Strong customer relationships don't happen immediately: They take time, nurturing, and consistent performance from the companies that sell to them. That's particularly important in B2B eCommerce. Generating customer loyalty and increasing customer retention rates depend on tasks that are easy to do automatically. Website self-service features, targeted marketing, custom pricing tiers, dynamic pricing, and multiple customer service options depend on integration to back-office ERPs and CRMs. It's important to collect data about customers, educate them, entertain them, and make ordering as simple and painless as possible. Remembering and providing history into all past orders, invoices, and quotes and allowing them to re-order from each is a must in today’s B2B environment. Clarity provides six out-of-the-box ways to re-order products easily, just because it’s so important. Each interaction is an opportunity to educate and impress customers with the company's commitment to service. Managing Your Customers Seamlessly Keeping customers happy is important in so many ways—conversion rates, loyalty, size of sale, and repeat orders depend on keeping customers happy. Stats and percentages are very important when analyzing customer loyalty. A company that has 1,000 customers and keeps 90 percent of them over 10 years with an annual rate of new customers of 20 percent will double its customer base in 10 years. A company with the same 1,000 customers and an annual growth rate that doesn't retain any customers will only have 700 customers in 10 years. [1] It's pretty common knowledge that it also costs more to sell to new site visitors than it does to existing customers. Bain & Company reports that it costs six to seven times more to land new accounts than sell to established customers. [1] The Gartner Group suggests its research shows that 80 percent of a company's revenue comes from 20 percent of its customers. [2] Reducing the churn rate by only 5 percent increases profitability by 20 percent to 125 percent. [3] These stats clearly show why it's so important to concentrate marketing efforts on inbound marketing strategies that please customers. Managing customers is an important part of any company's marketing efforts. There are simple ways to foster a better relationship with customers that include: Maintaining Contact It's important to maintain contact by sending a "thank you" message after a sale, engaging with customers on social media sites, and personalizing marketing messages based on buying habits. Using Customers to Market Your Business You can highlight customer visits at a brick-and-mortar store or use a customer testimonial in a marketing promotion. Asking for Customer Feedback Asking customers for feedback shows that a company cares about their opinions. One strategy is sending a customer satisfaction survey directly to customers. Another option is to post a link online. Customer service departments can also ask key questions to gauge customer opinion. Running a Loyalty Rewards Campaign Loyalty rewards can keep customers buying regularly and increase the total of their purchases. Automatic accrual of loyalty rewards solves the biggest objections that most people have about rewards programs—they’re difficult for customers to remember during every purchase, and signing up is complex. Offering Dynamic Pricing and Pricing Tiers Giving your better customers the option of dynamic pricing can increase sales. Setting price tiers based on the number of items bought is also a consistent sales incentive. Allowing a High Degree of Customization and Personalization Customers are very demanding now that they have options to find other companies with a few clicks of a mouse. Making it easy for customers to personalize their products is especially effective for distributor sales. Customization allows B2B customers to order products with custom specs or even configure a product from scratch with a product configurator. Automated Loyalty Rewards There are a number of strategies to deliver appealing loyalty rewards. Yes, Lifecycle Marketing suggests that 85 percent of people born between 1965 and 1980 prefer discounts on their purchases while millennials would rather earn points. There are others who prefer special deals such as recognition or special treatment. about 56 percent of consumers like personalized rewards. Whichever strategy you choose, Yes Lifestyle Marketing holds that automated rewards are good for business and the long-term retention of customers. It’s an easy way of keeping customers happy. [4] Managing Your Customers Deftly with Special Offers Integrated sales platforms allow companies to target their customers with special offers based on their buying profiles. Most companies use CRM software that allows marketers to view a single buyer's or demographic group of buyers' buying history. Site integration can automate the process and send predetermined offers at the most appropriate times. Companies can create custom reports based on comparing contacts with buying customers and identifying the best customers. Marketers can choose which customers to reward to increase customer retention and loyalty while generating the highest conversion rates. Platforms like Clarity eCommerce can offer AI or machine learning modules that can track and analyze user browsing and purchasing patterns to serve up the most relevant content or promotions based on each user’s behavior. It can act as eCommerce platforms, auction platforms, marketplace platforms, or group buying platforms. Building Your Sales Platform to Retain Customers integration of your site is the best way to retain customers. integration powers all the customer-centric features, third-party connections, personalization, and conveniences that your customers want. Building and designing your website and integrating all systems take an experienced vendor in B2B marketing, coding, integration, and building customer apps. Clarity’s done over 3,000 integrations over the last 13 years and has its own integration platform, Clarity Connect, which is built to integrate any and all applications. Give Clarity a call today to discuss your integration project and start retaining your customers. References: [1] Verticalresponse.com: 4 Ways to Increase Retention Rate & Loyalty https://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/4-ways-to-retain-customers-and-keep-them-coming-back/ [2] Superoffice.com: 5 Unique Strategies to Increase Retention https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-retention-tips-with-crm-software/ [3] Annexcloud.com: B2B Loyalty Statistics: Advantage of Overlooked Opportunity https://www.annexcloud.com/blog/b2b-loyalty-statistics-take-advantage-of-an-overlooked-opportunity/ [4] Annexcloud.com: 10 Benefits of Implementing Customer Loyalty https://www.annexcloud.com/blog/10-benefits-of-implementing-customer-loyalty-program/