By Michelle Deery

Research shows that keeping existing customer is far cheaper than acquiring new ones. In fact, one study has shown that it can cost up to five times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one.

In light of this, customer retention is essential for ensuring your business is successful. Getting repeat business is a proven method of increasing your profits and improving the value of each customer.

Your existing customers are already familiar with your brand. They’ve shown an interest in your products or services. In fact, they’ve shown enough interest to part with their money already. Therefore, it’s crucial to keep them interested.

But, the question on many business owners minds is, what’s the best way to encourage loyalty in your existing customers? How can you be sure they will order from you again? If you’re trying to achieve this, here are five sure-fire ways to encourage repeat business.

Use customer accounts

There are times when new customers might be wary of creating an account with your business. After all, it can be seen as a big commitment. This can result in a substantial proportion of users choosing to check out as a “guest” when using your website.

However, customer accounts are a great way to encourage repeat business. They also make the customer’s life easier, as they has access to previous orders, and all their information is stored.

The key is to offer benefits to your customer that will increase the likelihood of them signing up. So, how can you do this?

Well, one of the best ways of encouraging more sign-ups is to wait until they have already placed their first order. After you’ve received the order, you can set up automated emails encouraging them to open an account, making sure that you highlight all the additional benefits they will get from doing so.

You can also offer your new customers the chance to sign up to a loyalty program. By offering them the chance to earn rewards, they will benefit from making repeat orders in the future.

Send discounts to first time buyers

Another great way of encouraging repeat business is to give discounts to buyers the first time they purchase from you. Although you may lose revenue in the short-term, sending new customers a special offer with their first purchase can result in repeat orders in the long-term.

This works particularly well when a buyer hasn’t purchased from you in a while. By offering extra discounts, customers who would have only bought from you as a one off will have a reason to return.

Furthermore, if you offer a special discount code, which provides a larger discount than usual, your customer will feel special. This is a personalized approach, which shows you value the customer. When you see which customers respond, you can then tailor your future marketing campaigns to them.

Don’t forget, when sending out email marketing, your content needs to be well written and visually appealing. Make sure your headlines are unique and your design is eye-catching. If you’re thinking of using logos, you can use a logo designer such as Hatchful from shopify.

Provide AR & VR experience

When it comes to taking advantage of new developments in technology, virtual reality is the future. AR and VR experiences are becoming more commonly used across a range of brands, offering different products and services.

This type of technology can be used to enhance customer experience across different devices and channels. Whatever you’re selling, AR and VR can be used to promote engagement by encouraging more interaction through storytelling.

Real-time personalization

The rise of AI-enabled technology has enabled businesses to provide more personalization than ever before. Where companies would previously have to use manual input, they are now able to automate processes and target customers based on their interests and previous interactions.

Because of this, customer’s expectations are higher than ever. In a recent survey, it was found that customer’s now expect:

-You to automatically know who they are when contacting customer services

-For your website to make relevant suggestions tailored to their interests

-To be able to use cloud-connected products to interact with your website

Always remember: your customers have unique needs. If you want to keep them loyal, your website needs to reflect this.

You can use real-time personalization to:

-Alter your interface to suit different visitors

-Use predictive product recommendations, offers, and incentives

-Use personalized social media ads, emails, and video content

-Personalize content on different channels and devices

Use self-service technology

Another way that AI can be used to encourage repeat business is by using self-service technology. Self-service has become so popular, it’s now the norm among younger shoppers. It makes their shopping experience easier.

Some of the ways you can use self-service technology on an online store are by using chatbots on social media, text, and voice-enabled technology; you can also use virtual shopping assistants to assist your customers when using your website.

Conclusion

If you want your business to generate repeat business in 2019, it is essential that you follow these five discussed methods. Only then will your business be able to outshine its competitors by staying current and engaging.

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Michelle Deery is a conversion copywriter for Heroic Search. Her content has been seen in authority publications such as Entrepreneur magazine. She has been writing online content for over 7 years and specializes in writing content for SaaS companie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-deery-ba7131123/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/michwriting