How to properly secure customer personal information

How to properly secure customer personal information

by | Jun 28, 2022

Business Tips

How to properly secure customer personal information

June 28, 2022

How to properly secure customer personal information

Customer data protection is one of the most important determinants of business growth. Although online services provide fast, affordable, and convenient solutions, their rising adoption encourages data breaches. This illegal industry is lucrative to cybercriminals, with experts expecting the cost to keep rising.

High-profile attacks against giants such as Acer, Microsoft, and Bombardier show no company is immune to hacking. This worrying trend calls for constant vigilance and commitment to customer data protection in compliance with the highest cybersecurity standards. The following tips will help you achieve these objectives:

Have an explicit and honest privacy policy

Trust determines how comfortably consumers interact with your brand. They have more faith in healthcare providers than in social media apps. That’s because the former asks for information most relevant to your physical and mental wellbeing, while the latter collects more than they need. In addition to harming your reputation, deceptive data policies expose you to potential legal disputes.

Embrace data encryption

Encryption sounds like a no-brainer, but most businesses don’t embrace it. Network access points are always vulnerable to data breaches. Apart from firewalls, password management tools provide affordable and productive solutions.

They improve data security by complicating stored passwords, making them unreadable to unauthorized personnel. The best encryption tools protect data in transit and at rest.

Limit data access

Although efficient data collection and analysis are beneficial, you should only give access to employees who need it. For instance, your marketing department utilizes different information from the finance section. This limitation reduces the likelihood of internal breaches.

Similarly, collect data that are crucial to your organization’s core business. It makes more sense to allow third-party vendors to process credit card transactions rather than handle them in-house.

Implement minimum cybersecurity standards

Minimum security standards ensure consistency across the board. Customer information is better protected if your SaaS tools comply with SOC 2 or ISO 27001 requirements. SOC 2 follows five essential principles: privacy, security, confidentiality, availability, and processing integrity. ISO-based compliance requires continuous evaluation, refining, and augmentation. These solutions make it easier to scale service provision to thousands or even millions of users.  According to DataCo, when it comes to earning the trust of customers, it is a good idea to pursue an ISO 27001 certificate. Having this in place will give you a blueprint for what it takes to protect private data as comprehensively as possible, while also enabling you to show clear evidence of your commitment to security to existing customers and prospects alike.

Prompt system updates

Most companies avoid regular software updates for fear of affecting the customer experience. However, cybercriminals are always looking for vulnerabilities. Every minute you delay this crucial step could lead to a costly data breach. Although some updates are expensive and time-consuming, their long-term benefits are worth the minor inconvenience.

A comprehensive guide to secure data collection

Most consumers submit their data because they trust the company to safeguard it. Data security consists of various techniques that prevent unauthorized access and misuse of this information. Improper access ranges from harmless actions such as an employee viewing data without proper clearance to deliberate malware attacks.

Collecting data over insecure connections also increases the likelihood of cybercriminals intercepting vital transactions. HTTPS protection prevents it through the TLS protocol, which offers three crucial security layers:

  • Encryption prevents unwanted eavesdropping, monitoring, and access to information.
  • Data integrity prevents unlicensed modification and corruption during transfer.
  • Authentication ensures your customers are interacting with the correct website. This layer protects data against man-in-the-middle interceptions.

With several data collection tools available, the ideal choice depends on your business niche, budget, and target audience, among other factors. Commonly used business solutions include Google Analytics, Facebook Audience Insights, and SurveyMonkey.

The Google Tag Manager (GTM) allows you to gather visitor details by adding JavaScript code snippets to your website. It’s a free tracking tool compatible with Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and other online advertising options. The snippets, also known as tags, eliminate the complications of manually tagging each platform.

How data collection helps measure business performance

Efficient data collection techniques help you identify the best key performance indicators for your business. KPIs are quantifiable measurements that determine an organization’s long-term strategic, operational, and financial achievements. Although they vary between industries, there are five universally applicable KPIs: customer satisfaction, profit margin, revenue growth, client retention rate, and revenue per client.

