Churn rate is a metric you should never let fall between the cracks. Without it, you’ll waste valuable department budgets on strategies that fail to retain customers. This applies to everything from customer service to loyalty marketing programs.
What many companies fail to understand is that churn needs its own management approach. A churn management strategy will provide a “bigger picture” perspective of the problem, clearing a path forward to lower churn rates.
Here are four actions you can take right now to decrease churn and retain customer loyalty.
1. Create a Customer Loyalty Program For Churn Management
Every business owner understands the importance of analyzing sales data. Yet, how deep are you taking your analysis?
Daily numbers only reveal so much. You need to segment that data to get a better picture of your customers’ behavior.
One strategy you can implement right now is a loyalty program. You don’t even have to charge customers for signing up. This method will help you understand sales trends for individual customers.
Loyalty programs generate a massive contact list which is a marketing asset. These lists allow you to create segmented marketing campaigns, narrowing targets to improve conversion rates.
You can even create list segments for customers who haven’t purchased from your company in a while. This tactic provides customers an opportunity to rediscover your business through incentives like member-exclusive discounts.
2. Be Creative With Your Personalized Marketing
A loyalty program puts a name to a customer. Thus, you can craft more personalized marketing campaigns moving forward.
Studies across the industry spectrum found an overwhelming majority of customers prefer personalized experiences.
Yet, what does this look like in practice?
Take a page from e-mail marketing.
E-mail is the digital equivalent of direct mail but without paper waste. Similarly, e-mail directly connects with customers, addressing them by name. However, e-mail allows you to tailor (or curate) content to each individual customer.
Through segmentation, you can uncover the buying behavior of each customer. Thus, you can curate e-mail content based on that customer’s previous sales history.
3. Encourage Engagement With Feedback
Customers have plenty of value to offer beyond purchasing behavior. A noticeable uptick in customer churn is an opportunity to communicate with your customers.
Feedback is a valuable asset that also builds a sense of community.
By gathering opinions, you empower customers to engage in your business in new ways. Plus, feedback builds trust and empathy with your community. It proves you’re listening, and customers can expect changes.
4. Improve Onboarding Practices
One feedback-informed decision may be to revamp your onboarding strategy. This tactic is vital for services that depend on membership plans.
For example, if you notice a high churn rate for new users on your software platform, consider an onboarding approach that better educates (and empowers) new users.
The above example also speaks to the importance of understanding the churn rate per customer. Find out when a customer has dropped off to understand why they left. Integrate feedback forms into your product to gather even more details about the customer’s experience.
Leverage Data to Decrease Churn
Looking at your churn rate with a data-driven eye is the key to lowering that rate. Remember the value of loyalty programs, personalized marketing, feedback, and onboarding when developing your churn management philosophy.
Let Kissmetrics be your data analytics hub moving forward.
Request a demo to learn more!
