How to keep customers around for longer

Surprise: Acquiring a new customer costs 5x more than retaining an existing one.

Three important factors contribute to customer retention:

1. Loyalty: Build affinity by providing a quality user experience.

2. Incentives: Align your value proposition with users' desires.

3. Frictionless experience: Make it easy for customers to repeat buy.

Here are seven tactics to keep customers coming back.

1. Start by making your checkout process frictionless.

Three tactics to try:

1. Enable one-click checkout using a tool like Fast.
2. Remove the navigation bar to prevent distractions.
3. Encourage account registration—but don't require it. First-time buyers may not be ready to commit. Wait until after they purchase to send an email explaining registration perks, e.g. tracking shipments and viewing order history.

2. Create easy and enticing rewards programs.

Promotional giveaways and limited time specials do NOT build long-term customer loyalty. They get users to try something—but not to stick around... And they train customers to ONLY buy from you when you're running a promotion.

Instead of short-term deals, hook users in for longer through strategic rewards programs. For inspiration, check out online consignment store thredUP's:

• Gamifies the experience with multiple ways to earn points AND redeem them.
• Creates urgency through reward expiry dates, e.g., "Use by Aug 24."
• Includes a progress bar to encourage continued engagement.

3. Personalize customer support interactions.

Unhappy customers quickly tire of repeating their problems to customer service bots. Make them feel heard by personalizing otherwise repetitive support interactions.

For instance:

• Refer to contact notes and previous conversations.
• Use real names and faces.
• Inject emotion into your messaging, e.g. "We really hate [how problem affected customer]"

4. Downsell to hesitant customers.

Before customers churn, you'll likely see a dip in engagement. If you notice this trend, offer a lower-cost alternative to prevent them from churning.

You'll gain trust by selling only what they need—and not what they can't afford.

5. Reduce involuntary churn.

Churn isn't always intentional. Sometimes, it's caused by an expired credit card.

For subscription-based companies:

• Retry the card on-file again before reaching out.
• If you need to contact customers, send a mobile-friendly link to collect card info.
• Follow up with SMS.

6. Show personalized popups to returning customers.

Instead of greeting all visitors the same way, show returning customers a personalized welcome popup and remind them of your value prop.

For example, Booking.com shows a "welcome back" message for returning visitors (tracked through cookies):

7. Surprise current customers with freebies.

Two important notes:

1. Don't wait for birthdays or special occasions—customers will already be receiving gifts from lots of other brands.
2. Relate gifts to your core offering for more affinity.

Example: Chewy randomly gifts customers with pet portraits (and also gets free social shares in return).

Recap

• Make your checkout process frictionless.
• Create awesome rewards programs.
• Personalize customer support interactions.
• Try downselling if you notice low engagement.
• Watch out for unintentional churn from expired credit cards.
• Personalize popups for more impact.
• Surprise customers with freebies.

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