors for your CRM strategy. You can create your value proposition at this point. Take a look at your brand’s tone of voice to assess if it corresponds to your objectives. Contemplate how you might differentiate yourself from your competitors once more.
Consider what message you want to send to the audience you are targeting. What are the advantages of your products and services that you want to highlight? Once you’ve made the necessary changes, notify your coworkers. Each member of your team must understand every goal that must be accomplished.
Invest in CRM Software
CRM software makes it possible to store and manage all pertinent customer information, like contact information, past purchases, and summaries of transactions, in an efficient manner. As a result, sales teams often use CRM software extensively. You would find many CRM tools there that would help you to manage everything more easily. This technology can also be combined with e-commerce platforms to enhance the customer experience.
It can assist you in sorting out numerous time-consuming processes. Software not only accumulates real-time data, but it also guarantees that you do not miss the opportunity to capture important leads. Evaluate your present-day processes and needs prior to selecting CRM software for your organization. Consider the pricing, function, and simplicity of CRM software before selecting one. After you’ve installed your CRM software, assign administrators to regulate user access. Additionally, teach your team how to use the CRM software.
CRM Pitfalls to Avoid
Despite being a very useful solution for businesses to deal with a variety of issues, CRM strategy has certain hazards that must be recognized and avoided at all times in order to properly benefit from this option. For starters, keep in mind that if you don’t have a solid acquisition and retention strategy in the company, you shouldn’t begin working on anything CRM-related. It will not be rewarding for you and may lead to unfavorable outcomes.
Furthermore, confirm that technical developments, like using CRM software, won’t lead your team members to lose concentration and drive. Whatever you do with digital solutions, your team must always be alert. Many tasks must be managed or observed by actual people in order to achieve the best results.
Keep in mind that customized solutions will be required in many cases. You must remember that when dealing with customers, you will not be able to stick to a single technique or approach. You’d have to make some adjustments along your journey. Therefore, while you develop your CRM strategy, consider how it will benefit your team and business. Also, think about the value that each team member can give you with their individual perspectives.
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5 Extensively Asked Questions About Digital Customer Service
Auteur n°3 – Benjamin
Tags
Digital Customer Service
Importance of Digital Customer Service
Digital customer service (DCS) is the experience a customer has whilst communicating with a company via any number of digital channels. This interaction may be needed for carrying out a transaction, gaining a response regarding an inquiry, solving an issue, or seeking advice.
Consumer-centric marketing solutions have become increasingly prevalent among many types of businesses. Even traditional brick-and-mortar stores have started to serve customers online. New digital approaches created opportunities for organizations to engage with their customer base via various channels.
It’s crucial to develop more innovative approaches in order to enhance customer relationships while using digital solutions. Right now, when people interact with businesses they rely on a wide range of options. They use emails, messaging applications, social media, chatbots, and other forms of communication. So it’s important to know more about the newest solutions in order to deliver the best digital customer service.
How Can Digital Customer Service Improve Customer Experience?
A positive customer experience is the main factor behind a successful business. It improves your earnings as well as market visibility. It can assist you in converting your customers into ambassadors of your company with a high degree of brand loyalty. Consumer behavior is rapidly evolving as a direct consequence of the countless developments in the world.
This is the era of digital transformation. Therefore it is critical to incorporate more digital solutions into your projects to enhance the customer experience. Understand what are the needs and requirements of your target audience. The most effective way of advancement isn’t just utilizing the best solutions available. You must gain a greater knowledge of your target audience before determining what would be helpful for them.
Amazon, for example, provides a great digital customer service platform that includes live chat, email, and phone support. Additionally, the company provides a self-service help center with instructions. Netflix provides customer service via live chat, email, and an AI-powered chatbot that could help consumers with simple requests and issues.
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How to Measure Digital Customer Experience?
People frequently abandon their shopping carts before finalizing an online purchase. Sometimes the desired product is inaccessible, or the website needs a long time to load. Each occasion is characterized by numerous aspects, each of which could result in a sale or an abandoned cart.
