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Apr 13, 2021 Melissa Gilbertson

Customer Service Strategies: How to Increase Customer Loyalty

Increase Customer Loyalty

Did you know that acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer? In fact, there’s not many more important things for the growth and profitability of your organization than customer loyalty

Customer retention is a byproduct of a world-class customer service program and a superior customer experience. It leads to more customers, higher profits for your organization and faster growth.

Yet, despite this, many organizations are struggling to implement customer support strategies that put customer loyalty at the forefront of success.

That’s why, in this blog, we are going to take a look at why customer loyalty is so important for your business, some strategies that will help your organization improve customer retention, as well as how an outsourced contact center can ensure you achieve customer loyalty goals through unique expertise, innovative technologies and highly-skilled people.

Why customer loyalty is so important

To give you a better idea of just how important customer loyalty and customer retention is to the success of your business, here at Advantage Communications we have compiled a list of some of the most important, and shocking, customer loyalty statistics:

  • 33 percent of American customers say that they will consider switching companies immediately following a single instance of poor service (American Express).
  • Over $62 billion is lost annually by American companies due to poor customer service (NewVoiceMedia).
  • A 5 percent increase in customer retention correlates with at least a 25 percent increase in profit (Bain & Company). 
  • 93 percent of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service (HubSpot Research). 
  • 60 percent of loyal customers (a number that rises to 70 percent among Millennials) will purchase more frequently from their preferred companies (InMoment).

Strategies to help customer retention

So, with these statistics in mind, what can your organization do to improve its customer service strategy and better retain customers? Here are just a few of the most effective strategies.

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#1 - Anticipate your customers’ needs

One of the most valuable tools in building a seamless customer service strategy and world-class customer experience is the ability to anticipate your customers needs and answer queries. This reduces friction in your customer support process, and significantly increases customer satisfaction in your brand. 

The secret sauce here is a mixture between understanding what your customers want, and figuring out how they want to find the answer to their questions. To do this, technology is the key. 

Here at Advantage Communications, for example, we use our unique Conversational Q Advantage technology to monitor customer communications and learn what the top customer requests are. We then use those insights to build better customer experiences for current and future customers, bringing them back to your brand time and time again.

#2 - Build brand loyalty by improving the customer experience

Today’s customers want to engage with brands just as they would with family and friends. While phone support is still crucial, there’s no denying the growth in importance of other channels such as live chat, self-service, email and many others. 

Engaging with your customers, where, when and how they want to speak with your brand will go a long way to reducing customer effort and enhancing their overall customer experience with your business. If customers are happy with the experience your brand provides, it’s unlikely they will look to move on to a competitor. 

In fact, it’s believed that more than two-thirds of companies now compete primarily on the basis of customer experience alone. 

3 - Improve your internal call center efficiencies

You might have some fantastic customer-facing strategies in place, but if your internal customer service representatives aren’t efficient then it’s incredibly unlikely that your customer service program will be effective. 

To ensure your agents are running smoothly performing to the best of their ability, technologies such as live call guidance, query routing and operational intelligence are crucial. This will ensure you can significantly improve internal call center metrics such as first-call resolution, call abandonment rates, average handle time and many others.

In need of further assistance? An outsourced contact center can transform your customer service

The strategies listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a huge amount of expertise, technologies and strategy that go into designing a world-class customer service program that significantly increases customer loyalty. It’s unlikely your business has the resources, or budget, to invest in all of these internally.

That’s why so many brands are now turning to outsourced contact centers to implement world-class customer service strategies on their behalf. 

Are you interested in learning more about how an experienced and highly-skilled outsourced contact center can drive up your brand’s customer loyalty through innovative technologies, world-class customer experiences and seamless service? 

Contact Advantage Communications today. Our team of customer service experts would love to answer any questions that you may have around improving customer retention levels and achieving new profit growth. 

 

Operational Efficiency Guide

Published by Melissa Gilbertson April 13, 2021
Melissa Gilbertson