How to implement an effective customer retention strategy for an apparel business via digital communications

In recent years, digital marketing has been directly affecting the statements, concepts and ideas that fashion dictates. Companies like Nike, TopShop, Dior, Victoria Secret, Gap, Calvin Klein, Adidas and Gucci might stand as a good example of the use of e-commerce in terms of attracting and gaining new customers (Behl, 2019). However, sometimes the critical aspect is to not only attract new customers but also to keep the existing ones.  

Consumer retention is a set of actions and activities the company take to decrease the amount of customer defections and is often reached by increasing customer loyalty and brand loyalty initiatives (Galetto, 2019). According to Sasser and Reichheld (1990), the final goal of marketing is to increase brand loyalty, therefore, some steps of implementing a retention strategy will be proposed. 

To begin with, the cost of acquiring a new and maintaining an existing customer may vary and be quite high. Also, the cost of “inviting” a new buyer is 5 times higher than remaining one. Some average acquisition costs:                                                                               (Keller, 2019)

However, once brand loyalty increased it can financially benefit to the company in terms of lower marketing, transaction, turnover and failure costs and also make a company competitor resistant and less price sensitive (Turban et al., 2012). So, the first step is to understand why you are losing customers. One way to find out the reason is through customer surveys (customer feedback). For example, once an existing user decides to shut down an account for any reason, it might be a smart idea to create a survey or a feedback form asking for that reason, whereas it is still “fresh”. You can create a needed survey by clicking: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/mp/improve-customer-loyalty-retention/ as well as simply learn about the options and prices. It is a fast and cost-effective way to collect any type of data from a bigger audience. Nevertheless, the information can be sometimes hard to interpret, and some customers may feel it is not important, thus will provide irrelevant answers. Survey results will be available on the website at any time for a firm. Another way is by sending a direct email to the lost customer, yet the response rate might be not as high. Chaffey (2001) claims it is cheaper than direct marketing and can employ such techniques as: acquisition, conversion, retention, brand-building, research, viral and service delivery tools.  

Next step is to improve the experience of your customers. According to Walker report, customer experience will become a key brand differentiator by 2020 and will overcome product and cost (Walker, 2019). On average, 68% of customers leave due to unpleasant experience and only 14% because of the problem with a product or service (Patel, 2019). Thus, to make the experience better it is not only important to listen to what customers say through surveys, but also to treat them in a unique, intimate manner. Most clothing and shoe brands have websites, where people can create an account in return for better service.  

This is an example from my mail box. As it says, because I joined Nike by creating an account on their website, I will receive an express checkout, easier tracking and other Nike+ benefits, which include events and workout sessions etc. Plenty of other companies are implementing strategies as reward points, discounts for loyalty and seasonal gifts to improve customer experience. It is crucial to treat your customer good since the beginning of his customer-cycle and make it easy for them to stay with your company.  

Keeping your customer engaged and updated is essential for anyone seeking increase in brand and customer loyalty. This is an example of the notifications I receive from Adidas app as a registered member. 

This way, customers can be aware of what is coming out on the market and feel special in treatment they receive. Despite all the benefits, settling brand loyalty programs like that might be costly, therefore you can simply send a” thank you” text for a purchase or create a social media community or a Facebook Group, which would be less expensive but would still show the concern. 

Among those approaches, live-chatting and customer support play significant role in keeping a customer. However, it is only effective if it is easy to measure for the company and easy to access for the consumer. Live-chats should provide a person with a fast, adequate and polite reply and customer support should be helpful and easy to find on the website/app.  

https://www.livechatinc.com/ ; https://www.liveperson.com By following those links more information about how to set up a good live chat for your business can be found. A negative aspect of using live chats might be the fact, that the response must be given the same moment and there is not time to think and come back later. Also, it is not always convenient to access chat boxes through mobile platforms. On the screenshot below in the bottom right corner an example of chat box can be seen.  

After all, it is important to be able to track the performance of your website or app and there are various tools that will help businesses collecting the information. Transaction logs can record user activity on the website in real-time and include: https://www.acxiom.com/ ; https://statcounter.com/ . The key for a successful customer retention strategy is to listen to what your customer has to say and fix it and good for us there are plenty of firms willing to help you run your business and satisfy your customers, as for example https://www.crazyegg.com/ is a website that aims to point out weak areas and suggest an improvement for them. Remember, it is better to spend a little bit more on “maintaining” than “inviting” and your customers will surprise you with loyalty and high satisfaction rate. 

 

References 

Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.walkerinfo.com/Portals/0/Documents/Knowledge%20Center/Featured%20Reports/WALKER-Customers2020.pdf [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019]. 

Behl, S. (2019). Digital Marketing for Fashion Industry: The Ultimate Guide. [online] Digital Vidya. Available at: https://www.digitalvidya.com/blog/digital-marketing-for-fashion-industry-a-complete-guide/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019]. 

Chaffey, D. (2001). Total e-mail marketing. 

