Customer retention: four tips on accessing the bombarded consumer

Sam Madden says customers hate intrusive messaging from over-zealous brands – and he has advice on how to reach customers and re-engage them before they switch off.

In this digital age, we’re more exposed to brand messages than ever before. Brands are losing sight of the fundamentals of customer value. Email, phone, text, messaging apps, social platforms, traditional mail – there are so many communication channels that brands are over-messaging and customers are switching off.

In a research report we created, an overwhelming 86% of customers who left their bank, energy, mobile or insurance provider in the last six months said they would have been more content if they were contacted in a different way. When questioned about their reasons for leaving, relevancy and timeliness had the biggest impact on loyalty. Nearly one in five (17%) complained that they never received relevant information. Another fifth (20%) said they received relevant information but not when they wanted it.

In an ideal world, you as a marketer, would speak personally to each and everyone of your customers to provide the best possible experience for your customers. You could create an engaging interaction, supported by hyper personalised messages adapted to that customer and respond directly to their needs – much like a face to face interaction in store.

But if you run a large business with hundreds of thousands of customers, this just isn’t possible. Most organisations then deploy an automated system to help communicate with their customers. However there’s fear for businesses and customers that they would lose personalisation the human element of the dialogue. However with the advancements in AI technology it is now possible to retain that human aspect and be just as intelligent as a customer dialogue. Combining AI with customer data means you can create intelligent service oriented communication that is adapted to the customer’s behaviour, in real time. The communication is done in a way that suits your customers and it’s an engaging, useful interaction.

Four top tips on customer retention – how the modern marketer can work effectively:

1. Welcome your customers: Generate customer loyalty early on by creating an efficient welcoming process. The first 100 days are the most critical for ensuring a happy customer and thereby building long term loyalty, preventing churn later on. We’ve seen several examples from service providers within Energy and Telco who have implemented this successfully.The best results are generated when the customer has a personal dialogue with the service provider. But this presents a challenge for the customer support team who are then under pressure to get in touch with each customer in person. It’s both expensive and inefficient. This is where automation can support.Wiraya has helped Telcos to use AI driven pre-recorded voice calls alongside text messages (SMS) that are individually personalised.These real time messages gives the customer the opportunity to be connected with Customer Support, either immediately, or at a convenient time for them (the customer). We’ve carried out several studies on how the respondents perceive this type of communication and the majority say they prefer this way of being contacted when the information is relevant.
2. Empower your customer: Remove or relieve tasks that are a burden for your customers to complete. For example, you as a supplier want your customers to take action on important information. It could be providing customer data such as KYC (Know Your Customer) for financial services, missing customer data to get started with a service or renewing expired insurance. Many suppliers send a letter by post asking the customer to fill out the missing details, or remind about an insurance payment or a direct debit loss. Some diligent customers may fill it out and send back, but many customers don’t. They often just forget. We’ve assisted several companies and service providers with digital, automated communication that is easy for the consumer to take action on, immediately, on the mobile phone. For example, for Swedish insurance company If, one of the biggest challenges was customers not renewing their insurance, despite reminders by email or post. It might be deliberate, or not. Instead of chasing the customer incessantly in the same way, Wiraya has created a smart combination of channels where the customer can easily end the relationship or renew the insurance, immediately or at their own pace using their mobile phone. This has proven very efficient both from the supplier, and for the consumer. If reduced churn by 6% with this approach.
3. Tailor your solution to your customer: If you notice that your Telco customer doesn’t have the best subscription suited to his/her behaviour, make sure they are offered the right service and enable them to switch, before they take the initiative to end the subscription or get poached by the competition. The customer will be happier and is much more likely to stay. This pro-active approach is essential and much easier and cheaper than losing a customer and then to try to get them back again. To acquire a new customer is much more expensive than keeping your existing ones – more than 5 times as much. The customer also appreciates you contacting them pro-actively as a service, rather than reactively when they have ended the service.
4. Don’t bombard your customers: Businesses need to put themselves in their customer’s position more often. It’s important not to bombard your customers with messages that aren’t personalised or are proven not to be delivered at the right time or on the right channels. Use the tools available such as AI (artificial intelligence) technology to enable you to create messages and select channels that are relevant to your customers’ behaviour, in real time. Also, take into account how you create a compelling message that speaks to your customer’s emotions. If you want a customer to renew an insurance contract; don’t just ask them to do this, turn it around and try to offer a service rather than a sale.