Business innovation is no longer contained to trade practices. It has also become a necessary aspect of customer success and customer retention. For a long while now, businesses have marked their success by various metrics, out of which their customer acquisition and retention parameters hold significant value.
A business with a healthy customer base is a strong one, which is why businesses across the globe have special teams that focus on building and maintaining a constantly expanding customer base. But beyond this, businesses need to give special attention to acquiring new customers, which could prove to be easier if approached with the right tools.
There are certain steps that a business could take to grow customers in the future.
Approach with a different strategy:
The cardinal rule of any business strategy is that what worked once may not always work. The primary mistake any business might make is to think that the strategies that got them the customers during their inception would help with the same purpose, at the same rate, irrespective of the changes in the markets and scenarios.
But changing times mandate that businesses have to constantly rethink strategies and sometimes even be prepared to build the parachute during their free fall. Focus areas constantly keep shifting, and so do customer needs. So, the strategies that are aligned with the times would produce the best results.
Most importantly, the plans for customer retention and the expansion of the customer base could not be the same, as they form two different spheres of the business.
A business that pitches its products and services in the same way across months or years is bound to reach a stagnant number graph at a point, throwing light on the similar strategies paving the way for a steady flat line or decline in the graph.
Alternative strategies that cover the changing needs help entice potential new customers, who would eventually become strengths for the business.
Build on your existing networks
While what worked once may not always be correct, a solid foundation that builds on an existing plan could help the business. The current customer base is a good starting point for research and analysis and could give clues on strategies that worked or plans that would require more conversations over the drawing board.
Even with powerful products and useful services, businesses still need word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals from their existing customers, which will help grow their customers in the future.
These existing networks also give an important value addition – that of their trust towards the business, which appeals to potential customers.
Be actively receptive to feedback
Businesses should never lose their touch when it comes to customer satisfaction. Customer feedback about products and services are real-time windows into learning what ticks. Businesses that let the negative reviews and comments go unaddressed face the risk of customers leaving.
Gathering customer feedback should be a regular activity, and businesses must employ automated tools to ensure that customers have clear channels to provide their comments and suggestions. Businesses should then focus on correcting even the seemingly minor issues that arise with their customers.
Any potential customer checks out a business’s customer satisfaction levels before deciding to invest their resources in the company. Businesses that are receptive to feedback and implement corrective measures get favorable reviews and exponentially increase their chances of growing their customer base.
Collecting and sorting through customer feedback can be simplified with the use of automated tools. We at Success4 automate the entire process by providing tools that leverage meaningful insights to focus your team’s efforts on the highest value activities with your highest value customers through success plans, KPIs, and playbooks.
Predict market dynamics
Businesses that are constantly aware of the changing market dynamics are already successful by theory. When they use this updated knowledge to strategize and alter their business practices, their route to success becomes clearer.
When a business anticipates its customers’ needs and provides products and services that make it indispensable, the need in the market grows and the business reaches to meet it, ensuring customer satisfaction on the way, and leading to comfortable numbers in customer growth.
Approach potential customers with newer plans
Alongside the correct prediction of market dynamics comes the next requirement – approaching potential customers with newer plans. Starting with relevant offers in the costs of products and services, businesses need to have newer plans once they have strategized to welcome an inflow of new customers.
Allowing room for newer customers during product launches and engaging them in the processes of development and enhancement makes them feel good about the company’s services. With this method, the customer success rates skyrocket, and the new customers spread the word quicker about how your business has exciting plans for those who engage with it.
Allow for customer interaction at all levels
Customers love accessible businesspeople. Actively collecting and responding to customer feedback is a starting point for customer retention and allowing for customer interaction at all levels provides easier pathways for newer customers to try out a business’s products and services with more conviction.
Having trained personnel who can handle requests, comments, suggestions, and general feedback at all levels ensures customer satisfaction and thereby customer growth in the future.
When businesses are prompt with their responses, the relationship between them and their customer base grows stronger and more meaningful.
Businesses could prompt interactions with customers even with promotional material, by providing innovative queries, meaningful and rewarding surveys, and options for clients to interact with the business. Providing social media handles as part of the promotional material, and including specialized communication channels are certain ways in which businesses can focus on customer growth. However, these communication channels must be active and responsive at all times, because the attention that businesses get on social media could make or break their strategies.
Embrace the magic of ‘free’ and ‘trials’
In a competitive world, the magic words of any business would be ‘free’ and ‘trial’.
The biggest wall that every business has to surmount is the one surrounding money. Even the customers who are warming up to the idea of approaching a business shy away at the last moment on seeing how much a product or service costs. Providing attractive discounts and offering certain products for free or services on trial could allow the customers a chance to see what their experience will be when they are completely engaged with the business.
Free trials that do not require a customer to enter into payment agreements could be an excellent opportunity for a demo of the products and services a business offers.
Further, businesses can use these trials to build goodwill with their potential customers, and at the least, convert these into testimonials with a well-timed, strategically-placed request to the customers who have used the product/service. The curiosity and the subsequent satisfaction levels aid in customer growth.
All strategies mentioned as part of customer success work for customer retention too, and automating these tasks would make sure that customers are not left unattended. Businesses can use the tools we at Success4 provide and manage their operations more efficiently. Our tools offer a multitude of functions that automate tasks of varying intensity, leaving businesses more time to focus on their strategies and development.