To avoid confusion, choose a few measures for each business objective and assign each KPI to particular individuals. Additionally, set a monthly, quarterly, or other suitable frequency to ensure continual monitoring and reporting. Performance management software allows you to create custom KPI dashboards for different audiences, such as departments and company executives.

Why do you need strategic risk management?

Strategic risk management identifies, quantifies, and mitigates threats to your business strategy. These risks include technological changes, competitive pressure, regulatory updates, management turnover, and merger integration. Risk management involves five essential steps:

  • Defining your business objectives.
  • Creating KPIs to gauge results.
  • Identifying risks that can affect performance.
  • Establishing key risk indicators (KRIs) and your tolerance for these threats.
  • Monitoring and reporting continuously to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

As with KPIs, you can use premium software solutions such as Reciprocity ZenRisk to unify cybersecurity compliance and risk. This platform offers high-level visibility to help you avoid threats and receive actionable insights.

Important data regulations

Effective data collection methods and tools comply with various state, federal, and international regulations on security and privacy. One of the most comprehensive regulations is HIPAA compliance, which pertains to protected health information (PHI).

HIPAA-compliant solutions collect up to 18 different data items. They include names, email, phone numbers, geographical identifiers, social security numbers, vehicle details, biometrics, IP addresses, account numbers, and photographs.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) is another law that outlines how financial service providers should handle sensitive data. Its essential requirements include providing clear privacy notices, formulating an extensive security plan, and working with GLBA-compliant contractors.

At the state level, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) stands out for its commitment to protecting consumer data privacy. Requirements include providing opt-out options, updating privacy policies, using CCPA-compliant tools, and having a disaster response plan.

International data protection laws include Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Strong Consumer Authentication (SCA).

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Everything you need to know about repairing your credit

Everything you need to know about repairing your credit

by | Jun 28, 2022

Business Insights

Everything you need to know about repairing your credit

June 28, 2022

Improving your credit once and for all

Although time-consuming, poor credit may be repaired. It’s a minefield as well. You need to be aware of what to do, where to go for assistance, and which businesses to stay away from. The stakes are quite high, and the results can follow you for years.

Your credit history, report, and score all have a significant impact on your financial situation. They influence the particular parameters of the deal, such as how advantageous your interest rate will be, as well as whether you are authorized by lenders for items like a mortgage, personal loan, or auto loan.

Continue reading to find out more about the numerous tools, techniques, and behaviors that may help you raise a low credit score.

Self-reliance is possible

There’s nothing a reputable credit repair company can do for you that you couldn’t do yourself, so this might be an alternative, but if you pick the best company to repair credit, you won’t need to find out tons of information and do transactions where It’s easy to make a mistake and ruin everything. You may learn a lot about credit, how it works, and what you can do to fix your own by reading books and browsing the internet.

Techniques including challenging erroneous reports, debt validation, pay-for-delete services, and goodwill letters may be used to erase unfavorable information. All of these techniques are used by credit repair businesses to get inaccurate information taken out of your credit report.

You may save money by doing it yourself. Your credit history is likewise in your hands, under your control.

The Federal Reserve reports that in the first quarter of 2022, U.S. Household Debt Service Payments as a Percent of Disposable Personal Income is an average of 9.51904. This means that on average, households will spend 9.51904% of their disposable income on debt service payments, such as mortgage payments, credit card payments, and auto loan payments. 

This is up from 9.48%, which was the average for the fourth quarter of 2021. However, it is down from the peak of 10.62% reached in the third quarter of 2007.

The report provides information on the percent of household income devoted to debt service payments, the median payment-to-income ratio, and the average payment-to-income ratio. The household debt service payments as a percent of disposable personal income helps to indicate the financial health of American consumers and is watched closely by economists. 

A high DSP can indicate that consumers are struggling to keep up with their debt payments and may be at risk of defaulting on their loans. A low DSP can indicate that consumers are able to easily make their debt payments and are in good financial health.

It’s hard to remove accurate negative information

Here, the word “accurate” is highlighted. Only erroneous or unverifiable information may be
lawfully removed from your credit report by credit bureaus.

