Repost from Bubba Page on Inc.com – Full article HERE
If you are a professional that provides local services, you know how valuable repeat business can be. In fact, according to recent insight, just a 5% boost in customer retention can increase business profits by 25% – 125%. Additionally, 80% of your future profits will come from 20% of your existing customers (Gartner Group).
With these customer retention statistics in mind, focusing on increasing customer loyalty and fostering repeat business is a no brainer. However, in order to do customer retention right, small businesses often need the help of additional resources.
To help you out, here is a quick review of 5 of the top tools that will increase customer loyalty, help you land repeat business, and ultimately, be able to more successfully grow your revenues.
1. GetFeedback
One of the top ways to make sure you are truly focusing on the customer is to ask for their opinion about your services. Your customers are your advocates and are often willing to share information that will help you fine-tune your services.
The best way to ask for opinions is often through online surveys. With a tool likeGetFeedback, you can easily design beautiful surveys to send out to your customers. GetFeedback surveys also include pre-designed proven templates that you can customize with your own branding, are optimized for mobile and desktop viewing, and easily allow for email integration.
When looking to increase customer loyalty, make sure you have a way to send surveys to your customers.
2. FreshLime
If you are a service-based business, FreshLime is simply a must for customer retention. In short, FreshLime is a data marketing platform that is all about helping small business service owners re-engage customers and capture return revenue.
Small business owners are familiar with the fact that most marketing efforts are focused on customer acquisition (social media marketing, paid search, seo, etc.). While these marketing efforts are vital for initial customer contact and new leads, they are also only half the battle. The other part of the equation lies in using data to understand where existing and paying customers are already coming from, and how to get them to re-engage.
FreshLime works by providing business owners with helpful insights that show where customers are coming from, when they are purchasing, and most importantly, when a business should re-engage the customer. By shifting the focus from continually campaigning for new customers to data-driven analysis that fosters customer re-engagement, small businesses are able to cultivate the business they already have and stay actively connected with customers long-term.
3. Woobox
When it comes to repeat services, little is more exciting to an existing than a contest or promotion that helps them save. In fact, 70% of customers say they want coupons sent to them, especially for things they already buy. Woobox is a tool designed to help small business owners provide customers with exactly what they want.
With sweepstakes, coupons, photo contests, quizzes, video contests, and much more, the Woobox app covers it all. As you promote your business through promotions and contests with Woobox, you will spread your message, keep your followers happy, and own your fanbase.
4. Rankur
No matter how good of a service you offer, there will be times when your customers are unhappy. It’s just part of being involved in the service industry. With the prevalence of review-based services like Yelp, Angie’s List, Google Reviews, and Facebook, to name a few, your existing customers have the luxury of talking about you-for good or for bad-online.
If you are looking to foster healthy and ongoing customer relationships, you need to know what customers are saying about you, and then address the issue. Not only is this important to help maintain a positive relationship with existing customers, but it’s also important because 85% of customers use the internet for research before making a purchasing decision. Reviews, good and bad, play a large part in new customer acquisition.
5. Nuvi
One of the best ways to stay in touch with existing customers is through social media. Interestingly enough, studies show that over 90% of people follow brands on Twitter alone just to get discounts. Combine this statistic about Twitter with all other social media platforms, and it’s easy to see social media is a place where your loyal followers live.
To make sure you are connecting with your followers in the right way, you need to understand what is trending in the social media world, especially in relation to your industry. Rather than shooting from the hip, Nuvi gathers data on trends and helps you construct social media posts that resonate with your followers. Additionally, Nuvi presents this information with real-time visualizations that help fuel your strategy and guide your campaigns.
Wrap-Up
While there are several tools that will help with customer retention, if you start with the tools listed above, you’ll be in a position to ensure repeat business.