July 18, 2024Comment

How to Increase Repeat Customers in 5 Easy Steps

Acquiring new customers is costly and difficult, so wouldn’t it be great if all your first-time customers kept coming back again and again? This is what we like to call customer retention.

So what is customer retention exactly?

Here’s our definition: Customer retention is the act of turning a purchaser into a raving fan. By learning how to increase repeat customers, we’re focusing our attention on keeping people around for the long haul.

There isn’t necessarily any affinity toward you or what you’re selling when someone makes a purchase. Technically, they’re customers, but that doesn’t imply any sense of loyalty. Purchases are often made out of convenience or immediate necessity, not because someone cares about your product or your brand. These people aren’t likely to come back.

Raving fans, on the other hand, come back again and again. Their purchase decisions cease to be price-based. They’ll choose your brand and your product, even if it’s the more expensive option.

And that’s the great thing about fans — they’ll irrationally spend their last dollar on you because it’s more than just a purchase to them. There’s an emotional connection to you and your brand.

Think about it: Why would someone stand in line for days and spend more than they can afford to see a concert that lasts only a few hours? This is the magic of fandom. And you can replicate this phenomenon in your ecommerce business by taking the time to learn how to increase repeat customers who are your biggest admirers.

Customer Retention: How to Increase Repeat Customers and Why It Matters

It’s much more efficient to spend money on existing customers and get them to repurchase than it is to acquire new customers.

With new customers, you have to go through the getting-to-know-you phase. You have to build trust and convince them of your product’s reputation. Existing customers already have this level of knowledge and trust (assuming you’ve delivered on your promise), so they’re more likely to give you their trust again.

Once you turn your customers into true fans, their value multiplies exponentially.

With fans, the impact goes deeper than customer retention — it moves into customer expansion. Raving fans will tell their friends about you, becoming your ambassadors and acquiring new customers on your behalf. That’s free advertising for you!

5 Key Steps to Implementing a Strong Customer Retention Strategy

1. Quality Product

This is foundational, but it bears repeating. If you don’t have a strong product, customers won’t come back to purchase, no matter what you do.

2. Strong Brand

In order to create fans, you need a powerful story behind your company. There needs to be meaning behind your brand. This is what creates the emotional connection between you and your customers that’ll turn them from mere purchasers into loyal fans.

3. Excellent Service

Customer service is key, but it’s not just about the selling process. It extends to every touchpoint you have with your customers, whether in person, on your social media page, through your website, or with a marketing campaign.

Customer service isn’t an end in itself. It’s a step in creating an excellent overall customer experience.

4. Engagement

Engagement is about creating value for your customers. It’s not about bombarding them with sales and promotions through every possible channel. True engagement is like building a friendship. Provide value through your content and interactions beyond the products you offer. It can’t all be focused on the sale.

5. Surprise and Delight

If there’s one thing people love, it’s upgrades and perks — especially when they come unexpectedly. This is the final key to learning how to increase repeat customers and turn your purchasers into raving fans.

How would you feel if you walked into a hotel to check in and found you’d been upgraded to the penthouse suite from a standard double room? Most likely, you’d be overjoyed, tell all your friends, and return to this same hotel on the mere possibility that it could happen again. Don’t you want that kind of customer?

If you do, here’s the key: Don’t just deliver. Exceed expectations.

Note: Surprising your customers with unexpected perks is expensive, so build extra margin into your products so you can afford this final step. Trust us; it’ll pay off.