5 Ways to Use CRM for Customer Retention
Your CRM system is an extremely powerful marketing tool and when used in the right way will help you to boost your customer retention considerably. Here’s 5 retention strategies it’ll enable you to execute:
1. Target Customers with Special Offers
Using your CRM system, you have the ability to learn more about your customers; using custom webforms you’re able to learn any piece of information you like about your customers- their birthday, their location and their industry for example. You can see what products they are interested in and what products they have previously purchased. You can record every piece of information you learn about your customers along the way and you can also learn information about your customers through custom surveys.
Using the in-depth data you collect on your customers, you can then target them with offers tailored to them- offers they’re unable to resist. For example, 20% off their favourite product during their birthday, or an exclusive offer based on their location.
“21% of shoppers are more likely to purchase again from brands that do more to personalize their digital experience than those that do not, and 17% are more loyal” (Episerver) Therefore, tailoring your approach in this way as opposed to sending generic offers will increase the likelihood of you retaining more customers for your business.
2. Reward your Most Loyal Customers
Your CRM system can show you which of your customers have made the most purchases and which customers are most engaged with your content, making it easy for you to reward your most loyal customers. Reward them with discount off their next purchase or a free gift for example. Small gestures like this show them you appreciate their custom and will encourage them to come back to you.
3. Personalise your Communications
Another way to use CRM for customer retention is to personalise your communications. This is made simple, thanks to list segmentation (read this post for effective ways of segmenting your email list.) The possibilities when it comes to list segmentation are endless. Segment your list according to your customers’ location, their age, their gender, their previous purchases or their interests for example. This will increase the likelihood of your customers being interested in the communications they are receiving from you and will be more likely to make another purchase.
We like to use our fishing analogy as an example; imagine a fisherman casts a wide net, catches 100 fish and uses all his energy pulling them in but he’s only after one type, so he puts all put one back into the water. He’s spent a lot of energy on catching just the one fish. Now imagine the fisherman casts a rod- he’ll fish only for the particular fish he’s looking for and catches 10 with far less effort.
Now, apply this analogy to your communications- you send a bulk email to all your customers (i.e. cast a wide net), this hasn’t cost a lot of time but it has cost a lot of money. Only one person is interest in the content they have received. However, if you segment your list and send you communication to a small group (i.e. cast a rod), every member of that group will be interested in what you have sent them because it’s tailored to them.
4. Improve your Customer Service
Your CRM system will help you to improve your customer service considerably. Your team can record every interaction they have with your customers within your system, ensuring that everyone remains on the same page. For example, if a customer phones with an issue, details of their issue can be logged on their contact record. Then, if they phone again in the future and another member of the team takes the call, they can access the details of the issue and the problem will be handled more efficiently. Otherwise, without a CRM system and no details of previous calls, your customer would need to explain their issue again- possibly resulting in frustrations. “42% of respondents have left a business due to poor customer service,” (New Voice Media) therefore it’s imperative that you provide exceptional customer service.
5. Re-Engage your Inactive Customers
Your business is bound to have some inactive customers who have stopped making regular purchases or have stopped signing into your software for example. Using your CRM system, you’ll be able to see who these customers are and use the data you have already collected about them to re-engage them. For example, if you can see the purchases they have previously made, you can target them with an offer for the same or similar product.
