5 Ways to Use Technology for Customer Retention

Customer retention is a vital part of any business’s success. And there are some very good reasons for that. Did you know that increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits 25-95%, according to Bain & Co? And that gaining a new customer is five time as costly as keeping a current one? For businesses that want to improve their retention rates, it’s important to look at customer behaviors and trends. In order to best court their customers, businesses have to meet them where they are. More than ever, customers are shopping, browsing and communicating on their mobile devices. Adopting mobile marketing strategies can enhance customer satisfaction by leaps and bounds. Here are the top 5 ways that today’s technology can help you keep your customers happy:

Optimize your website for mobile

With more and more business being conducted on mobile sites, if your website isn’t optimized for mobile usage, you’re likely to see users abandoning your page in favor of a competitor’s site that is mobile-friendly. Customers expect a webpage to open within a second or two, and they can abandon a website that takes longer than that to load. In addition, customers are more likely to purchase on a mobile-optimized site. Customers perform a variety of tasks on mobile sites, from browsing merchandise to looking up addresses to booking reservations to making purchases. If your site isn’t ready to receive their business on mobile, you’re likely to lose customers. That’s why running tests to check the mobile friendliness of your site is a must.

Send deals via mobile

Customers would benefit if brands delivered deals and coupons to their mobile devices. This practice is becoming more and more targeted and sophisticated. Purchase histories allow you to send promotions on products or services you know a customer likes. And geotargeting allows you to send a notification to a customer’s mobile when they’re near your location. Ideally, you could combine the two concepts and when your company’s app detects a customer nearby, you can offer a discount on one of their favorite products.

Use convenient customer support platforms

There are lots of ways to provide customer service that complement call centers. Social media and texting are two popular alternatives. Xbox’s Elite Tweet Fleet on Twitter has posted over 2 million support tweets since they launched it in 2010. Their 27-strong team of experts solves customers’ problems and keeps them happy. Texting is also a popular customer service venue that allows customers to read and respond to messages on their own time and without having to be connected to the Internet. In this Text Magic case study, the Director of Cloud Data Service says that “Implementing SMS functionality into our software has been fundamental to retaining our key clients as well as winning new business.”

Use buttons on social media

The easier you can make a purchasing experience for a client, the more likely you are to keep that client. Buy buttons are one-click options that you can add to your social media pages. For example, if you’re displaying a new sweater in your store’s collection on Pinterest, you can add a “Buy It” button that allows the customer to buy it instantly from their mobile device. They don’t have to go to another page or fill out purchasing forms. They can buy it from the very page where the item is being advertised. Shopify has partnered with Pinterest to create “Buyable Pins” and Twitter has adopted Stripe Checkout to allow customers to make purchases from their site.

Get the most out of mobile payments

I know, I know. Mobile payments are like New Year’s Resolutions. Everyone talks about it, but nobody actually does it. But the situation can change in a flash and mobile pay transactions can gain momentum in upcoming years. People are more likely to forget their wallet at home than they are to forget their mobile phone. In fact, most Millennials have their smartphones with them at all times, and, not coincidentally, Millennials also represent the second-highest tier of mobile payment spending, with 23% of them using mobile pay at least once a week, according to Fortune. One company that’s already learned how to leverage mobile pay for customer service is Starbucks. They managed to boost customer use of mobile pay through their mobile app by offering special offers and discounts for purchasing through the app. Over 20% of their in-store transactions in the U.S. are from their mobile app. Those are pretty incredible numbers. So here you see a marketing strategy that integrates mobile app, mobile pay and loyalty programs. Sounds like a recipe for customer retention. Which technologies have you used to increase customer retention? Let us know in the comments.