Since the credit bureaus have the legal power to disclose inaccurate negative information, doing so is more difficult. In reality, the accuracy of the information that credit bureaus report is essential to maintaining the integrity of the credit system.

However, there are several techniques that may assist you to get rid of true bad information,
such as a debt that you really owe that is in the collection. These tactics may need more
time and work than a straightforward credit report dispute, but they are still worth trying. The
greatest solutions for these kinds of accounts include requests for a goodwill deletion, paying
for deletion, and debt validation (for collection agencies).

Verify your credit report for any mistakes

To be sure there aren’t any false negatives, get a copy of your credit report. Common credit report inaccuracies, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, include canceled credit accounts displaying as open, loans that appear more than once, and erroneous amounts.

Visit annualcreditreport.com to get a free credit report from each of the three main credit agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). Although you won’t get a score from this, it will highlight your shortcomings and potential development areas.

You may dispute any inaccurate information on your credit report by sending a letter to the relevant credit reporting organization if you find it. If you’re unclear about how to do this, the Federal Trade Commission offers a sample credit dispute letter that you may refer to.

Reconsider your approach to credit usage ratios

Your credit usage ratio calculates how much credit you are currently utilizing in comparison to your total credit limit. Never let this percentage exceed one-third or around 30% of your expenditure cap. If you have $1,000 in available credit, for instance, you shouldn’t utilize more than $300 of it.

Think about doing nothing

Negative items won’t remain on your credit record forever. Although there are a few exceptions, most reports are only kept there for seven years. For up to 10 years, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, for instance, will remain on your credit record.

If you’re running out of time to delete the account from credit reporting, it can be less unpleasant and time-consuming to wait for it to naturally disappear. Contrary to common perception, responding to a negative account does not prolong the window for credit reporting. If you settle a six-year-old debt collection, it will still disappear off your record after the seventh year.

Obtain permission to use someone else’s credit card

A person added to an active credit card account under someone else’s name is known as an authorized user.

Authorized users are free to use the card as if it were their own, but they are not liable for any debt they accrue. Additionally, because they are sharing the card’s payment history and usage percentage, this might eventually raise their credit score.

Here, the cardholder bears the majority of the financial risk, not the authorized user. However, Lynch advises that if you’re seeking to establish credit, you should ask some “uncomfortable questions” before signing the contract, such as finding out the borrower’s payment history to see whether this is the best course of action for you.

Consider consolidating your debt

Bundling all of your loans into one is what debt consolidation entails. When compared to individual invoices, this often results in a cheaper interest rate or lower monthly payment.

Those who struggle to manage many due dates or have a variety of high-interest credit card balances would benefit from this repayment method.

Avoid undesirable behaviors

Without a comprehensive plan, avoid applying for several new credit cards or closing numerous accounts. Everything related to credit is interconnected, therefore deleting old accounts and starting new ones might damage your credit mix and history.

For instance, applying for multiple new credit cards quickly may lead to several hard inquiries, which might lower your credit score. Instead, think about obtaining a secured credit card or credit-builder loan.

Conclusion

Although repairing your credit might be a drawn-out process, it is ultimately worthwhile. You may either do this on your own or with the assistance of a credit repair business.

Whichever path you choose, maintaining good credit requires credit monitoring, timely monthly payments, and sound money management practices. The most crucial thing is to exercise patience and adhere to a successful approach.

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Ensure enterprise data protection while working remotely

Ensure enterprise data protection while working remotely

by | Jun 20, 2022

Business Tips

Ensure enterprise data protection while working remotely

June 20, 2022

How to ensure enterprise data protection

We can all agree that the pandemic has turned our lives upside down. And although it was exciting to work from home at the beginning, as time passed by, we were becoming aware of the disadvantages of remote work as well. One of the weaknesses of remote working is enterprise data protection.

So, if your business has shifted to a remote work model, you should focus on enterprise data protection. There are plenty of file-sharing methods out there, but not all of them can ensure enterprise data protection. To avoid cybercrime, be sure to employ the following secure file share practices.

3 ways to initiate enterprise data protection

When companies are switching over to remote work, they are afraid of the possibility of hacking or security breaches. But fortunately, you can ensure enterprise data protection by implementing these five tips.

