Part of maintaining a thriving business is keeping loyal customers flocking to your services. Attracting new customers is always great, but it tends to be more expensive than holding on to your existing clientele. That’s why investing in your current set of customers and making sure you retain them is seen as more cost-efficient than focusing your budget on sales and marketing.
What is the importance of customer retention?
Entrepreneurs consider customer retention a key performance indicator that can influence how they run their businesses and the methods they use to apply new strategies to their processes. So they employ customer service representatives or software programs to help improve their operations and increase customer retention rates (CRR).
Increasing CRR by even a tiny margin can simultaneously boost your profits. However, many companies seem to overlook this small but crucial element despite the significant pay-offs. If your business is one of the 44% spending more time in customer acquisition, it may be time to consider customer retention soon. You can accomplish this with the help of applications catered to businesses, big or small, like Salesforce and similar programs.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a customer relationship management app designed to help organisations perform various tasks. It unites your commerce, sales, marketing, service, and information technology teams into one platform that they can access anywhere in the world.
The software can also execute tailored functions like personalised marketing and building custom apps to automate time-consuming, repetitive jobs. You can even integrate other reliable apps into it, like a Salesforce call recording function, to better understand the specific needs of both your new and old customers.
But how can you use Salesforce to retain your customers? Here are a few ways.
- Centralise customers’ information
Since Salesforce connects your teams wherever they are, authorised personnel can access the same customer data to further improve their interactions with a client in case they contact again. The app also collates all consumer communications into one platform, making it quicker to find and resolve particular issues. So no matter who interacts with your customers, the person in charge can easily tackle their concerns without the need to ask the agent who last spoke with them.
The centralised data in the app also ensure all information is valid and without duplicates. If you run into missing or inaccurate details in your records, you could be spending more time retrieving or correcting them than solving your customers’ concerns. And in the process, you could lose your clients and your profits, too.
- Personalise customer communication
Customers expect businesses to address their queries effectively in a timely fashion. They also hope to communicate with an actual human and not a robot.
Using Salesforce as a call centre software tool allows you to form strategies to make every customer feel like you’re only catering to them. Through the app, you can create personalised forms, emails, and landing pages. Thus, when sending a subscription email to a customer, for instance, you can include their name in the subject line or heading. In this way, they won’t feel like your agents sent the email to multiple people as it appears to have been tailor-made for them.
People like receiving personalised offers, especially from a business they trust. Try to build and maintain that trust so they will return to you for possible new services and products in the future.
- Track customer interactions
More often than not, some customers add your products to their cart only to leave them behind without checking out. Or worse, they remove these potential purchases and move on to your competitor.
You can keep tabs on what products catch people’s interest by tracking customer interactions with Salesforce. Seeing what they click helps you figure out similar products you can recommend when they visit your website or chat with your customer service team.
You can even see what products are not gaining clicks so you can find ways to resolve these non-moving goods. Your current customers might discover products they haven’t seen from you before and purchase them. These discoveries may pique their interest and keep them coming back for more.
- Re-engage with inactive customers
As a business owner, you might encounter days when you receive an influx of orders or inquiries on your services. Then there will come days of low sales. These lulls may be prevented by interacting with customers who have shown up once and never again.
Salesforce gives you the option to classify customers depending on how often you send them follow-ups. You may even include the method of communication the customers prefer, such as through email or calls. Your sales team can also benefit from this app’s features and customise their messages to those scheduled for a follow-up.
With the app, you can also find customers who haven’t bought from you in a while. Re-engage with them by offering discounts or freebies to reignite their interest in your products. Inactive customers are as important as active ones, and you must reach out to them. By identifying and nurturing customers, you may regain old ones back and retain their loyalty, too.
Conclusion
Retaining customers seems like a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. Implementing Salesforce in your business may change your playing field for the better. With it, you not only keep loyal customers, but you also earn a significant profit from clients who are happy with your services.
