How to build a customer retention strategy?

Once a brand has been launched and has got consumer acceptance it does not mean the consumer will stick to the brand for life. There is a need to keep the consumer hooked on to the brand, this can happen only when the brand goes through a facelift frequently.

A brand needs to keep itself abreast with the changing scenario - it cannot have the same packaging and ingredient through out its life. A classic case is of Lux - Lux no doubt is an old brand but constant value additions, changes in the ingredients and packaging has kept it young forever. Even a teenager today can empathise with the brand, because its young, with the constant changes it has gone through and still maintains its appeal it used to have 20 years back - when the teenager was not even born.

As one segment grows old and the other segment starts taking decision, the brand has to evolve and be seen as a brand that caters to both the segment. Thus constant value additions in the form of ingredient change, packaging change, product innovations like face wash in the soap category has not only kept Lux young but has helped it retain its customer and has brought newer users to the fold.

CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ALWAYS EXHIBIT THE PATH TO ACHIEVE THE FAITH OF CUSTOMER..IF TREATED PROPERLY....

When it comes to building a customer loyalty strategy, I recommend businesses to use this question as a guide: What differentiates your brand in the eyes of our customers? If a product brand is introduced, it should be in the mind of the customer as an branded item. They should easily differentiate the product from other other brands..

Well the answer lies in the fact that why a customer might defect,,,,,there can be two types of customers; transaction buyers where price is the key issue for a particular product. Like a certain commodity at a certain place is at 10% discount & at other place its at 20%, they will prefer to buy from the latter place.

Others are relationship buyers who want a personal touch, recognition, respect & believe in long term bonding with the supplier.

Interestingly surveys show that more than 60% of defections falls in the latter category where the customer feels that they are not getting the overall treatment what they wish to receive,,& here comes the retention tool.

Its the friendly treatment like knowing them personally, proper communication, timely rewards & recognitions & last but not the least; right product/price/quality mix; these are they main keys to lock them forever, I suppose.

Yes, one should always keep the current trends/technologies/presentation skills in his/her mind.

In my opinion, when building a customer retention strategy, the main focus must be towards the customers base. They are the king and they must be satisfied from the expectations of the product the get. For retaining these customers, improvements also must be made timely which can help in building a good customer retention strategy.

customer retention strategy is depend on the product ,customer and the market.once we solved out the strategies for each of the above the retention is very simple.and the formulated strategies has keep on updating in face with market.

Understanding the NEED and Want first will help one to build strategy for customer retention.

Never go for replacement and follow repair strategy.

Listen patiently to the grievances of customers.

The term customer and consumers are used differently sometimes by  marketiers  depending  on the product category or the brand per se.

In some cases for certain product category  the term customer will be usually the members, wholesale dealersv or agents in the supply chain and the ultimate users will be the consuumers ( FMCG's).In  other product categories it will be the customer who is also the ultimate user himself.

Now the moot point is does the customer retion theory apply for the former as for the example given above  or one would want that in both the cases retention is advisable.Companies tend to mix up the term customer & consumers according the given situation ,location and time based on their own convienience.

Firstly, it cant be built or created in a day or week. Good customer relation is a cumulative result of Quality and Services, that you extend to your customer. Be faithful and honest not only to your customer, but yourself also. This will create a healthy relation with your customer and YOU WILL NEVER NEED TO BUILT A CUSTOMER RELATION STRATEGY. Kindly note that, cost can not be the criteria or strategy in every case.

Charu Dixit

Creating and maintaining customer satisfaction matrix is absolutely at the heart of this. One MUST understand what your customers need (not want) and the marketing communication should exploit that aspect. Once you understand customer needs (price, quality, service etc), customer retention programs become very easy to create. In Six Sigma methodology, this is called CTQs (Critical To Quality).

A human nature is that most of us are Greedy (not just only in terms of money). Customer never satisfy with what they get. They always expect for more the next time they shop. There could be a strategy to extend the possitive gap between the deliverables. (As i do not have need to give Management gyan over here as everybody is professional here and understand these things very well.) just give cusotmers add on's time to time with other factors also like product innovation. technical updations etc.  Good Luck.... 

our first step would be to identify which customer to keep and which to not. designing our marketing campaign according to the needs of the chosen customer will be the further step. personalized greetings and messages will help a lot. and at last value his needs.

what we will gain: satisfied and loyal customer, repeat purchases.

Your first customer is your own employee.take for example Mcdonalds decides to give excellent customer service to retain its existing customers by giving training to its employees.If the employee is not satisfied with his firm naturally he might delay the service to customer or won't say thank you or won't smile there uyou might loose your valuable customer.

Retaining customers is more difficult than gaining them, but it should be the passionate challenge to all concerned.  One should try to make their customers understand and believe in their effort put in to retain them. 

It is important every part of the organisation understands the importance behind this Customer retention strategy.  

In today's world where the cycle of recession, stagflation is a common phenomenon, every company and every business requires to have a clean customer retention strategy. Adding new customers is good and required but when markets start to show slowing down, only fuel that can keep your company/business grow is focussing on "customer retention".  

While organisation creates action plan to support "Customer retention" through good products, efficient sales and distribution, customer focussed after sales mechanism , just stop and think, what is the underlying factor for ensuring success of overall strategy.  Let Organisations ask itself the question  "who can deliver these actionables to support its customer retention strategy"  undoubtedly answer would be the "Employees of the organisation". Hence for this strategy to really kickoff, it is important that Employees are motivated  and feel a "personal satisfaction" by giving that touch to their consumer handling service.  If you treat the "Good Product, Good Sales & Distribution and Efficient After market Services as pillars of your Customer retention strategy, the thing that is common to take all of this together to the Consumer/Customer is "Employees of the organisation".  Motivated team makes the difference and cut.