Email phishing

Remote employees send a lot of emails back and forth to their co-workers, managers, and clients. It’s possible that an employee could fall victim to an email phishing scam if they aren’t careful. To ensure enterprise data protection, teach your employees to use a reputable email platform that helps automatically filter out spam messages that could have malware, untrustworthy links, or downloadable files.

Securing Wi-Fi and desktop with passwords

Ask your employees to change and strengthen their passwords on their Wi-Fi and desktop computer for that extra level of security. Inform them that using public Wi-Fi could leave them open to a cyberattack, but a VPN or file sharing server can protect them as long as they remain online. Employees should change their passwords regularly to avoid potential breaches.

Backing up files

Most employees will have a thumb drive or a separate hard drive where they can keep duplicates of client files. Every person at the company must have a copy of each client document if a hard drive becomes corrupted or the file is deleted by accident. Your employees could also upload these files to an encrypted Cloud sharing platform.

3 essential processes to ensure enterprise data protection

Once your organization has numerous operating units based in different locations, your needs clearly become more complicated than a one-location business with one IT department. To ensure enterprise data protection, make sure you apply the following tips to your business.

Best practices for organizing work remotely

Even though file integration is probably the most challenging part, remaining organized is a necessity as well. That way you will make sure you don’t mix up your personal files with work-related data. 

Use the following tips to ensure you don’t get confused after switching to a remote office.

 

  • Folder structuring: Create separate folders for different departments, projects, and types of information. Keep things simple and straightforward.
  • File naming: Decide on a common naming convention. For example, you could name a folder like this: Client Name, Date, Work Type, Draft/In-Progress/Final.
  • Tagging: Use different tags to look up the product, department, or the purpose of the project, like “internal use only” or “brochure.” 
  • Granular permissions: Some of your documents will contain sensitive information, so it’s essential to tag employees who have access to these files.
  • Password managers: Use password management tools to keep work-related passwords safe in one place with a possibility to share necessary data with your colleagues. .

Sharing a local file server over the internet

If you already have a local file server setup, you can quickly turn it into an Internet file share server. Remote workers are consistently involved in internal and external company functions, and they may need to visit customers to show them data locked on a central file server. You’ll need a file sharing solution based on the on-premise file server; your workflow depends on it. With a file-sharing server, users can create a mapped drive without using a VPN, can lock files, provide mobile sharing and folder access, all from a web browser-based interface.

Share files with a VPN

A VPN is another, although more complicated, way of sending secure files over the Internet. Whether you buy a premium VPN or use the Windows 10 built-in settings to set one up between computers, you can create a VPN server on the host PC to access all incoming connections. It does require a bit of computer know-how and a great Internet connection to work. Additionally, the benefits of VPN extend beyond secure file transfers, providing enhanced encryption when used in conjunction with a file-sharing server.

Conclusion

Cyber attacks can bring major damage to corporate IT infrastructures and result in substantial data leaks. That being said, you should definitely focus on enterprise data protection, starting with these practices that can be done by you and your employees.

 In the end, if you are unlucky and a victim of a security breach, make sure you act properly so you can minimize the damage.

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How to get followers on Instagram without following anyone

How to get followers on Instagram without following anyone

by | Jun 14, 2022

Business Tips

How to get followers on Instagram without following anyone

June 14, 2022

How to get followers on Instagram

When you start assessing research on acquiring more followers and gaining visibility on social media platforms – like Instagram,  you will come across a myriad of different tactics.  Everyone has a different opinion about what approach works the best but the reality is that only a small percentage of tactics work long-term for getting Instagram followers. One of those random recommendations is to just start following a variety of other accounts. Many of them will click ‘follow’ for you in return.

The cold hard truth is that this is really just a nuisance more than an assist. It’s really not genuinely effective either. You just find random things in the news feed, and many of those never return a follow favor. There are systematically other ways that one might be able get IG followers without following anyone. It just requires a bit of will and some effort too.

It might be hard and time consuming but still, with dedicating, it is possible to grow your Instagram and become a influencer.

7 tips for getting followers on Instagram

We’ve compiled some the best tips for how to sustainable gain followers on Instagram.

