In today’s modern marketing landscape, retaining customers is vital. A study has confirmed that it’s more cost-efficient to keep existing customers than finding new ones, citing that it can cost five times more. That is why if you run a subscription retail store, you should take the right steps to keep your customers.
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Onboard Customers Better
Most people feel uneasy when they need to learn something new and unfamiliar, as evidenced when many people complain whenever a social media platform changes. When people encounter something new and unfamiliar, and can’t immediately see its value and/or benefits, your customers will likely unsubscribe. You must ensure that your customer has a positive onboarding experience where they can quickly see the value and the benefits of using your service.
A good way of accomplishing this is to apply new customer onboarding software to give them a smooth onboarding experience. Make sure that assistance is readily available if they have questions. The quicker you help your customer learn to use your product or service, the faster they’ll realize how valuable it is to them.
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Offer Longer Subscriptions
By giving your customers the option to subscribe to your service for longer, they are less likely to churn.
One study found that companies that don’t offer annual subscriptions or contracts have a 9% average churn rate, while those that offer yearlong contracts have a 3% average churn rate. Companies with even longer-term subscriptions or contracts have even lower churn rates. Offering subscriptions with terms spanning 1 year or more can also work as a good onboarding scheme; customers that commit to longer contracts are more likely to invest the time and effort to best understand how to use the service.
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Keep Talking to Customers
Another sound retention strategy is to regularly contact and engage your customers. Most customers prefer to be contacted by brands they’ve already invested in. Remind your subscribers that they have customer service tools they can use if any issues arise, and when their subscription is almost up, it’s a good idea to give them a gentle nudge to renew. Remember that the reminders you give customers don’t always have to be about renewals; Netflix and subscription box services wisely keep their customers informed about what’s new and what’s upcoming.
Giving customers a heads-up of what’s coming can generate anticipation, keep them interested and remain loyal subscribers. Whether physical products, movies, TV shows, or software, updates like these can introduce new features and give fixes if necessary. When a service is perceived to be dynamic, subscribers will stay on even if the benefits become routine.
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Give Them Options to Pause or Downgrade
Churn can sometimes occur not because the subscribers aren’t happy with the service, but for other reasons like they no longer wish to use the premium services or want to “pause” their subscription temporarily. To avoid losing subscribers completely, give them the option to downgrade or put their subscriptions on hold. You can drastically reduce the number of churning customers, and keep them for the long-term.
Another option is to offer cheaper subscription tiers that can allow for subscribers who have smaller budgets. These may reduce your revenue, but it’s better than losing subscribers altogether.
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Get Feedback From Exiting Customers
You can’t keep customers from opting out of your service. Sometimes, they will still leave despite your best efforts. Finding out what made them leave and/or where their subscription failed is important to improve your service. The key to finding out this information from leaving customers is to provide them with exit surveys. These must be direct, simple, and easily filled out.
While they won’t usually give detailed descriptions, over time they can prove invaluable in helping you pinpoint problems and fix them — and make changes to retain future subscribers.
Employing strategies to retain customers is preferable than constantly losing them and having to win new customers. Getting new customers takes more effort and can cost more compared to keeping existing ones. Keep your customers happy and engaged to reduce churn and grow your business.