Customer Retention Strategies For Business Growth
As a business owner, your biggest asset is your customers. The obsession with lead generation and sales will lead nowhere if you don’t create a system of customer retention. It’s great to get a new lead, but retaining existing customers should also be a priority. Several studies have shown that more than 70% of sales come from your existing customers. In other words, the loss of one loyal customer can cause significant harm to your business. You shouldn’t measure your success based on customers who only visit your website or place an order without thinking of coming back. Here are 8 proven customer retention strategies you can implement in growing your business to help improve your customer retention. Remember, you don’t have to apply these strategies at once. Predict customer expectations What do you expect customers to do when they visit your website? Customer service is beyond complaints and inquiries. The question is how to meet the needs of someone you don’t know. Well, the first step is to get acquitted with them to get to know their hopes and desires. These will help you understand their expectations. Over-deliver on your promise It’s dangerous to make a promise you can’t keep as an online business. It will do nothing other than tarnish your brand reputation. One disgruntled customer will likely tell other customers about their negative experience with your brand. On the other hand, being able to exceed your customer’s expectations will result in positive word of mouth, thereby fostering your brand image. Offer surprises To implement this customer retention strategy, you need to have detailed information about your customers. People love surprises, and you can create something unique for your customers. Perhaps, it is something in their wishlist that you know from their shopping cart. Send it to their address as a birthday gift will make them feel like being cared about. Build Trust Most successful businesses are founded on trust. A business with no trust from the customers would soon die away. Therefore, you need to make attempts at promoting trust, which will strengthen your relationship with your customers. You can do this by providing evidence that you’re protecting your customer’s rights, or simply by getting the package delivered on time. Leverage feedback survey Reviews and surveys are essential tools for customer engagement. Boring as they might seem, they provide relevant feedback about the concerns of your customers. This gives the customer a chance to speak up about their expectation and evaluation. It also generates a feeling that you are willing to listen to them, which positively affects customer satisfaction and retention. Furthermore, you will get to know what needs to be improved for better performance. Use customer complaints to your advantage. You can leverage surveys and reviews to address customers’ issues. You never want your customers to run away from you. Instead, you should be the one to start the conversation. Once you get negative feedback from a customer, you should address it immediately to instill confidence in your product. Train and educate your customers It is not enough to get sales from your customers. You need to give back to them. Here, you can create exciting and educational content to improve your customers. If you can add value to their experience, they will never forget your store when they want to make a purchase. Use automation Finally, retaining customer retention is about engaging with them at the right time. The problem is that you can’t pay attention to the customer service all the time. That’s when the automation platform comes to the rescue. You can tell the system to send a message to your customer whenever an action is triggered. You can also integrate the app with email marketing tools for better performance. This way, you only need to focus on the content quality rather than the distribution process. In this example, as soon as a new order is placed, a thank you letter will be automatically delivered to the customer. The email might include words of appreciation as well as essential information regarding the order, all depending on what you want. Keeps your customer for further growth Once again, the customer is the biggest asset of your business. As long as they appreciate your brand, they will continue purchasing and might become your advocate. Focusing your time and effort on nurturing existing customers can be a powerful way to accelerate your revenue growth.
Inventory Control Tips For Backorder Management
To have effective inventory control, you need to create a balance between minimizing the cost of holding a lot of inventory stock while maintaining adequate stocks for your customers’ demand. In most cases, out-of-stock orders can lead to customer dissatisfaction and lost sales. However, imagine having a customer order that can be filled later? What if the customer is willing to wait for the order? What is inventory backorder? A backorder occurs when a customer places an order or buys a product for inventory stock that is unavailable. An inventory backorder may arise when a product is sold out because of unforeseen high demand. Assuming you have a product with seven items in stock, three different customers decide to order the same product, with each desiring to buy four each. In a normal situation, you cannot fulfill one’s order and tell others to go. However, backorder makes it easier for you to sell two items to each and assuring them to receive the remaining items on a future date. Tips for inventory control When your online store is experiencing a surge in demand, there is every possibility you might have backorders. However, stock management is an essential aspect of increasing your conversion rate. Here are important tips for backorder management if you run an online business. Open communication with suppliers and customers Encourage open communication with your customers and suppliers. You can do this through email, chat, phone, or social media. When faced with a backorder, you can provide honest answers to ease the pressure. Ensure you display your contact information correctly on your website and reinforce the importance of customer satisfaction. Data-driven inventory control You need a data-driven inventory control such that orders won’t be placed if the distributor or wholesaler cannot fulfill the demand. When you have frequent backorders for several products in different locations, it involves a lot of data. Additionally, there must be accurate delivery within the stipulated timeframe. However, without a proper data-driven inventory management tool, backordering can become a significant issue. Once you face this situation, it will cause problems such as loss of business, customer trust, and brand credibility. Accurate warehouse inventory To avoid any backorder mishap, you need to keep an accurate inventory of your items in the warehouse. It can be hard to know the number of items available manually, but automation has made everything easier. Therefore, to avoid having backorder or out-of-stock orders frequently, ensure to keep accurate warehouse inventory. Review inventory frequently Here, you need to review your inventory frequently to ascertain what you have. It is important to look at your processing for ordering and stocking inventory if you experience backorder regularly. If you have historical data, it will help you when to reorder stocks before they get low. Furthermore, it can also use the auto-schedule reorders. Assign automated reorder point Peradventure your distributor or wholesaler cannot fulfill your order or think there will be a delay, you can assign an automated reorder point. You can also provide the option of refunding payment if the customer cannot wait for the order. You need to know when you are running short of inventory. Assign reorder dates; this can be weekly, monthly, or increments. With this, the system can keep track of items in stock.