Multiple aspects could have an unfavorable effect on the sales cycle. So it is crucial to examine each significant step that clients take. You could collect and analyze your information using a digital experience analytics platform.
Digital experience platforms (DXPs) like OutSystems, Bloomreach, and Glassbox could be beneficial to you. You should always monitor a few important metrics, like net promoter score. It will help you to avoid loss of income or different issues later.
How can AI Enhance the Process of Digital Customer Service?
Artificial Intelligence is capable of enhancing digital customer service in a variety of ways. Chatbots are a well-known example. They give clients quick responses. Also, they lessen the pressure on employees by performing various tasks with human-like precision.
Ai solutions could help you reduce costs, optimize resources, and would allow you to be more easily accessible. It could improve your brand’s reputation and enhance client loyalty. Many business leaders use AI solutions to develop personalized experiences for their customers and become more visible on the market.
Why is Digital Transformation Crucial for Good Digital Customer Service?
Digital transformation could certainly assist you in fulfilling modern demands. It could assist you in transforming company operations through the adoption of new digital procedures and technology. However, remember that before starting a digital transformation, you must first identify all of your goals in your digital transformation strategy.
Digital transformation enables companies to meet shifting customer expectations. Businesses may digitize and simplify their operations, eradicating the necessity for human intervention and improving productivity. Companies that get insights into client habits and preferences are better prepared to provide personalized assistance to clients. Based on the client data you obtain, you could be able to deliver customized suggestions, promotions, and support to your audience.
How to Create an Effective Digital Customer Service Strategy?
A digital customer service strategy ensures satisfied consumers in the Digital Age. Your digital customer service strategy explains how you intend to provide assistance to consumers via digital channels. There are several steps and factors that you must consider in order to get the best results with your efforts.
First and foremost, you must be aware of the channels of communication that your customers use. You cannot effectively assist your consumers if you do not have social media interaction. You must determine which techniques are best for your potential clients, and internal customers. Determine which solutions could help you the most in general. It is critical in order to successfully sell as many goods or services as possible.
Many consumers expect brands to present them with self-service options. For starters, self-service alternatives are extremely convenient because clients control everything by themselves and are very happy about it. Also, your team would have the time to concentrate on more challenging assignments.
Aside from that, ensure that your consumers are still able to reach your team personnel should they require further assistance. It is critical to have a qualified team of workers who can provide the best customer support for consumers and assist them with any difficulties.
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A supply chain is a network of individuals, organizations, resources, activities, and technology that are involved in the creation and sale of products. A supply chain is a big process that contains several different aspects, like the delivery of necessary materials to the manufacturers and then sending of the products to customers.
Supply chains have several fundamental steps. First of all, you start with sourcing new materials, then you refine these materials into basic parts of your product, next step entails combining these parts to develop the full product. Since the product is ready you start working on order fulfillment and sales. Then comes the product delivery part. The last step is mostly about customer support and generally how return services work.
There are several different types of supply chains that ensure the success of the supply management system for your company. Since the supply chain is so complex, you have to carefully choose the model which will be most suited to your business requirements.
Continuous Flow Model
This is one of the most traditional models of supply chain and works best for businesses that operate with more stability. This model is used by many well-established industries, such as PepsiCo. Without stability, you’ll have less chance of using this model successfully.
For example, you can use this model when you produce the kind of products that always have stable demand on the market. Also in this case you can pay less attention to the customer demand profile.
Fast Chain Model
The fast chain model is one of the newest addition to supply chain strategies. It’s used by businesses that have products with shorter life cycles. For example, fashion designers might have a specific line of designs per season that won’t be repeated again. Indeed, it’s very useful for trendy products and even Nike is actively using it.
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Efficient Chain Model
The efficient chain model is best suited for hyper-competitive industries. With this supply chain model, the end goal is to maximize efficiency, have proper inventory management and maximize output from production equipment and labor.
General Mills actively uses this model, because their products don’t really differ from the ones that its competitors make, and also all of them have the same target audience.
