There is not a business in the world that has not lost a customer. And many business employ various strategies to breed customer loyalty; some start looking for new customers to replace those lost – while other offer incentives to lure them back.
The key is to keep customers happy and engaged, which fosters loyalty to a brand. The WhatsApp Business API makes it easier for a business to retain its customers.
Why does churn happen?
Reasons for customer churn are varied, and can be personal and unique to each customer. However, a few common drivers of high customer churn rates are:
Poor Customer Service
You may have the best product on the market, but if you don’t prioritize customer support, it won’t matter. High customer churn can be an indicator of poor service, meaning you need to evaluate your customer-facing teams. Good customer service shouldn’t be reserved for new customers; in fact existing customers are often far more valuable.
Product fit or market fit might be lacking
A bad product fit can result in customers looking for better solutions elsewhere. Or perhaps you’re targeting the wrong audience. It’s important that products are focussed at the correct audience, and that you look at any new key features that may be required.
Pricing
Quality, price, and convenience often play a role in why customers choose one business over another. As the market evolves, and competitors enter the space, customers might decide that your price isn’t competitive – and many often leave as a result.
Understand your target audience
No matter how sophisticated your acquisition strategies are, they may all go down the drain if you are attracting the wrong audience – or don’t know what they want. Customers might be looking for new features that you’re not providing, or have a new need that you’re not aware of.
How to use WhatsApp Business API to reduce customer churn
Collect feedback to understand customer expectations
It may sound obvious, but you have to find out why customers decided to leave. Customer expectations are constantly evolving, so its crucial businesses stay ahead.
With the WhatsApp Business platform, you can survey customers with rich messaging. It’s built into the messaging application, so they don’t need to click on any links and move out of the app.
Boost customer engagement
Engagement with your customers doesn’t conclude after they complete a purchase. Staying connected with customers and nurturing those relationships is an ongoing process.
The WhatsApp Business API can integrate with CRM systems, so support and sales teams can easily access customer information to create personalised, engaging content.
- WhatsApp naturally supporting conversational messaging
- Built-in functionality within WhatsApp that allows you to personalise messages beyond what SMS and email can allow
- Built-in user feedback controls that help you ensure engagement stays high over time
Engage with your customers not just when you have something to sell or they complain about their recent experiences. Existing customers should get the VIP treatment.
Monitor customer satisfaction
The best way to avoid churn is to prevent it from happening in the first place! Often customers that are about to churn display similar behaviours, so it helps to keep an eye on those on the edge.
- Purchase recency and frequency drops
- Customer engagement decreases
- Customer complaints and negative reviews increases
Minimize customer churn by monitoring the above. Often not an easy task, but with gathered data feeding into your CRM, it remains centralised and accessible.
Ensure customers have all the information they need when they need it
First impressions matter. If you want a good start with your new customers, the onboarding process needs to be great. It can be frustrating for customers if they can’t easily find answers to their queries.
The WhatsApp Business API allows you to set up a chatbot that handles frequently asked questions. This automation means these kinds of queries can be quickly answered.
In Conclusion
Customer churn happens naturally in any business; its inevitable some of your customers won’t stick around for a long time. Learning how to reduce customer churn is the key to improving revenue, and will increase customer loyalty, customer lifetime value and brand reputation.
To learn more about this solution and the business benefits it can offer, get in touch via the contact form.
Related Reading
- Drive Efficient Customer Support with WhatsApp Business API
- Messaging Best Practices For Customer Service