Businesses come and go. While there may be different factors behind which businesses succeed and which fail, in the end, it all boils down to customer preferences. Businesses that survive for the long term are the ones that have developed a loyal customer base that can provide those companies with steady streams of revenue. Other businesses are not so lucky and fall prey to the lack of customer loyalty to their products. While business may have been good at one point, sales can dry up seemingly overnight.
If you want to avoid this problem, you need to learn more about the behavior of consumers. If you can learn why they leave certain businesses for their competitors, you can help to inoculate your own company from this fate. With that in mind, below are some of the top reasons why customers leave.
Poor Service
68 percent of customers stop giving business to a company due to employees having a bad attitude or showing indifference while providing service. Overall, if you want to retain customers for repeat business, you need to make sure your employees are pleasant and helpful to customers. Invest in recruitment efforts, employee training and employee supervision to make sure that’s always the case.
Lack of Personalized Service
Customers really appreciate businesses that want to get to know them and provide them with personal service. While this is easier for businesses in small communities, it may be much more difficult for businesses in larger population centers.
One way to solve this problem so you can provide personalized service is through clienteling management. This involves the collection of data on customers that employees in a retail store, restaurant or other brick and mortar location can pull up instantly. This allows those employees to provide personalized service tailored to the needs and preferences of individual customers.
Lack of Convenience
Another factor you need to consider is that lack of convenience for the consumer could result in losing business. It has become somewhat of a cliché. However, in the world of smartphone apps and online stores, people want instant gratification. While many people still enjoy the brick and mortar experience, it’s not geared towards a growing segment of the digitally immersed public.
If you run a brick and mortar store, you may want to try different methods to broaden your appeal to those consumers. In-store pick-up for orders made online is one great way to cater to those used to shopping online to save time. 57 percent of people now use this method to shop.
Pricing
Another reason why customers choose competitors often boils down to pricing. Sadly, competing on price can get pretty brutal quick. The more you lower your prices, the less you will make in profits on each individual sale. It can get pretty cutthroat.
However, there are methods you can use to give customers the illusion of lower price without bleeding your profits. Many companies offer free shipping for online purchases but only if a customer places a certain amount in their shopping cart. Quite often, customers will spend more than they would have otherwise just to get that free shipping. 90 percent of people say free shipping incentivizes them to shop online.
Lack of Quality
Something that can make customers pay more for a product is quality. Low quality, on the other hand, can scare away customers in droves even with lower prices. Today, quality is more important than ever thanks to the prevalence of online reviews and ratings. Just a few negative reviews could scare away thousands of people from purchasing your products. This is why you must make sure quality in regards to your products and customer service is always very high.
Overall, losing customers is always a big threat. However, if you learn why customers leave businesses for competitors, you can make adjustments to protect your own business from this fate. Instead, you may be able to produce loyal customers that provide you with steady business for years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment