4 Reasons Why You Are Losing Your Customers

A retail business thrives on its base of loyal customers that help the business stay longer in the business and make it profitable. But, one can achieve customer loyalty only when their focus is on customer retention. Furthermore, it is crucial to ensure that you are not losing your customers, but only winning them back.

However, despite knowing this, only 18% of the businesses actually focus on customer retention. A good 44% of businesses still continue to acquire new customers.

To ensure that your business enjoys repeat customers and has a high retention rate, you need to focus on one of the important customer retention metrics — The Customer Lifetime Value. This metric indicates total income your business can expect from a single customer over a time. It helps businesses like yours to understand their customers better.

While a lot of businesses are trying hard to keep their customers in the business, one question haunts us all — Why do customers leave the business? When you look at the alarming number in your lost customer segment, you notice that few of them were customers who used to spend a lot of time and money.

So, what made them go away? Did you do something that they didn’t like? Probably, it was because you didn’t do something they would love. Thus, they moved away. Let’s take a look.

Reasons Your Customers are Slipping Away

1. You Don’t Listen Anymore

The best relationships are formed on trust and the ability to listen to each other. Often many businesses turn a blind eye towards their customers’ suggestions. But, if some of them still take the feedback seriously, they delay in taking the required action. This hinders the brand reputation and leads to loss in customers.

One way to avoid losing customers and build a strong relationship is acting on their feedback. For example, through Reelo, you can send customised feedback forms to your customers. In case, someone leaves a negative feedback, you will receive an instant alert, persuading you to take an action in that moment. Moreover, through its customer feedback system, you can collect feedback insights and improve customer experience in just one click.

If you want your best customers to stay with you, and share a strong bond, then you need to start listening to them. Encourage them to share their feedback. Start working on improving the experiences based on this communication. This will only help in improving your customer loyalty. You may even notice an increase in repeat purchases and referrals. Remember, a satisfied customer is more likely to refer to your brand.

2. You Lack in Customer Communication

Believe it or not, customers love recieving communication from their favourite brands on a personal level. Your best customers would love to receive engaging messages from you and stay connected with your business.

In fact, customers look forward to email and messages from their favourite brands talking about the new launches, promotions or just wishing them on birthdays.

But, are you doing your part? When was the last time you actually sent a personalised message to your customer? As a retailer, you often tend to believe that customers don’t like seeing too many messages. In the fear of losing your customer via messages, you tend to reduce your customer engagement and retention.

Eventually, your fear comes true, and you lose your precious customer. While too many messages can kill the customer’s delight; you need to send a minimum number of campaigns to increase repeat purchases and customer engagement.

If you don’t engage your customers with the right messages, you are likely to lose them and eventually your customer loyalty.

3. No Customer Appreciation

Customers love being appreciated for their loyalty and the repeat purchases they made at your store. Every customer loves being treated like the most privileged person at your store.

Not having a loyalty program or delighting rewards can lead to customer attrition. You will notice that customers stay longer with businesses that run a loyalty program, and have a good rewarding system. Customer loyalty companies like Reelo allow you to design your own loyalty programs, personalise communication, create relevant rewards, and send it directly to the customers.

It’s important to appreciate them for staying connected with your business, reward them for small milestones and make them feel special.

4. Lack of Customer Knowledge

When was the last time you checked your invoice to know what your customer prefers? When did you sit down to understand if a particular customer has been visiting you frequently or, they just turned into an acquisition?

You didn’t, did you? It is important to know your customer and their habits in-store to engage with them, and offer personalised experiences. If you don’t know what products they love, you won't be able to run the campaigns that bring a smile on their face. Say, you are a salon, and your best customer comes over for a hair cut regularly.

They have clearly stated a preference for certain services, and have declined the others in the past. You have a record of the same. However, you sent them an email claiming you have deals on facial services. The email goes unread, and clearly the customer didn’t convert.

However, if you knew that the customer preferred hair services, and you offered a deal on that service, you would have noticed a conversion. That’s why it is important for you to know your customers. Through Reelo, you can gain detailed customer insights and thereby, follow customer engagement best practices. Customer engagement and retention is a crucial part of any business. One can only achieve this if they clearly understand their customers’ needs and preferences.

If your best customers keep receiving messages that don’t connect with them, they might move away from your business. This may lead to a fall in your customer loyalty.

Summing Up

It is important to devote your attention to your customers, and build a strong relationship with them. Your best customers are more likely to cherish your products, try new items and keep returning, than a newly acquired customer.

Your relationship with your customer depends on the experiences they derive, how much you listen to them, and the way you appreciate them throughout the journey.

If the foundation is strong, you will notice a staggering growth for your business with repeat purchases and higher retention rate. If you are looking forward to increasing customer engagement and retention, sign up for Reelo’s 14-day free trial today.