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15 Effective Techniques For Retaining Customers

Economies work cyclically. When there's a boom, there will eventually be a recession. Businesses that understand this tend to be better prepared to deal with a period where their business slows down. Recessions result in far fewer consumers spending money to buy goods and services. Items that they consider nonessential are the first ones that get cut. Uncertain economic times for consumers means a challenging business atmosphere for companies as well.

The best way to weather this storm is to develop and retain loyal customers. As we already know, return customers and customer loyalty are metrics that can help us understand how successful a business is at keeping its consumer base. Below, 15 members from Forbes Business Council look at some practical ways that companies can retain their customers during an economic recession.

1. Provide Extra Value And Service

Provide them with extra value, customer service, reports, development hours or a free analysis. These are things that may not cost you anything but might be very valuable for your customer or something that even will save her/him the time of operation. Great customer service is key for this, so make sure you do not forget the happiness of your team in the process! - Diana Daniels, Cronos Group

2. Instill Customer Confidence

Your customers want to know that you have their best interests at heart. This means following all legal and generally accepted safety protocols. It means communicating clearly across all of your marketing touchpoints. It also means keeping an eye on public sentiment to understand when you can relax things or when you might need to tighten them up again. - Francois Devillez, AlphaSwap


3. Check In Regularly

Despite a decrease in spending, we have tried our best to remain connected with our clients on a human level. We've reached out to check in and to see how they are weathering the storm, have continued to promote their products, services and events via social media and we are sending holiday cards to let them know we're thinking of them and ready to go when our industry picks up. - Jessica Kline, Backwoods Promotions Inc.

4. Cultivate Human Connection

Develop deep meaningful conversations with your customers to strengthen the shared experience through empathy. People are seeking connection during times of global disruption such as this. Seek to listen and understand your customers so that they experience being heard and see something they haven't seen before. - Robert Krenza, BlackWolf Consultants Inc.

5. Empathize With Your Customers

The most important thing you can do is empathize and that begins with talking to your customers. Reach out to your existing users to hear how they’ve been affected. If you understand their concerns, you are well-equipped to solve their immediate needs. That may often require that you pivot, whether by removing fees or penalties, creating free add-ons or innovating new products or services. - Yad Senapathy, Project Management Training Institute

6. Focus On Unity

One thing entrepreneurs can do to retain customers in tumultuous times is to focus on unity. Your brand messaging should communicate this. This is especially important on social media, where customers' reactions can have an immediate impact on your business. Explore synergies with other entrepreneurs and local businesses. Also, find mutually beneficial ways to support one another. - Kelley Higney, Bug Bite Thing

7. Put Your Communications On Rocket Fuel

Entrepreneurs must put their communications on rocket fuel. During an economic downturn, customers can lose old spending habits and form new ones. If entrepreneurs allow customers to forget about their businesses, there will be a long-term negative impact on their enterprise. Customers want to feel special, so stay in touch with them by offering constant value. If you don't, someone else will. - Shaz Memon, Digimax Dental

8. Create A Community

Build a community of customers. Customers are buying from you to solve a problem, and you have their solution. When they can't afford the solution, they still have that problem. Create a community on a platform like Slack, Facebook or WhatsApp to build trust between you and your customers. They will become raving fans! - Silvia Mah, Ad Astra Ventures

9. Solve Their Immediate Needs

Do your best to offer products that solve their immediate needs. In every crisis, people begin to prioritize aspects within their routines. Investigating the products that truly add value and, in addition, showing empathy for the situation, are indispensable aspects for a customer to maintain loyalty to our company. - Kevin Leyes, Leyes Media

10. Understand Evolving Consumption Patterns

Economic downturns significantly impact consumer spending, leading to a decline in sales. During such times, organizations need to understand evolving consumption patterns and fine-tune their strategies accordingly. They can add additional services that complement the current ones to retain customers and boost sales. Also, a temporary price cut will help pique the interest of customers. - Ashish Sukhadeve, Analytics Insight

11. Offer Added Perks And Benefits

Market downturns are inevitable as history repeats itself nearly every eight to 10 years. How we prepare for and navigate the waves makes all the difference. Entrepreneurs must be more creative than ever before in such unprecedented times. Survival requires thought and feedback on what consumers desire. Adding value is paramount with so much competition. Offering added perks and benefits is a must. - Olivia Friedman, Institute of Higher Global Studies

12. Presell Value Packs

One of the best ways for entrepreneurs to retain customers during these challenging times is to presell services and products at a fraction of the cost. Customers are getting a massive discount and saving money for being part of the group while businesses can better forecast by preselling their services to stay afloat. - Judy Sahay, Crowd Media Group

13. Overdeliver To Create Loyalty

Overdeliver. By doing this you will create loyalty amongst your current and former customers. They may not be able to afford your product or service right now but they will come back to you as soon as they can! - Adam Jacobs, Fortis Fitness & YOGALUX

14. Take A Hard Look At Your Byproducts

Take a hard look at your byproducts in your business. What do you already do that someone else would want to buy from you? It may be off the beaten path in your services, but it's somewhere in your business. For us, it was our internship program with successfully onboarded high-quality fitness coaches. We productized that and turned it into a trainer certification program. - Paden Hughes, Gymnazo Inc

15. Help People Save Or Increase Efficiency

Offer a way for people to save money or increase efficiency to make it through a tough economy. Focus on ROI—help them achieve it and help them see it. As long as the return on investment is there, customers will stick with you. - Vatsal Shah, Litmus

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Forbes Business Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.