Galetto, M. (2019). What is Customer Retention? Definition and Metrics – NGDATA. [online] NGDATA. Available at: https://www.ngdata.com/what-is-customer-retention/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019]. 

Keller, C. (2019). Average Cost Per Customer by Marketing Method. [online] Profitworks.ca. Available at: https://profitworks.ca/blog/244-Average-Cost-Per-Customer [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019]. 

Patel, N. (2019). Customer Retention Statistics. [online] Neil Patel. Available at: https://neilpatel.com/blog/retaining-customers/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019]. 

Reichheld, F. and Sasser, E. (1990). Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services. Harvard Business Review. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/1990/09/zero-defections-quality-comes-to-services [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].  

Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J., Liang, T., Turban, D. and Lang, J. (2012). Electronic commerce 2012. 7th ed. Pearson Education, pp.434-435. 

 

 

 

 

IKEA Case Study

Link

IKEA has become a global cult brand because of its strategy and tactics. Not only it is the world’s largest furniture manufacturer but also it is a culture that dictates a lifestyle. IKEA give their customer audience, which is mainly the middle-class an idea and inspiration of how ones home can be decorated with stylish yet affordable furniture. https://www.ikea.com is IKEA official website that provides information about locations of the stores, products available, best-selling and new products, access to customer services and information about the company itself. However, even for such a successful business as this one there are certain areas which need improvement. The aim of IKEA case study is to show how a successful business can turn into a better one with the help of social means.

One of the main goals for IKEA was establishing a program that would involve all parts of the business, including different departments and applications via Internet. It was perceived that the business would profit by finding bits of knowledge continuously, as well as sharing them quickly with the groups that would have the capacity to act upon them. However, due to a huge size of IKEA the data was not reaching some departments and thus it was affecting their performance. As a solution, IKEA in collaboration with the Socializers have implemented the Listening Hub. It is a space that allows collecting, analysing and sharing the information about customers in the US and UK markets. By having access to information of such kind the digital team of IKEA are now able to determine what problems the enterprise has and what is the nature of them. Ultimately, everything that was done has resulted into a positive change to IKEA as a whole.

Here are the links to the Socializers and Brandwatch for further information:

thesocializers.com ; brandwatch.com

 

Critical analysis of Nauto website

For most areas of business digital marketing is becoming more than just an accessory for the firm but rather a neccessity for success. In 2018 digital marketing is more than just access to the Internet, it allows direct communications between the business and its customers, involves lower costs when reaching the consumer and allows targeting your potential perfect buyer. However, despite all the benefits of digital marketing it is still a hard process which needs to be planned, performed and monitored carefully in order to handle the competition.

Today I am going to talk about a website of a new firm Nauto that has high potential in the future according to experts. Here is the link to the website I am going to evaluate: https://www.nauto.com. Nauto makes an artificially intelligent, networked camera for vehicles. The main idea is to provide safety on the road for drivers by identifying the danger, providing feedback in the end of every trip and other features. I personally have never heard of that brand before and thus never visited their website. After spending some time on the website I came conclusions after making obesrvations. To begin with, I would say the role of the website is brand building because as soon as you visit a site you can find lots of information about the product itself and how to use it. Consumers may be easily segmented considering the specifics of the product, as it is suitable only for drivers. Thus, main target group can be defined as middle-aged men with middle or higher income, who owns or uses a car constantly. Demographics, behaviour and psychographics are the most important segments. After segmenting the customers it is easier to develope a buying persona that is needed for better understanding of your clientele, what has to be delivered and how it can be improved. One buying persona I have created for this product is:

– a financial director, who works for each company for no longer than 3 years.

– married and has two kids.

– male; age 20-50; higher income; urban.

– irascible; constantly uses his phone and receives a lot of calls per day.

– primary goal is building a strong family; secondary goal is to achieve success in his career.

– primary challenge is to balance between job and family; secondary challenge is to get everywhere on time

– Nauto can keep you safe on the roads, which will allow one to live “fast”, be on time and yet not worry about getting into a car accident.

– “I don’t want to spend more money on fixing my car every time me or someone accidentaly scratches it”.

– the reason why one will not buy Nauto is due to confusion with already existing vehicle cameras.

– stop collisions on the road.

Overall, the website is easy to use and all necessary information can be found fast. The outlook is simple, however the video in the main page on the top can be found distractive by some users. What I personally liked about Nauto website is immidiate option of contacting the company perosnally to learn more about the product and ability to request a free demo by completing a simple form. In addition to that, all partners are listed and all contacts are on the website. Another importand and useful aspect is a chance to find the best solution for you as a costumer before buying a product, thus it is called personal customization. The website also includes some statistics and graphs related to the product, which may be useful not only for the customer but for potential investors too. As for areas to improve, I would suggest adding information about the actual price for the product and maybe making the website more compact.

References:

1) Nauto.com. (2018). Nauto | Safer and smarter fleets. [online] Available at: https://www.nauto.com [Accessed 8 Nov. 2018].

2) Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Principles and practice of marketing. London (GB): McGraw-Hill Education.

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