Agile Model
A supply chain needs four components to be considered an agile model: virtual integration, process alignment, a network base, and market sensitivity. Virtual integration requires more information about market demands and how they changed. Process alignment is mostly about sharing supply chain responsibilities across the different aspects of the business.
The network base ensures that every role and responsibility will be equally divided between every actor in the supply chain. Market sensitivity is the component that changes the rate of production when demand in the market changes. Businesses that deal with demand variation highly benefit from this model, great example is ZARA because this way they are always attentive and look for new trends on the market that can be integrated into their business.
The Custom-Configured Model
Custom-configured model is focused on providing custom configurations and is most suited for companies where multiple configurations are required for products. It’s basically a combination of agile and continuous flow models.
For example, the company L.L. Bean lets their customers customize their backpacks before they place their orders. Compared to more traditional models custom-configured models might require additional investment from the company.
The Flexible Model
A flexible model will help you to manage the increase in demand during certain periods and also will help you out when the demand is low for a very long time. The supply chain should have these three key elements to be considered flexible: part segmentation, accurate stocking algorithms, and flexible planning.
For example, Staples is using a flexible model while delivering paper and writing utensil products. They realize that the demand for their product will be high during the beginning of school season and ensure that their stock will be full on notebooks, rulers, pens, pencils, etc. They manage everything based on the flexible model and are considerate of specific timelines, processes, and how demand could change in the market.
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In the modern world, design thinking is becoming increasingly important for numerous companies, because it’s a human-centered, innovative approach that’s focused on the needs of people and combines the possibilities of technology and all the requirements that businesses need for success.
You can apply design thinking to various fields because with this strategy you will be able to solve customers’ requirements with creative solutions. The main focus here is to always find solutions.
Empathize: Research Your Customer’s Needs
For successful design thinking empathy is crucial. You have to understand more about customers’ likes, dislikes, attitudes, habits, aspirations, etc. You have to connect to them on an emotional level. Understanding more about their culture and what kind of social environment they live in will help you a lot as well.
While focusing on the human-centered design process it’s important to turn empathy into your strongest tool. Information that you can get out of his process will most definitely help you to increase the demand for your product or improve your service.
Define: State Your Customers’ Needs and Problems
In the Define stage, you have to analyze the information that you got from the first stage. Organize data and look into the details that your team gathered to understand what could be the core obstacle for you and how you can overcome it. But this process shouldn’t stray away from your customers, you should always have them in mind.
At this stage, you’ll get enough ideas to establish several ways of dealing with your problems. Be very considerate at this stage, try to see the problem from your customer’s perspective, and avoid describing it in your words, which will be most definitely related to your company’s needs. This way you’ll have a clear idea about more solutions or at least you’ll ensure that your customers will be able to solve any issues themselves.
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Ideate: Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas
At this stage, you are more prepared to generate ideas. You know what your customers need and you analyzed the data to create user-centric problem statements. Your team is ready to look at these problems from different perspectives and think about innovative solutions that will aid you with the problem statement.
There are numerous ideation techniques that will aid you in this process, such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite, etc. You need to think freely and expand your imagination to find the most crucial aspects of your problem statement. Test your ideas, delve more deeply into them and choose the one that will help you to move forward.
Prototype: Start to Create Solutions
This is an experimental stage, where you go through what you discovered in the ideation stage. You are identifying the best solutions for every problem, that was identified in the first three stages. Solutions are tested to determine how they will benefit customers and based on the results they are accepted or rejected.
By the end of this stage, it’s clear what are limitations of specific products and what problems are they really facing. No matter what you are working on, without going through this step it’s very hard to finalize your work successfully.
Test: Try Out Your Solutions
Based on the solutions that you found from the prototype stage you have to test everything on your product. This is the last step in design thinking. The end results might often show you different problems as well or just make you think of better solutions for your problems.
The ultimate goal here is to get a deep understanding of the product and its users and from the first stages, you already have information to maneuver easily through different scenarios. It’s important to get proper feedback from your customers as well. Also, what you are working on should be interesting for them.
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