Customer churn is the number of customers that leave your business or switch to one of your competitors within a given period of time. Your churn rate shows how well you’re engaging with and pleasing your current customers, which has a direct impact on revenue.
It’s anywhere from five to twenty-five times more expensive to acquire a new customer as it is to retain an existing one. If you’re hoping to scale your business next year, it’s crucial that you get serious about reducing customer churn.
If your customer churn is higher than you’d like, here are some ways you can fight churn in 2019:
Identify reasons for churn
If customers are leaving your business, the first step is to identify why they’re leaving so you can prevent it from happening again.
Always send out an exit survey when a customer or client leaves your business. Ask them why they left, how satisfied they were with your product or service, and if they would recommend your business to their friends and family members. Once you can see where you’re going wrong, you’ll be able to improve.
Engage customers and clients
One of the most effective ways to keep customers loyal to your business is to increase engagement. You can do this by providing a streamlined onboarding experience, and continuing to educate and help your customers along the way.
A great way to do this is by creating an F&Q page or information portal. You can also offer a weekly newsletter, blog posts, tutorials, webinars, and even Facebook Live videos. Look for ways to interact with your customers and immediately respond when they have an issue.
Offer incentives
Customer loyalty is at an all-time low in many industries, where switching providers is simple and easy. Often, businesses will spend so many resources on converting new customers, that they forget about their loyal customers.
Offer these customers a loyalty program, discount, or promo to show your appreciation and demonstrate that you value their loyalty.
Offer extra services
Like many other industries, the telecommunications industry has been dealing with high rates of customer churn for some time. One of the best ways to reduce churn is to offer a variety of different services- reducing the likelihood that customers will switch. Businesses such as atmail offer their clients branded email services, so those clients are continually top-of-mind for their own customers and boosting brand awareness.
Improve customer service
One of the biggest contributors to a high churn rate is poor customer service, and this is one of the first places to look if you’re hoping to reduce churn. One report found that the two main reasons why customers will leave a company are slow service and rude and incompetent staff.
Your customer service representatives don’t need to have a bad attitude for your customers to leave. Even an average or ‘meh’ experience can trigger churn if your customers know that the company down the road has an incredible reputation for customer service.
Make sure your employees are trained to go above and beyond for your customers. Make it a part of your company culture in 2019, and reward team members that consistently prioritise your customers.
Don’t ignore complaints
Most unhappy customers won’t actually complain- they’ll simply leave your company and never return. Often, they’ll take their bad experience with them and tell anyone who will listen- potentially causing massive damage to your reputation.
If you’re getting customer complaints, take them seriously. Because if one person is complaining, you can guarantee that there are many others that haven’t bothered voicing their dissatisfaction- and they’re just leaving.
Implement a customer churn-reduction strategy
If you’ve recently looked at your metrics and you’re unhappy with your churn rate, make 2019 the year you turn it all around. Use your customer data, feedback, and exit-surveys to create an actionable strategy so you and your team can reduce churn.
This could involve a new marketing strategy, updated pricing, a more streamlined onboarding process, and/or greater customer monitoring so you can immediately react if it looks like a customer is close to leaving your company.
Take the time to experiment with a number of different changes to see what works to reduce churn. Pick one area at a time, determine how you’ll measure its effectiveness, and set reasonable goals. It’s important that every employee in every part of your business is focused on reducing churn and providing the best possible customer service.