The secret customer retention strategies your favorite coffee shop is using to keep you coming back for more.
Everyone seems to have a go–to coffee shop that they more or less remain loyal to throughout their lives. For me, I get my daily caffeine fix at my local Dunkin Donuts down the street. Hidden beneath that sweet aroma and smooth taste are some clever customer retention strategies that keep me coming back time and time again.
Coffee, a Love Story...
Availability
My loyalty to my favorite coffee shop began as a matter of convenience. The next closest coffee shop is about a ten-minute drive through some usually heavy–traffic areas. It made sense to pick the coffee shop that was more accessible to me.
Now when I’m traveling, I always search for a Dunkin Donuts because it’s familiar. It isn’t that I don’t like the taste of coffee from other stores, but when given the choice I’ll always pick the coffee I know over something else that I don’t buy very often. Having an abundance of locations, I can take comfort knowing I will almost always find a store in any city I’m in.
Making your product easily accessible is a factor in customer retention strategies. As customers become familiar with your product, they will tend to seek it out over competitor's products.
Friendliness
At my local coffee shop, the employees know my name and my usual iced coconut-mocha order. They make pleasant conversation before taking my order and even notice if I’ve recently gotten a haircut. Having that familiar, friendly interaction is a subtle way the store keeps me satisfied and returning. Customer retention strategies that involve personalization will make customers feel like they matter.
People can tell when they are being treated like one of a million versus one in a million. Here’s a helpful infographic that illustrates how much importance customers put on proper customer service. Constant focus on customer service helps with the process of ensuring successful customer retention strategies. As a customer at the coffee shop, it’s important to me to know that if my order is ever wrong they will remake it for me. Receiving a personal and quick customer service reply is more likely to keep me happy at my coffee shop than if they told me to write a letter or fill out a generic complaint survey.
Rewards
One of my favorite things about Dunkin Donuts is their reward incentive program. The more coffee you buy, the more coupons you receive. Earning a free beverage is a great way to get customers to consistently buy their product. Since every beverage I purchase adds up to a free one, I automatically think to go to Dunkin when I want a coffee because I want to win the end prize. Choosing to go to a different coffee shop would mean one less cup of coffee toward my free beverage.
In customer retention strategies, a reward or incentive program can help keep customers choosing your product over the competitor. If the competitor is offering customers an appealing incentive, customers may be attracted to choose their product over yours. Rewarding customers for their loyalty as part of customer retention strategies can be used to help to keep people coming back to your business.
Quality
Now as much as I love a quick cup of java, it is very important to me that it's also a tasty cup. My favorite coffee shop wouldn’t have become my number one without having a quality product. Imagine this scenario – the first time I walk into Dunkin Donuts I’m handed a lukewarm cup of coffee that tastes bitter and still has grounds floating on top. The chances of me ever returning to that coffee shop just went through the floor, because while the convenience of location is nice, the overall purpose of the experience was for a cup of coffee. If I didn’t enjoy my coffee I would have driven to the nearest Starbucks and would probably never return to another Dunkin ever again. Luckily, I had a great first impression which led to me becoming a frequent customer.
In customer retention strategies, quality of the product is paramount because, without quality, people will naturally and immediately find a better alternative. Customer retention strategies that pay close attention to quality will be more successful than those that do not. Check out more tips on customer retention strategies here.
Why It Matters
Customer retention strategies are important since keeping customers directly correlates to the long-term success of any company. According to a study by the Gartner Group, even a small increase in customer retention can significantly increase profits. All of these customer retention strategies can be applied using helpful products such as Ving. With Ving, you have the tools you need to make your customer retention strategies succeed. You can use video messages and other customizable features to connect with clients on a personal level, making implementation of customer retention strategies as easy as grabbing a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee shop.
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