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As a business owner, you already know customer retention is crucial. This is particularly important concerning your website, given the low barriers to entry to competitors in setting up rival websites. If your organisation retains most online customers, it can avoid spending extra monies on focused advertising and special offers to replace those customers. This article will explore five simple methods to retain customers on your website. This should aid your business by maintaining a consistent income level and avoiding periods of low demand.
Why is it Important to Prioritise Customer Retention?
Generally, keeping existing customers is far more profitable than replacing customers with new ones.
Usually, the first purchase a buyer makes on a website is modest. However, return customers tend to spend more (and buy more). Thus, it is fairly uncontroversial that customer retention is desirable and profitable. Accordingly, let us explore three good customer retention strategies.
1. Effective Search Tools
Nothing is more frustrating than wandering around a supermarket looking for one item. Experiences like this are especially infuriating when the signs above the aisles offer no tangible assistance.
Website users get equally upset when attempting to surf an unhelpful business site. However, unlike a supermarket user (already within the physical store), it only takes a moment for a web user to switch to a competitor.
It is essential to ensure that your search bar is speedy, accurate and helpful. Some useful tips include:
- ensuring that the search highlights relevant items (for example, it is no good selling Snoopy merchandise if a search for ‘Snoopy’ takes users to Snoop Dog CDs);
- making sure the search facility is swift (three seconds for a search bar result is excessive); and
- designing your search function to be user-friendly and intelligent (for instance, recommending the closest item in the event your website does not contain something that matches the search term. An example is displaying coffee mugs if a user searches for espresso cups.)
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2. Speedy Customer Response Times
Again, it is helpful to draw comparisons with real-life shopping experiences. For example, if you shop for a laptop in an electronics store but require guidance, you may wish to speak to a shopping assistant. However, if the massive store only has one assistant on the floor and it takes 15 minutes to find them, this negatively impacts your shopping experience.
In the same way, if your website has a ‘contact us’ email address or online chat box function, it is imperative to ensure that the customer obtains a swift response. For online chat boxes, you should measure the response time in seconds. On the other hand, you should usually reply to an email enquiry within hours.
Naturally, there are circumstances where a longer period is reasonably required, such as answering complex queries. In these scenarios, however, it is helpful to update the potential customer on progress and how much longer it will take to provide a detailed response. All these points ensure a positive customer experience and increase the likelihood of strong customer acquisition and high customer retention rates.
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3. Customer Loyalty Program and Points Systems
Finally, we move on to customer loyalty schemes and points systems. These are commonplace for various reasons, which include:
- they encourage loyalty by offering money off repeat purchases and first dibs on sales items;
- they allow your business to obtain a legitimate database of customer contact information; and
- they enable your organisation to advertise its products by electronic newsletter (when the customer base consents in advance).
Many websites operate a form of a loyalty system, which tends to take some of the following formats:
- a points system that provides a certain number of points per pound spent, which can be redeemed by repeat customers on future purchases;
- a premium or ‘VIP’ service which rewards long-term customers with website accounts with early access to sales events (such as Black Friday); and
- free delivery for returning loyal customers (akin to the free delivery found within Amazon Prime membership).
Key Takeaways
It is well known that repeat consumers tend to buy more items and spend more money than first-time customers, as well as costing less in advertising fees. For this reason, a few simple steps on your website can give your organisation a substantial financial boost for relatively little effort and cost. Overall, your company can focus on retaining customers by offering them a positive customer journey on your website and social media channels.
If you need help with positive measures to retain customers on your website, our experienced E-Commerce and Online Business lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many businesses obtain expert opinions from specialists, including e-commerce lawyers and website designers. However, it can also be helpful to explore your website and imagine the thoughts of a first-time customer as to ease of use and loading speeds.
Most loyalty and points-based schemes offer relatively little reward for the consumer whilst netting the business a much higher amount of sales. Unless the rewards system is ill-thought-out, the profitability of running a loyalty system tends to outweigh any additional cost.
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