Customer Retention
4 Ways to Redefine Customer Engagement in 2024
Customer engagement shouldn't stop after the initial sale. Here are four ways businesses can redefine customer engagement in 2024.
Superior Customer Satisfaction Leads to Better Customer Relationships
In a recent study, 34 percent of leading businesses said their customer journey was a top priority. Here's how to build long-standing customer relationships.
Blustream
Sep 28, 2020
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Getting customers is hard, but it's building those long-standing customer relationships that often presents a greater challenge.
There’s a myriad of guides and resources devoted to getting a customer from the top of the traditional sales funnel to the bottom, but perhaps we shouldn’t look at it as a vertical drop to the finish line. The right question to ask is— what does it take to get the customer back on a chair lift to the top
Businesses and consumers have a very different relationship than they did even a decade ago. What used to matter most to customers were low prices and high quality. Nowadays, brands know they have to become more consumer-oriented, focusing on the positive experiences that will result from a customer's use of a product. To do that, brands must not only understand their customer but also improve their product journey across multiple touchpoints.
In a recent study, 34 percent of leading businesses said their customer journey was a top priority. Over 50% of businesses said the biggest challenge with customer journey management was actually the volume and diversity of content needed. Whether you’re building audiences, speeding up sales, or increasing retention, customer journey management is needed to stand out and grow.
Customer Satisfaction Is Key
Once a customer reaches the purchase point of the sales funnel, they’re set free-falling back into a sea of choices from competitors trying to capture their attention for the future.
Your job after they’ve unboxed your good is to find a way to circle them back around for repeat sales or cross-selling opportunities. Studies found that 93 percent of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer exceptional customer service. Customers would rather invest more in a brand that focuses on their needs and constantly provides value beyond the initial purchase.
Lasting customer relationships aren't just great for your business; they're great for the longevity of your brand. That's why it's critical to incorporate strategies dedicated to building engagement with customers after the sale. Viewing that linear funnel as more of an infinite loop of strategy instead of a one-directional system rewards brands with better retention rates and continuous advocacy for the business.
What are Long-Standing Customer Relationships?
Customers who consistently buy products or services from a business after the first purchase are considered long-term or repeat customers.
Long-term customer relationships are characterized by any communication and transaction between a business and a long-term customer. As the definition is so broad, there are many ways for businesses to incorporate a successful strategy for building long-term customer relationships.
Cultivating long-term relationships with your customers is vital to the success of your brand. While all customers offer revenue to your business, it's the customers who return to purchase more products and have a positive outlook on your business that makes the biggest difference.
Benefits of Long-Term Customer Relationships
1. Increased Revenue
Long-term customers are repeat customers who typically spend more the second time they shop with your brand. Moreover, long-term customers often cross-purchase products or services within a single brand, which can further support
brand loyalty. - Positive Word-of-Mouth Recommendations
When customers love and trust a business, they can be relied on to spread positive recommendations to their loved ones. This is invaluable marketing that you can't buy! - Save on Acquisition Costs
Keeping a customer that has already purchased a product from you generally costs less than acquiring a new customer. You can reduce spending on acquisition simply by implementing customer relationship building strategies.
Though long-term customers can be challenging to get, there’s an opportunity to make them easy to keep. This is especially true if your business consistently offers high-quality products, excellent customer service, and consistent communication with customers.
Customer Satisfaction Is the Way Forward
With endless buying choices, brands can no longer afford to ignore the importance of providing a great after-purchase experience for their customers. When it comes to needing a library of information about a product, Forrester says 91% of customers prefer knowledge bases over all other self-service channels.
What that means is customers will respond positively if they have a resource of information and recommendations at their fingertips that aligns with the product lifecycle. By having a platform that provides relevant product data, brands can scale out their customer support program while enhancing their customer’s satisfaction.
Build Long-Standing Customer Relationships with Blustream
One pitfall of the one-directional sales approach is that it can end the moment a customer purchases and receives a product. In essence, once a customer reaches the end of the sales funnel, the brand has achieved its goal. However, there is a marked opportunity to continue the pursuit of customer satisfaction, even after a sale is completed.
The sweet spot for Blustream is identifying key points along a customer’s journey, gathering feedback to enhance or iterate their experience, and applying trends that will help improve customer satisfaction, and subsequently generate more revenue and repeat sales.
At Blustream, we believe every company should deliver exceptional product experiences to their consumers. Our Product AI Assistant™ is an intelligent, adaptive messaging platform capable of sending personalized, automated messages to product owners at exactly the right time.
Learn more about what Blustream can do to build lasting customers today!