Blog Post (April 2014)
International Customer Loyalty Month: Retaining your customers for longer
April marks International Customer Loyalty Month and so I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate this month’s post to the age-old challenge of not just winning, but keeping hold of your customers.
From the various discussions that take place between the team here at Barron McCann and the retailers we support, retailers are constantly feeling the pressure to maintain and increase sales. In addition however, I think it is so important to step back every now and then to take a more detailed look at who is buying from you, how much they are spending and how frequently.
Recent stories on trends such as the ‘SuperShopper’ have shown that sometimes, your smallest customer segment could in fact be your most profitable. So how do you ensure that you keep hold of your customers year after year, even when the competition are hitting them hard with discounts and promotions? Is your technology helping or hindering your service levels and what impact is this having on your customers?
It is clear that the right choice of technology plays a critical part in attracting customers, but what about retaining them once you’ve captured their attention? It’s easy to attract new customers, but if you can’t live up to your promises, they’ll soon go elsewhere.
I came across a great infographic which revealed some fascinating statistics relating to downtime, both instore and online. According to the illustration from RetailCustomerExperience and Cradlepoint**, every minute of POS downtime costs a retailer $4,700 (approx £2,800), 1 in 3 customers will abandon a queue if they have to wait more than 5 minutes. Alarmingly, 50% of customers will avoid or abandon a retailer in the future if they were kept waiting more than 5 minutes. Crazy to think that just a few minutes can have such a long lasting impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty isn’t it?
So as we enter International Customer Loyalty Month, my advice is to take some time to explore the service and experience your customers receive from you and see if there is room for improvement. Are the aspects of your service provision that are preventing customers from having that all-important optimal shopping experience with you? If so, what can you do to improve their experience, so that they not only leave your store content and satisfied, but are actively encouraged to return again.
Constantly reviewing your customer journey and ensuring you are regularly in touch with your customers will help you to maintain your service levels and reduce the likelihood of negative customer experiences. When you address every business issue by putting the customer experience at the top of the list, that’s when you start to deliver the consistent, joined-up shopping experience that all of your customers, new and old, will thank you for.
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