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Customer Retention Programs — Three Ways To Nurture And Maintain Customer Relationships

Bylori

customer retention programsWant to know what your customers are really thinking? You can create and nurture the relationship with your current customers with effective customer retention programs that allow you to keep your business at the forefront of your customers’ minds, as well as allowing them the opportunity to provide input — giving you valuable, real-time information you can use to boost the overall success of your marketing and sales efforts.

What do statistics show about customer retention programs? Most savvy businesspeople know that keeping an existing customer costs less overall than trying to solicit new business. And the old adage of the “80/20 rule” reveals that 20 percent of customers provide 80 percent of sales, so it makes sense to focus your attention on that group of loyal, repeat customers.

And the numbers prove retention’s success:

  • You’ll spend on average 10 times less to keep a customer than you would to secure new business.
  • Focusing your efforts on existing customers gets a big return on  investment, as you can reap an 80 percent return on customer retention programs. And that’s if you increase your efforts by just 10 percent.
  • Think of those numbers in another way. If you need to reduce your business’ budget, boosting customer retention efforts can help you create a little wiggle room.

What kinds of customer retention programs are available — and work?

  • Cross-media: A combination direct mail and email marketing campaign should be designed to produce repeat contact with existing customers, based on your unique products and services. The program should “touch” your customers a few times a year for at least three to five years.
  • Email marketing: Retention programs that operate via email distribution include automatically scheduled electronic greeting cards and birthday cards, which help to boost your business’ visibility and allows customers to refer their family and friends, generating additional leads. Make sure to keep the emails at a one-on-one personal level.
  • Greeting cards: The personal touch gets results. The open rate for a greeting card is nearly 100 percent, and sending a greeting card to the customers in your database will help to generate leads and up sell.

Maximize your customer retention programs by using a reputable company with a proven track record of success. Halo Programs utilizes integrated technology and has a range of customizable turn-key programs that will drive your marketing efforts, and provide bigger returns for your business.

Customer loyalty image via Shutterstock.