Retaining a current customer is easier and more profitable than gaining a new one, with studies showing that it costs anywhere from 5 to 25 times as much to acquire a new customer. As a result, developing brand loyalty among your clients may be the key to long-term success. Futrli wants to help (small) businesses improve their customer retention strategies.

How to improve your customer retention strategy?

So, are you wondering how to best retain customers? We have got you covered - see below for our top tips for successful customer retention.

1. An impactful onboarding process

Customer acquisition is not everything. The real challenge for your customer retention strategy begins when the customer has signed up for your product. It is key to capitalize on their excitement and satisfaction from the start - this is best done through a comprehensive onboarding process that teaches them everything they need to know about using your product. This will help them can get the most out of it and get you more satisfied customers.

2. Comprehensive educational resources for clients

Educating your clients goes beyond the onboarding process. As the product advances, you'll need to create new resources - from how-to guides to training videos - that your customers may use. Without the educational resources, your clients' ability to utilize your service to their full potential may be restricted which can have a negative effect on how well your business can retain existing customers.

3. A personalized customer experience

When it comes to retaining customers, don't underestimate the power of having personalized conversations with your existing and new customers. It's critical for your brand to appear genuine in order to establish a long-term connection with clients. This will encourage customers to stay loyal to your brand. No existing customer likes to feel like they're communicating with a machine - so get personal and improve your customer retention rates.

4. A proactive client relationship

Customer retention will improve by establishing a strong connection with your consumers through regular communication. To keep track of customer contact, you could make a communication calendar. This might assist you in understanding customer expectations, collect customer feedback, or discovering why certain clients have not engaged with your business for an extended time so that you may reach out to them again.

5. A company structure that supports customer retention

Loyal Customers can add significant value for your company, not just because they tend to spend far more than new consumers - in fact, Annexcloud claims that repeat customers spend 67 percent more by their third year than they did in the first six months. These long-term customers have a wealth of knowledge that can help improve your business's performance and customer retention programs - tap into their wealth of knowledge through eg a customer advisory board.

6. Recognition of loyal customers

While your clients may not appear to be at risk of churn, you should not take loyal consumers for granted. Implementing a customer loyalty program might be an excellent method to boost customer retention. Marketing a customer loyalty program can be an excellent incentive for long-term and new customers to stay with you. It will also provide additional value to those who are the most engaged with your business.

7. A good brand reputation

Corporate social responsibility is an excellent way to engage with your consumers on a more meaningful level. It may help you maintain a good reputation as a firm that cares about more than profits, from environmentally friendly investments to simply getting involved with local communities. That's the sort of firm that millennials are likely to trust.

8. An open ear for feedback

You don't want your clients to suffer in silence before quietly canceling their subscription - it's always better to know early if there are problems with your service or product. Customer complaints are a powerful insight and give you the opportunity to listen and improve. You want to hear what they have to say, loud and clear. Request customer feedback once a year (at least) using an online consumer survey. This may provide you insights into issues and pain spots you wouldn't be aware of otherwise.

9. Robust management of payment cycles

Payment problems as a result of local/regional billing cycles are likely to upset your consumers, especially because they can usually be prevented. Consider local payment cycles while developing your billing procedure to avoid client churn. To enable your customer to select their own payment schedule, consider establishing a Becs Direct debit.

10. A streamlined payment process

Churn can jeopardize your best customer loyalty ideas, so optimizing your payments procedure might be quite beneficial if you want to enhance customer retention.