Necessary preparations for managing backorders
Imagine this situation where you a product that is selling high and customers are praising you for it. Suddenly, the demand kept increasing in such a manner that you can’t cope. It is bad news when you can’t meet the demand of your customer. What if you tell you to order and get it later? When you backorder an item, wait for the product and wait for the delivery date the manufacturer indicates. It’s frustrating to face this situation, especially when the market is competitive. It is hard to get a lead and lose them because of a supply shortage. So, how can you prepare during backorders and manage it effectively? Yes, no matter what store you run, you can avoid any mishap and manage backorders. Train staff in identifying and managing backorders To speed up your backorder fulfillment, you need to train staff to identify and process backorder. If your workers are not adequately trained in managing your inventory, it will lead to errors and miscalculation. For instance, an employee who isn’t taught in using eCommerce inventory software might not understand how to navigate the system to quantify the number of available stocks. Create FAQs for customers Another way to provide a better customer experience is to create a frequently asked question section on your website about backorders. Here, you can provide relevant information about backorders, including how it works, estimated time of arrival, the role of the customers, and how to cancel an order. All of this information can help the customer to trust your brand. Update customer service knowledge base Updating the customer service knowledge base is similar to creating a FAQ for your customers. However, here you can take advantage of a blog to expand on various issues on backorders. For instance, you can write content on preparing and being patient when waiting for a backordered item. Here, you have to be creative in a way that resonates with your audience. You can also leverage social media to improve your customer knowledge base. It is crucial that your staffs know how you are managing backorders and can answer all questions from customers. Update website visuals You need to be creative and use various techniques to enlighten your audience. Options are updating your website visuals, using popup, banners, and CTA to manage your backorders. Ensure that product availability is clear to customers. When they make an order, keep them updated with the order status and your backorder policy. Efficiently managing backorders will help increase customer satisfaction. Our BigCommerce BackOrder app provides a complete solution for this with features to customize CTA, messages, and pack slips. Track data, use predictive analytics Additionally, you can track product data in your warehouse. Today, you can use various predictive analytic tools to determine when your product is running low. Some eCommerce platforms come with unique tools that allow you to trade inventory and notify you when you are running low on your product or a particular item. Evaluate and reorganize the warehouse To prepare for managing backorders, you need to have a modern warehouse system that automatically keeps a record of your inventory. With an updated inventory management system, you won’t find yourself in backorder issues because the software will automatically order products from suppliers when it reaches the benchmark you set. A good management system will improve your inventory data and reconcile your inventory automatically. Further read: Best practices for managing backordered items
Best Sales Practices for eCommerce Stores
Best sales practices are always important for business growth. Recent projections have shown that eCommerce retail sales will grow to over $7 trillion by 2022. If you’re running online, try your best to seduce the opportunity. If you don’t, it is time to take a cue. As the competition becomes fiercer, online businesses need the most effective tactics to boost sales and to compete in a competitive eCommerce market. To stand out, you need much more than a product. In this post, you will learn the best practice to boost your eCommerce sales without stress. Best sales practices for 2021 Use better image quality Who took the images for your product? Was it random staff or a professional? If your pictures don’t look attractive, it is time to replace them with quality ones. In fact, stores with high-quality images saw their sales improved by 9.5%. These images have a product description, which contributed to these staggering figures. You need high-quality product pictures because they possess the first impression of your store. If you have observed, most customers will zoom the images to see the product closely. High-quality pictures improve your conversion rate. Write a good product description Besides the image quality, the product description is also equally important. Customers always want to know the functions and variants of a product as well as how it should be used. Make sure to create an exciting product description that will speak to their mind about the product. Responsive websites Nowadays, most shopping takes place through mobile devices. About 25% of revenues eCommerce sites generate comes from mobile devices. Therefore, to give users a seamless shopping experience, you need to provide a responsive website. To do that, you need a responsive website on both mobile and window platforms. You don’t want to frustrate your customers whenever they visit your store. Additionally, Google ranks websites that are responsive higher. Website loading speed With everyone trying to get things fast, a slow-loading website will negatively affect your business. About 49% of online shoppers want website pages loaded in less than 3 seconds. Anything beyond that results in a reduction in your conversion rate. Therefore, one of the best practices to boost your sales in 2021 is to get a fast-loading website. Inspire trust on your website People these days are conscious about online shopping because of the rising fraudulent activities taking place online. To assure your customers of your originality and authenticity, you need to instill trust when visiting your website. Here, you can use trust badges, press, reviews, testimonies, and phone numbers. Furthermore, you can also provide a personal address to boost your sale. Answer relevant questions Don’t assume your customers know everything. Instead, provide frequently asked questions about your store, delivery dates, shipping policy, and much more. You need to be transparent in every transaction and offer a relevant solution when required. With this, your customers will love and trust you. Include free shipping when possible Shipping fee is the most concerning issue for online shoppers, which frequently hinders them from buying the product. Therefore, one of the best sales practices is to loosen this issue. To handle this, you can create free shipping based on purchases on a particular amount. The idea is to encourage them to make more purchases in exchange for free shipping. Automate your sales strategies Whatever tactics you are using, it is daunting to manually conduct every task one by one. Instead, set up workflow automation to run the program for you. This way, you only need to prepare the content without worrying about the date and time of operation. For example, say you’re going to publish new arrival products on Sunday. First, update the pictures and description on your store dashboard. Then set up the time and date in which you want them to be aboard and the app will do the rest. Final notes All in all, it’s noteworthy that a single practice can’t exert the maximum impact. Rather, combine these strategies with your customer understanding. This will enable you to accelerate our performance and outweigh your competitors.