Caption each posting wisely

We know what you are likely thinking. Your posts have no titles or subheadings, so how can you caption them? It’s all about learning how to position and type out the post so that it’s attractive. Figure out some small catch line or phrase to start the post out. Use emojis to catch people’s eye. 

Then skip a line and say what else you need to say. That first little tidbit is the caption in reference here. If you’re looking for tips for how to get noticed on Instagram, scenarios such as this are optimal ways to improve the odds. First, consider a small phrase that encompasses the approach. 

Instagram actually has the capability to develop captions so you should take advantage of the concept. However, you can choose to simply formulate each created content to be catching in the setup. If you choose to develop your post well beyond the caption, that’s quite alright. Just add some sort of one-liner to captivate first. 

You can then proceed to sharing more details, providing lists, typing out a how to, or whatever else. Don’t forget to always provide a closing. We will talk about this a bit later in the guide!

Take the easy way

Hard work is where it’s really at primarily. However, you also could simply choose to perhaps buy some followers. When you make this particular purchase, you never have to follow others just to scrape for a single like or follower. Yet one accomplishes a guaranteed number of new fans with said purchase. 

Several varying companies and package options exist online. To buy Instagram followers, start at 1 dollar on a small package that will allow you increased options as well. This is how to get Instagram followers fast without following anyone and with guaranteed assurance of delivery. These companies often begin delivering results almost immediately and will fulfill an order in a matter of just days. 

One logically good idea is to always make sure they use active fans and absolutely no bots ever. It’s also necessary to check for little details like guarantees and the timeline for delivery. Other than details such as this, buying fans is a cheap and quick solution.

Make your bio magical

The first thing you see when you check someone on IG? You review the bio or profile as you will. When someone is curious, they sniff out the profile details. This often determines what happens next, right? 

This will work the same for you. The magical bio is the means to be recognized and gain some traction here. It’s ultimately just a quick highlight about an individual or business. It reflects the basic notions about a person, the brand, and details. 

IG’s bio is a tricky place so do some research to figure out the best approach to pack tons of details into that tiny little space. You need short snippets to share. This should include a short descriptive piece, a designated link, and maybe a CTA, depending on initial goals. 

Some people even create custom hashtags for their brand and showcase them here. IG forces you to squeeze all of this detail into 150 characters so short, sweet, and efficient is the key to your magical process here.

Tagging is your friend

You know who already has thousands of followers? Influencers! Really striving for the potential to be seen might involve tagging influencers. Now, be strategic with the approach. You can’t just choose some random influencer that is irrelevant with posted subject matter or a dedicated nichel. 

In fact, this approach is viably efficient at negating your hard work to get Instagram followers free fall and leaving you hanging. People will take one look, shrug their shoulders, and just move right along or get suspicious. 

Let’s be honest. Anyone would likely react the same. Someone tagged one of your favorite influencers, so you hopped over to their page thinking it could be spectacular. But you find out they were way off base. Denied! 

When you’re choosing influencers, make them relevant. Either find them by relevant hashtags or even relatable content. Always tag them but make it worth the tag, you know? Chances are an influencer or manager will take note of the tag and be grateful but everyone who follows them will also be subjected to noticing the tag and this could bring you some gained following in the meantime. 

Use this like a rare treat and not a daily practice. Just choose to tag them on occasion and always make it applicable. Quality will make a substantial difference.

Sharing products

Maybe you have a side hustle that sells something? This is the winning chance to demonstrate it! Surely you’ve noticed posts for giveaways on IG? It’s considerably the perfect way to drastically improve a fan base and get some traction. 

There are so many different options here. Maybe choose to give away a product or even some sort of service. It technically isn’t required to be your own product. Although, if you sell products, it makes sense to stick to the line of ideas. You could collaborate with someone in this scenario too. 

Beauty bloggers might choose to give away something like their favorite hairbrush or a favorite lipstick or something like that. If you create custom t-shirts, you could do a t-shirt giveaway. Find something that will engage the people and give them something in return. 

