Customer retention strategy 101: Creating an end to end customer experience

In today’s saturated market, it’s crucial to help customers understand the value of your business and the products/services you offer. Companies with higher customer retention rates have lower costs and higher profits. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to improve customer retention by creating a successful, end to end customer journey.

1. Understand your customers

Deeply understanding your customers is the first step towards creating a successful buyer journey. Brands must participate in thorough market research to create buyer personas, understand your individual customer’s motivations and identify pain points. 

Simply put, businesses need to know their customers better than their customers know themselves.

2. Simplify touchpoints 

Consumers can now experience brands in many different ways (social media, TV ads, paid ads, email etc), and this makes it hard to keep up on various touchpoints. It can be difficult for both businesses and customers to keep up with everything they offer, due to the sheer number of channels.

You can make it easier to access your product or service by simplifying various touchpoints with your customers. For example, being contactable on an online messaging platform means customers can find out everything they need to know in one place. They can easily seek advice, enquire about a delivery update, or find out about opening hours. 

Reducing the number of touchpoints can make the customer experience less complicated and more enjoyable, which, in turn, boosts customer retention. This can also ease the burden on your team, as simplifying and centralising touchpoints mean your employees can spend less time searching for what they need and more time on the tasks that really matter. 

Sometimes, it can be hard to figure out if you’re missing any key touchpoints. In this case, it’s always best to look at things from a user’s perspective. 

Here are some questions you could ask yourself:  

• Do your customers want you to provide WhatsApp as a communications channel or to install live chat on your site? 
• How are different touchpoints working together? Can they be integrated with your CRM system, giving you easier access to the customer data you need to personalise experiences? 

Revising and simplifying your consumers’ touchpoints can make the end-to-end buyer journey much smoother, resulting in happier customers who will likely purchase again and again. 

3. Use the right tech to create more convenient and meaningful conversations

Research shows we check our mobile devices an average of 58 times per day. So, it’s no wonder brands are now contacting customers via the channels they’re already using. Mobile-based communication is much more convenient for people, especially amongst the hustle and bustle of daily life. 

Not only this, but having online conversations with your customers can help create the ultimate customer experience. This is because you can ensure every customer interaction is engaging, every touchpoint is relevant, and every experience is personalised. Conversations are managed with customer needs in mind and can happen on whatever platform customers prefer, from Facebook Messenger to WhatsApp. 

Having two-way conversations on the platforms your customers are already using will ultimately lead to happier customers who are more likely to return, buy more and recommend you to others. 

An engaging, end to end CX = stronger customer retention

Understanding your customer, simplifying touchpoints, and creating meaningful conversations help create an end to end customer journey that’s engaging and easy to follow. This will allow your customers to interact with you in ways that feel easy and natural, which, in turn, will help improve customer retention. 

In our ultimate guide to conversational messaging, we discuss the benefits of two-way chats on the messaging platforms customers already love using.

Click below to download the guide and discover in more detail how you can transform your buyer’s journey.