Loyalty Blogs

Customer loyalty is an essential part of every business irrespective of the industry. Without happy customers, no business can truly succeed, so developing customer loyalty and retention strategies is a must for the company’s growth. Research says over a quarter of total market budgets was spent on loyalty program management and CRM in 2022 globally. Having a reliable Customer Retention Program is important to perfect your customer retention strategy.

The main challenge is to find out the best customer retention tools and strategies that work for your eCommerce business as a program for one e-commerce store can be less suitable for others. To help you overcome this issue, we have come up with the tools that are ideal for every stage of growth your business is in.

Tips to Win Customers’ Hearts in Different Stages of Business Growth

In this section, we will discuss the three main stages of business growth & how different customer retention tools will work for each stage. Before you invest in Retention Software For Enterprises, we suggest you go through the points discussed below to help you find the most potential solutions for your eCommerce business that are best suited for the stage you are in.

1. Start-Up Growth Stage

Most new eCommerce businesses stay in this stage and it is essential for them to grab the opportunity to grow and have real customers coming in with growth starting to accelerate.

Here are some tips that can make eCommerce stores in the start-up stage focus on turning new customers into loyal fans-

• Build a Loyalty Program
  This will help in building relationships with customers and starting a loyalty program is the best way to help increase trust, customer satisfaction and commitment to long-term loyalty. It also helps by rewarding customers for account creation and collecting zero-party data for business.
• Boost Social Media Presence
  Customers are highly active on social media and research says 40% of shoppers in the US purchased after seeing products on social media. Start by getting active on social media and take advantage of UGC (User Generated Content) & reward them to boost engagement & increase your brand image.
  These tips are a great way for new brands to create buzz and generate more customers while moving through the start-up growth stage of their businesses.

2. Stagnant Growth Stage

The next stage is all about those businesses whose initial buzz has started slowing down after outperforming your competitors. Here the business owners may start to panic and are constantly looking for a way to enhance growth. That is where brands must think about long-term growth strategies such as

• Add Referral rewards to your loyalty program efforts
  It’s time for your brand to launch a referral bonus incentive in your existing loyalty program as referral programs act as a great way to boost customer lifetime value by keeping acquisition costs down.
  Go for referral benefits that give referred customers some discount/rewards on their first order and referrers also with points/ rewards whenever the new customer places the order. This is surely a win-win situation for everyone, helping your brand boost emotional connection with customers.
• Go for a Subscription-based model
  Another best strategy for long-term customer growth is creating a subscription model for your products or services especially if you are a business owner that sells healthcare and grocery needs. This works best as customers frequently run out of the same products after using them.
  For instance, if you are selling a multi-vitamin health supplement, you can offer subscribing customers extra discounts on every purchase, free delivery or extra loyalty points.
• Analyse & Review Existing Tech Stack
  The next step is to check out if your business is moving forward by consolidating workflows and reviewing your tech stack. This helps in saving time on repetitive tasks, which means your brand will get more time to focus on building top strategies for business growth. Ensure that the customer retention software you invest in supports multiple integrations with major e-commerce tools for seamless growth.
  

3. Scale-Up Growth Stage

The final stage after the stagnant growth stage is scale-up growth. Businesses that belong to this stage are the ones that have implemented long-term strategies including major changes in business such as renewed business goals, new hires, restructures, etc. The brands must now focus on using a more cohesive approach towards new technology and using data for better customer insights. A few tips are-

• Explore Automation Use Cases
  One idea is to make use of automation through chatbot-based customer service that can help customers around the world instantly. As your business grows, it is always a great idea to invest in a robust customer service infrastructure to ensure immediate assistance. Also, the data that are collected will drive profits using insights related to customer behaviour and preferences.
• Deliver More Personalized Customer Experiences
  Make use of data collected from automated tools to provide seamless and personalized customer experiences like a better checkout process to unlock conversion rate optimization (CRO) and customer support to enhance more ROI.
• Build a Brand Community
  Another strategy is to build a brand community that can help your business move forward through the help of online forums, YouTube channels, etc. One retention strategy that you use will help your business grow at some point but it will revert to a period of stagnation until another period of growth.

Closing Statement

No matter which stage your business is in, it’s a great idea to level up your customer retention system with the help of the right loyalty programs and tools. As we discuss three levels of stages, start-up growth needs a loyalty program with an active presence on social media, stagnant growth needs referral programs along with subscription models and tech stack reviews and scale-up growth needs automation with more personalized customer experiences.

Using the right customer retention tool is the key to ensuring long-term growth in your business with the best suitable strategies that work for every stage. Novus is an all-in-one loyalty software for small business and enterprises that enable them to build dedicated customer retention programs for enhanced business growth. If you need help in implementing a loyalty program that best fits your business stage, our experts can help your eCommerce unlock a higher retention rate.