Social Media as a Strategy for Customer Retention and Engagement

According to a research from Loyalty 360, more than 27% of businesses included in a recent poll said that social media marketing has been the most effective channel for customer retention. 

Importance of loyalty cannot be overlooked and hence a customer loyalty and retention strategy is important because it helps you reach your long term goals and increase your bottom line. Retention means guaranteed future business, loyal customers mean you have patrons who will keep coming back to your business again and who are also a great “new customer referral” resource for you at little to no cost.  As customer behaviors continue to evolve, it’s important that you talk to and engage your customers from a brand perspective.  Building a relationship with your customers requires trust.  It’s an ongoing process that requires care and attention. How can you do that? Authentic, relatable content on social media so that it connects with your followers at a deeper level. Not just that, brands must listen carefully and communicate with its audience to build meaningful engagements. Social media is a great way to help strengthen your connection with your customers so that they continue to choose you over others and become brand evangelists. If you can successfully offer exceptional customer service through social media, it can help set your business apart from the competition. Social media indeed is one of the best vehicles to drive customer retention. Social media consumer trends can help you assess and gain insights about your audience’ interests. 

According to survey data, 53% of customers expect businesses to respond to their review within seven days. This means that you must act quickly as a brand to address any concern described in a customer feedback on social media through incorporating review management in your social strategy. When people compare your brand against the competition for their next purchase, they do consider how prompt you respond and value their feedback.  Engaged and connected customers are 52% more valuable, on average, than those who are just highly satisfied.

Nike has a strong social presence, apart from making sweating look glamorous, they have a very impressive customer service account on Twitter. They have a dedicated Twitter account team called, “Team Nike,” which provides weekday support and in seven different languages (English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, German & Japanese).

When a customer mentions Nike’s main Twitter handle, @teamnike promptly listens and offers assistance. And just like Nike, Starbucks provides customers personalized attention by giving quick responses and great service, making it really simple for customers to enquire about rewards, changes to menus and seasonal beverage offerings.

Here’s how social media can help you boost customer retention: 

• Make use of effective social media listening tools such as Google Alerts, Hootsuite, and Topsy. They provide instant notifications to brand mentions and key phrases. This will ensure you are always engaging in the most pertinent conversations. 
• Make it really easy for your customers to find you across all your social channels. You can do that by having a really simple and consistent username. Also don’t forget to use relevant hashtags. 
• Create platform specific content that’s relevant and relatable for your audience. User psychology is very different and varies from platform to platform. You shouldn’t replicate your content. What works on Facebook wouldn’t necessarily work on Twitter and hence it’s important to have platform exclusive content and promotions. 
• Have a designated team that can cater to customer feedback online and quickly respond to queries or concerns. Being attentive to customer feedback on  social media is a great way to drive customer loyalty and retention. Quick response times can help ease the pain of any customer dissatisfaction.
• According to research almost 60% of the customers respond or make a decision by watching an ad on social media platforms. Advertising via social media helps you become more visible and provokes an action.
• Metrics help you deepen your engagement with customers. Leverage social media metrics to gain insights about customer needs and preferences. 
• Strengthen your customer retention strategy by allowing customers to share products and offers on social media. Using referral programs in conjunction with customer loyalty are a great way for customers to share relevant offers and also reward them in return for bringing in referrals.

Importance of customer loyalty and retention is a crucial aspect of the growth funnel of any business. Social media platforms today help you interact with your customers with a focus to build trust, credibility and value, thus driving retention. Also, it’s important to identify which platform holds the most value so that you can better optimize specific outcomes.