Not only can you effectively spotlight a specific product or offering but it just might bring people flocking in. Statistics reflect many times these fans will keep following you at least for a while even after your giveaway ends. 

One can opt to host regular giveaways to provide the people something to appeal to later. Design some sort of a contest, pick a random winner, or whatever you decide. You can require anything feasible such as likes, shares, follows, etc. You would be surprised at how much this can grow a fan base. 

Utilize hashtags

You know that hashtags are an integral piece of the Instagram system. Those that love Instagram love the searchability of a simple hashtag. People use those all the time. You’re allotted the ability to add 30 hashtags in any single post you create. While that many are not required, if you want to boost Instagram followers without following back, it is essential to be using at least a few. 

Hashtags should be chosen carefully. Avoid randomly typing in a bunch of nonsense tags. Find some highly relevant tags to include. Try to mix in a few common ones as well. If you need inspiration, try doing some research through other similar users and reflect on your options for inspiration. 

Make an effort not to simply copy them completely but this might help inspire you. We recommend a mix of the following.

    • Highly relevant to post content
    • Brand relevance
    • Popular options that everyone sees

Choose wisely and if you only end up with 10, that’s fine. Just make them great ones! Don’t skip hashtags completely.

Deliver a Killer Closing

Now that we know the basics of creating things like profile bios and valued content, don’t forget to wrap up each post usine a closing line. This should always have some sort of call to action. It’s a closing line, a request to do something, or a question designed to develop engagement. 

For example, one could end a posting by asking a question to the audience. Maybe you told a funny story. Invite those readers to then versions of a story of their own in the comments. Perhaps you talked about some fantastic product. 

Close that post with a call to purchase theirs right away and direct them with instructions to accomplish just that. This is where you might say “visit the link in the bio to get yours today” or something along those lines. But don’t just use that wording. Give them an excuse to visit said link. 

Without the invitation to do something, it’s possible these readers never will take action. 

Conclusion

The end-all prize is simply to be seen. It’s not enough to just waste all of your time following following people and crossing your fingers they will then do the same for you. You also aren’t required to turn around and follow everyone who does choose you. 

Instead, use valuable time to really create amazing content designed to draw people in. Learn how to increase Instagram followers by taking advantage of varying tools like buying them or offering contests and giveaways to become more known and followed. Using our guide you can become famous on Instagram without following anyone.

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14 customer retention strategies to adopt immediately

by | May 11, 2022

Business Insights

14 customer retention strategies to adopt immediately

May 11, 2022

Most effective customer retention strategies

As frightful as it sounds, studies show that 77% of brands could disappear, and no one would care. This means a staggering number of businesses failed to satisfy and retain customers. 

And what have you done to make your customers care about your brand? Have you failed at creating a solid customer retention strategy? Are you one of them?

You better not be, because the Pareto Principle shows that 80% of your profits come from just 20% of customers. In other words, if you have 10 clients, the most loyal 2 of them are more valuable than the rest combined. This is where you should put your focus – on implementing the most effective customer retention strategies.

The most effective customer retention strategies for 2022

However, it is not our goal to scare you but to show you ways to do better at customer retention. There could be as many customer retention strategies as there are businesses in the world, but you should only adopt the ones that fit your brand. 

To save you some time doing research, we’ve done it for you, thus, keep reading and find out what customer retention strategies are proven to be most effective these years.

Surprises

Although there are people who claim that they don’t like surprises, we doubt they will return a gift, no matter how small it might be. That’s what makes surprises one of the best customer retention ideas.

In fact, 61% of consumers think surprise gifts and offers are the most important way a brand can interact with them.

These surprises shouldn’t cost you a fortune and overburden your already tight budget. A small gift, a special discount, or even a handwritten note of appreciation can take you a long way with your customers.

Complaints and customer feedback

In the business world, you need to understand that complaints shouldn’t be taken personally. Instead, they are opportunities for growth. The product or service you offer is built for the needs of the customers and should serve them 100%. Complaints will show you where you failed to deliver the maximum.

77% of consumers say they favor brands that ask for and accept customer feedback. It’s important to know to accept the bad as openly as the good.

