Call Center Customer Retention Strategies: The Unsung Heroes

Many business owners don’t realize that retaining customers is a legendary strategy for boosting the bottom line.

A study by the revered inventor of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) famously wrote that boosting your retention rate by a mere 5% can result in an unprecedented rise in profits – anywhere from 25-95%.

Comparing that to the piles of cash that go into obtaining a new customer… retention will always take the cake.

So what are some of the best customer retention strategies for call centers who understand the value of keeping current customers?

Let’s find out!

The Best of the Best

Customer experience is everything, and negative customer experiences are inevitable in any business.

The question is, how often do terrible customer interactions happen, and how do agents respond and recover from these mistakes?

Before implementing any other customer retention strategies, call center managers must have an action plan and staff in place to handle such situations, as taking a customer who calls in angry and leaving them satisfied after their call is essential.

Call center “retention agents” who solve the most complicated problems need both support and preparation. They should be the center’s best agents with the best Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and best soft skills – soft skills like the ability to show empathy, using their listening skills and referring to the customer’s specific profile to understand what they desire and how to solve their issue precisely.

Sometimes, customers want an agent who truly listens to them and genuinely apologizes for the mistake.

In the case of a mistake, a Hubspot Research survey discovered 96% of survey respondents would still buy from a business they’ve frequented if they apologized and made the situation right.

That means making sure the customer is happy by the conversation’s end, even if a call goes long. Some businesses have rightly considered eliminating handle time from retention-routed calls. Why? The balance of time used to save an account is often worth the added minutes of conversation.

And remember, just one new customer costs thousands in marketing, advertising and sales dollars; retaining one can be handled in mere minutes of a retention agent’s time.

Creating Lifetime Customers with Your Customer Retention Strategy

An irresistible company loyalty program is one of the most powerful strategies businesses use to retain and create customers for life.

Through loyalty programs, businesses offer discounts to customers who shop more often. They could also provide better products and services to enhance customer experience by giving loyal customers access to exclusive offers and opportunities.

For subscription-based businesses, loyalty is perhaps even more important.

Their customers are already used to regular payment cycles, so each billing period creates a natural point where subscription-based businesses can offer loyalty rewards. For example, they can create retention campaigns that reward customers for renewing by offering a free gift, gift card, discount, or other perks.

As we mentioned above, cloud call centers play a particularly important role in retention by taking calls from upset customers and leaving them satisfied by the end of that call.

In addition to sending these callers to retention focused agents with exceptional soft skills, businesses can empower these agents by allowing them to make meaningful gestures like extending a refund.

They could also give away so many months of service to wow the customer, convincing them the company truly cares.

Another retention strategy can be found in a recent reddit thread in r/Entrepreneur provided another excellent idea for retaining customers AND acquiring new ones, too.

Jarredecornell wrote, “I own a startup and it is because of the website that I’ve been able to reach new people in less time. And the most cost-friendly and fastest way to acquire new customers through my website turned out to be the use of live chat software…

So, if you want to retain your existing customers and acquire new ones for your business, then live chat is the way to go!”

While all these strategies are essential ingredients in a successful customer retention recipe, it’s easy to forget the basics. Always finding ways to reduce a customer’s effort in day-to-day interactions is a must.

Cloud call center managers who implement simple customer timesavers like a custom Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system win half of the customer retention battle.

Similarly, managers who utilize customer surveys to measure Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT) or Net Promoter Scores get instant feedback on what’s working and what’s not.

There are so many ways to make customers happy! Now it’s time to figure out which combination of people, strategies, and principles will keep customers coming back.

Automate and Use the Best Customer Retention Strategies Available

Acquiring and retaining customers is an ongoing challenge in all industries.

But the media industry, with its increasing competition and subscription-based model, might face the most significant obstacles.

That’s why implementing the best customer retention strategies to stay ahead of the downward trend can’t begin soon enough.

What if media companies could do all of this automatically, through multichannel communications in a structured, time-based system that supplies suggested scripts?

Well, we just released a free report detailing the possibilities of these potent customer retention strategies.

So if you want to help your businesses thrive in this ever-changing environment, download the free report today!