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<p>I don't mean what to do for customers.</p>
Upgrade yourselves as per the taste and preference of the customer and the changing patterns of product and technology by maintaining all business ethics and communication system i.e. time to time passing on information.
Timely supply
Provide quality product
Provide quality service
Have the right CRM software in place
Timely checking of the functioning of the CRM
Have a dedicated person to follow up any problem areas
quality and diversity two things to retain customers.
Step1 Ask – Ask your customers what they want, what they like and don’t like. Include customer surveys on your Web site, at point-of-sale and in package inserts. You’ll likely get “extreme” feedback from customers who either love you or hate you. Customers who are mildly satisfied are not as motivated to speak their minds. But only ask if you’re prepared to deal with the responses. Turning a deaf ear to a problem is the kiss of death. Please remember that customers expect you to take action when they complain, especially if you initiated the dialog. Use feedback from your surveys to make improvements to your product or service. Customers love it when you listen to them!
Step2 Evaluate – Evaluate your customer data to find out who your best customers are. This may sound like a big “duh”, but the devil is in the details. There may be trends that you’ve overlooked. And keep an eye on profitability, not just transactions. In the credit card world, a deep spender who pays off his balance each month is usually not as profitable as a moderate spender who carries a balance. When you know who your best customers are, you can tailor your marketing programs to keep those customers and encourage them to spend more with you.
Step3 Stimulate – If you have sold your customer a service and they’re not using it, get them to activate. Examples: online bill pay; long-distance service; credit and debit cards. At the start of a new relationship, there’s that warm and fuzzy feeling when a customer signs on. You got them to say “yes.” Four months later you’re wondering why your customer doesn’t love you. Is it something you did? No. It’s something you didn’t do. You sold them and moved on. You assumed that the customer would fend for himself and figure out all the great things about doing business with you. The first few days/weeks of a new business relationship are critical. Shower them your kindness. Send direct mail and e-mail reminders. Thank them for their business. Do everything you can to make the “honeymoon” phase of your relationship special. In the long run, if they’re not using your product or service, they’re likely to bail when a better deal comes along.
Step4 Reward – Reward your customers with meaningful perks for doing business with you. It seems like everyone has a loyalty program these days. Customers are getting weary of “me too” programs that don’t offer substantial value. Instead of always giving customers what they expect, give them the unexpected. For example, a mid size accounting firm rewarded some of its best customers a box of Haigh chocolates for their continued business. It was an unexpected tasty little perk that came out of the blue. Results? These customers had above average retention rates the following year. Sometimes the little things can mean a lot.
Step5 Aggregate – Try to get all the customer’s eggs in your basket. In other words, cross-sell other products and services. It’s much easier because you already have a relationship with these customers. Offer “one-stop shopping”, consolidated billing, free postage and other benefits for giving you more of their business. Everyone’s busy, and consumers are looking for service providers who can make their lives
easy & comfort
Internal Customer Retention Step are mainly based on product diversity, customer satisfaction with the product, and market share:
Product Diversity:
~ How customers relate to product through attributes or characteristic?
~ How customer rates your product against your competitors?
~ Is there any unique feature attached to your product (Safety, Innovation, or market specialty)?
Customer Satisfaction:
~ In how many different way can your customers use the product.
~ How easy is your product to use?
~ Is there any special benefit for using a product?
Market share:
~ Is there a royalty program or is there any benefit for being a customer (rewards program)?
~ How does your product differentiate from your customer's product?
~ what product life cycle your product is following at the time such as product maturity, growth, peak, or decline (redesign)?
Analyze with a survey to understand then make the right changes, main while keep analyzing and improving.
After few months conduct another survey to see if it's paying off and how far away from your objectives.
In addition to what is said:
- Expand your market knowledge, know what makes the customer leave, what do competitors offer, ,,,
- Train your teams to praise the value of customers
- Empower your employees. Give them some authority to take decisions when needed to keep the customer
- Develop employee involvement and loyalty.
agree with previous answers.