6 Keys to Improve Customer Retention! – Special center

On average, acquiring new customers costs 6-7 times more than retaining existing customers. Therefore, there is a real challenge for brands to build loyalty and maintain engagement over time. What are the best practices?

The consumer environment has hardened in recent years, on the one hand, due to increased competition, but also due to recent economic inflation (+6.2% in one year in November 2022 – source INSEE). Therefore, it is not easy for brands to remain attractive to attract both communities and new customers. That’s why advertisers are doubling down on their efforts to entice, as they did last Black Friday, when they averaged +23% more emails with Selligent Marketing Cloud’s omnichannel marketing platform (vs. 2021).

Issue #1: trigger the next purchase

Also, after the first purchase is made, the brand must be able to create some affinity with the customer very early on to trigger a second or even a third purchase. Only then can we talk about loyalty. “To do this, companies are increasingly looking to buy leads that include legitimate promises of value, but engage each new customer in a personalized way, with a welcome email, a next purchase offer, etc. establishes a contact program that should meet with “, explains Cécile Egret, customer success manager at Selligent Marketing Cloud. We understand why 40% of French consumers are willing to pay more for a brand they trust. (source: 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index – CM Group). Loyalty is thus achieved not only through operational logic, offering low prices, but also through creating an emotional bond with customers to create a sense of recognition and belonging to a community.

Restaurant chain Quick realized that offering a free burger after purchase wasn’t enough to bring customers back a 2nd or 3rd time in their loyalty program’s mobile app. Also, the brand used Selligent Marketing Cloud to set up a welcome program after the first purchase with discount coupons to generate at least four visits and retain new customers.

Issue #2: Consider availability

The relationship will then tap into the customer’s profile, recent purchases or even through communications that make sense thanks to contextualization according to their annual milestone. For example, the Botanic Garden Center chain has created a thematic storage program according to different product categories. Post-purchase emails are personalized with useful and entertaining editorial content, such as added value “The right gestures to keep your plant”, “how to welcome your new pet” … “Emails are highly rated by customers, with an average open rate of 37% (+72% vs. industry average). Using the Selligent Marketing Cloud, Botanic increased the relevance of its messages and drove engagement with its customers.” Cécile observes Egret. It’s up to brands to figure out how to update themselves with the times!

“With the expertise of Selligent Marketing Cloud, we were able to extend our customers’ superior in-store experience to our website. The success of this email campaign exceeded our expectations.” says Stephanie Jacquot, Botanic’s Client Relations Manager.

Issue #3: Treat each customer as unique

Brands must also be able to demonstrate emotional intelligence: empathy, attention… developing the bond that connects them with their customers. Moreover, the latter like to receive small attention from brands and especially exclusive benefits: 92% of consumers already have one or more loyalty programs, 64% of which include discounts or loyalty points, and 58% early access to sales or products. pending release (source : 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index – from CM Group). “So it’s no surprise that brands are increasingly playing the exclusivity card, whether it’s inviting customers to a VIP Black Friday promotion, hosting a special in-store event or offering limited-edition gifts,” Cécile Egret continues.

Issue #4: Information is the key to staying connected

To communicate regularly and in a personalized way, brands need to maintain good quality contact information and acquire new ones. Also, every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to ask them to verify that all or part of their information is correct and to start collecting preference data, whether in-store or when joining a venue. 59% of French consumers agree to share their data to get a better service (source: 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index – CM Group) or ask additional questions in a “progressive profiling” approach: preferred communication channel, interests, etc. “The goal is to have a transparent, non-intrusive approach, where the customer trusts their personal information with confidence, and above all, in return for the promise of tangible benefits: better personalized communications, special services, etc.” Cécile Egret identifies. Personalization that goes beyond a simple name or mass segmentation creates long-term ROI and consumer engagement.

Challenge #5: detect obsolescence risk as early as possible

Despite all this attention, it happens that the customer loses interest in the brand for various reasons: less attractive products, non-shared values (19% of customers left a brand because they didn’t like its environmental/social or political stance – source: 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index – from CM Group) or budget arbitrage. The challenge is to identify churn as early as possible: you haven’t opened emails without a purchase for a few weeks, a few months… to trigger a reactivation plan. “We may then send you a message to remind you of the brand promise along with an ad offer. If this communication remains unanswered, we can also ask more clearly the reasons for this lack of interest in order to provide a more personalized response, and finally, if there is still no response after a year, it is better to archive the communication as inactive. GDPR mandates this action after three years” Cécile Egret advises.

Issue No. 6: Hybridization of commerce as a loyalty lever

Finally, we note that in recent years, brands and brands have tended to change their business models towards greater diversification in order to combat various economic, geopolitical and health threats. Thus, they develop “inside” and “outside” markets to sell on other e-commerce sites or, conversely, expand their offerings by welcoming other brands. It’s also a boom in second-hand and rental: new services that encourage customers to stay brand-loyal. We may, for example, display the vertbaudet brand through the digital platform www.re.vertbaudet.fr/ or Kiabi and the website https://location.kiabi.com/.

Ultimately, building loyalty and building lasting relationships with customers creates a culture of real information as far up the customer journey as possible. It’s also about being thoughtful, generous, and creative about building an engagement program that can foster interest, attention, and strong brand loyalty! We can then hope to turn our most engaged customers into real ambassadors, who in turn will be involved in recruiting new customers.