How to get more return from your existing customer base

New customers mean new opportunities, so it's understandable why many retail and eCommerce businesses focus on acquisition compared to retention. New customer growth is also easy to track and produces immediate results. This starkly contrasts retention, where everything revolves around repeat purchases.

Yet, there is a risk to purely focusing on new customers without considering the current clientele. As a retailer or eCommerce company, you can get more return from your existing customer base. But what about shifting the emphasis from acquisition completely to retention? Don’t do it; acquisition is still required. Concentrate on the balance with an ideal KPI framework that accommodates both acquisition and retention metrics.

So, if retention has so much potential balanced with acquisition, what is the best way to get started? There's some good news.

Trust has already been established

Existing customers are familiar with your service and product. And they are the ones who can provide useful feedback, allowing you to improve your offer and services. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, existing customers have already demonstrated trust in your brand. That is extremely valuable. Build on that trust to increase loyalty. As a result, you can convert an existing customer into a devoted ambassador of your brand.

Communication channels have been cemented

As a business, you will have previously communicated with existing customers, whether via email, WhatsApp, or perhaps SMS. From this initial communication, you will have insights into the customers' preferred channel of engagement, so you can leverage these channels to engage customers.

Your next question could be; how can you make the most of these channels and existing trust to build loyalty and gain returns? Hyper-personalisation is the answer. According to recent research by McKinsey & Company, more than 75% of customers will return to you if you are relevant to them and have an offer that meets their specific needs.

With hyper-personalisation, the more you learn about your existing customers' needs, the more personal and relevant the interaction becomes. This increases conversion and boosts sales.

AI-driven hyper-personalisation

Hyper-personalisation can be implemented at scale using artificial intelligence (AI). Regardless of the channels, products, or customer base size, the technology can provide a personalised and relevant journey to each customer. AI is entirely scalable, objectively interprets customer data, and operates automatically. This relieves an organisation of a significant amount of work. And, as the algorithm learns from each interaction, it gets to know your customers’ needs better and better, increasing the relevance.

Interested in learning more about your AI opportunities for hyper-personalisation at scale? Contact us to discuss how you can get started.