Businesses are aware of the fact that it costs more time, money and effort to get new customers than to keep existing customers. That’s why successful entrepreneurs are always focused on getting repeat customers.
Returning customers are valuable for a business in many ways. They not only help in maintaining a company’s sales revenue but also contribute to the company’s marketing efforts.
To be more specific, let’s discuss the benefits of having recurring customers for your business.
7 Awesome Benefits Repeat Customers Bring For Your Business
If your customer return rate is high, the benefits that you can reap are limitless. But here are 7 very specific advantages that a repeat customer brings to you and your business.
1. They Display Brand Loyalty
Repeat customers display brand loyalty. Even if they know about a substitute brand that sells the same products at a similar price, they will still give preference to buying from you. This is because they trust your brand. These customers are familiar with the quality of your products. They find it convenient to go to your outlets. They are comfortable with your customer support staff.
If any of these factors change, your repeat customers' statistics would drop. Customers usually know about your competitors, so if they still don’t prefer buying from them, that means they are very satisfied with your service.
If you have recurring customers queuing at your store, the other outlets around yours can notice that. If you are selling through an online store, even then your high customer return rate would be noticeable through the high amount of traffic on your site all the time. Your competitors can also check your website traffic by using third-party tools.
This is how your repeat customers visibly showcase your brand loyalty. When others notice the high loyalty that your recurring customers display, it enhances your brand image.
2. They Bring in New Customers
Repeat customers keep talking about your brand. Whenever they shop from your store and are satisfied with your products, they might show off what they buy to their friends and peers. Their friends might end up getting impressed with your brand quality. Next time they are near your retail outlet, they might also consider shopping at your store. This is how your recurring customers bring in new customers for you.
Having a high customer return rate can cause exponential growth for your business. A repeat customer may be unintentionally marketing your brand, and encouraging others to buy from you too. That’s why businesses that have good brand management strategies focus on keeping their existing customers satisfied.
For a business that’s running online, getting new customers based on recommendations from existing customers is even more common. People need to trust an online store before they shop on it. There is no better recommendation somebody can get than from a friend who has recently had a positive experience shopping from an online store.
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3. They Increase Your Sales Volumes
Since repeat customers trust your brand quality, every time they shop at your store, they are likely to make bulk purchases. This is because they know the products you sell and have bought them from you many times before. These bulk purchases raise your average sales volumes.
Having high average sales volumes is very good for your business, particularly in the off-season. When the economy is bad and you don’t get many customers entering your store, it is important that the few customers who walk in buy more than one product from you. This helps in balancing out the low sale days and keeps your overall sales revenue at par.
Recurring customers continue to buy in the off season, and thus they keep your business nourished in the starving times. In times of a pandemic like what we are going through these days, it is even more difficult to get new customers, because everyone just wants to maintain the lifestyle and habits they had before the pandemic started. It is in these kinds of times that we can see the value of repeat customers even more.
4. They Promote the Brand’s Outlets
Many customers, particularly women, like to shop around in groups.When a customer repeatedly brings a friend to an outlet, the friend also starts gaining interest in the store and its products. The friend also gets familiar with the locations of the brand’s outlets and starts finding it convenient to shop from there. This is how repeat customers unintentionally promote your brand’s outlets.
If your business runs online, for example via an ecommerce website, a repeat customer would surely mention it to their friends every time they buy a good product from your site. This will encourage their friends to also try out shopping at your site.
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5. They Provide Honest Feedback
Recurring customers get comfortable with your customer service staff. That’s why the comments they pass about your products are very honest, especially if you provide them good customer service. When you communicate with your repeat customers, you get very honest feedback about your products and service. Their opinions are not biased. They value your brand, but at the same time, would express it if they have any ideas for improvement. They are frank with your staff and like to talk about the shopping experiences that they have with your business.
6. They Engage With the Brand
If you build an online community for your brand, your repeat customers will be among the first ones to join. They will be excited to share ideas and opinions about your products, and also tell others about their shopping experiences at your retail or online stores. This is how recurring customers enhance the overall customer engagement with your brand.
When they engage with your brand, they encourage their friends and peers to do the same. This has a multiplying effect on the members of your online community. Everybody finds the environment lively and joins in. It is important to have proactive people in your brand community, who can create the energetic ambience that allows others to become participative as well.
At Strikingly, we have a forum where we encourage our users to share their ideas and experiences of using our website building tools. We enjoy hearing from our users and take their feedback in serious consideration.
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7. They Give New Product Ideas
As part of their feedback about your brand, your repeat customers will come up with new product ideas for your business. People who shop regularly are often in tune with the latest market trends. Hence, listening to their ideas can be quite constructive for your business.
Even if you cannot implement their ideas right away, it is good to note them down and observe the changes in demands and patterns of consumer choices. This data will help you scale up your business in the long run and penetrate new markets.
If you are thinking of coming up with a product line extension, you can use some ideas given by your repeat customers to decide what kind of extension or diversification of products you want to do.
How Strikingly Helps You Keep Your Customer Return Rate High
Strikingly has several features that help you keep your customers satisfied to where they become your regular and repeat customers.
1. It Allows You to Track Your Orders Efficiently
Strikingly has an order management system that helps you keep track of the amount and status of every order you receive. When your orders are delivered on time, or the customer is informed in case there is an issue in the order causing a delay, your customers have a positive experience of shopping from your site. This helps them keep making purchases from you and become your repeat customers.
Image taken from Strikingly
2. It Allows You to Provide Good Customer Service
Being able to provide good customer service is the key to keeping your customers happy. Strikingly gives you multiple options to draw mechanisms for providing customer support. The best among these is the live chat feature you can use on your Strikingly website. With the live chat feature, your customers can get in touch with you anytime they need, and get instant responses from your side. They keep them at ease as they know their queries can always be resolved from your side, which helps them make informed buying decisions when they are browsing through your site. That is why they become your repeat customers and increase your website’s repeat customers statistics.
3. It Helps You Integrate Your Marketing Efforts
By integrating your social media pages with your Strikingly website, you can create an all-rounded positioning effect of your brand. Your customers would see your brand as well-established, having a solid and integrated web presence. This increases the chances that they will become your repeat customers.
Strikingly allows you to build a feature-rich website, which is easy to navigate and is understood by your customers. Customers just want to have good experiences interacting with a website and brand, and if you can offer them that through your Strikingly site, you will be able to not only get new customers but maintain your original customer base by converting each new customer into a repeat customer.