Overdeliver

Don’t promise the stars and the moon to your customers. Instead, promise them only the moon and then bring along the stars. In this case, they won’t be expecting the starts so if you were unable to deliver them, they won’t feel betrayed and robbed. On the other hand, if you manage to deliver the stars as well, that will win you major points. 

To put it differently, you have to exceed their expectations by adding a pre-calculated extra because 48% of people expect specialized treatment for being a good customer.

Personalize

Do you keep detailed notes about your customers? If not, you should start immediately! 

Listening to and understanding each customer’s particular needs and wishes will help you connect with them on a more personal level. It is now surprising at all that 86% of customers say an emotional connection with a customer service agent would make them continue to do business with the company. 

At the end of the day, your job is to make sure that your customer doesn’t feel like just another number. Use whatever data you collect on your customers to personalize your correspondence with them. Know how best to contact them and how previous interactions went. By making customers feel like you know and care for them, you’ll be making a lasting impression that is bound to keep them around.

For example, this is how Konnexx does it:

    • Empathy – understanding their situation and being mindful not to force our agenda onto them until it is appropriate. Booking calls back times if necessary.
    • Being Polite. Asking if it is a good time to talk – and if not, booking a callback time at their convenience.
    • Asking questions rather than delivering information. Listening more than talking.
    • Mirroring some of their languages.
    • Confirming their needs and wants and dovetailing these with the benefits of the products/services we have to offer.
    • Talking about benefits rather than features.
    • Confirming what action needs to be taken and following it up where necessary.
    • Booking at a convenient time for the next call.

Community

Build a community! You can create a discussion board on your website or a Facebook group where all of your loyal customers will be invited to join. This gives them the opportunity to connect with each other and exchange opinions regarding your products or services. You can also turn it into a place where you share promos, discounts, or general news about your company.

Another way you can leverage the power of social media is to create engaging accounts that will constantly interact with your audience through meaningful and branded content.

Customer service

We are aware that customer service is a relatively broad term including a lot of factors. However, knowing that 93% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases at companies with excellent customer service leaves us no space to ignore it.

Take a better look at your customer service and identify your weaknesses. Maybe it’s response time – reduce it! Or maybe you over-automated it – bots are good to an extent, but they can’t replace real humans. 

Know your offer by heart but don’t be scared to admit it when you’re into the blue. Turn to your colleagues, and act as a team. Customers can recognize a genuine effort to help them and will be patient even if it takes more time to get what they deserve.

Just show that you care!

Onboarding

How do you welcome new customers? If ‘Thank you for shopping with us’ is the best you can give, then you’re not trying hard enough or you really don’t care about your customers.

The welcome message they get the first time they spend their money on one of your products or services is of crucial importance! It is the first step to building a long-lasting relationship with mutual respect. 

Customers are five times more likely to engage with you in the first 90-100 days than at any other point.

For that reason, you should educate them with branded content. Email newsletters are great for this. Send them regularly but not too often because it can be perceived as pushy. Include content that will teach them how to use your products or services e.g. step-by-step guides, behind-the-scenes footage, etc. Give them a reason to stay with you.

Loyalty Programs

Reward, reward, reward! 

One of the most effective customer retention strategies businesses can do is to offer incentives to their customers. Incentives can be a powerful tool for customer retention. By offering customers incentives for sticking with your product or service, you can show them that you value their business and want them to stick around.

Some common incentives include loyalty programs, which offer points or other rewards for repeat customers, and discounts for customers who renew their subscriptions or contracts. Other incentives might include free shipping, early access to new products or features, or bonus content or features.

Create your own loyalty program where your frequent customers will be rewarded with discounts, special incentives, better deals, exclusive offers, etc. This is a perfect way to encourage them to spend more with you. Your brand will become part of their daily life.

Involve them

Put your customers in your shoes and give them a feeling that they are not just spending their money on your offers, but they’re also creating them. 

    • Ask them for ideas and suggestions
    • Involve them in the designing process
    • Give them first access to prototypes
    • Invite them to company events
    • Hang out with them on neutral grounds

Payment methods

Whether you have a digital-only product or a brick-and-mortar store, one thing is for sure – you have to make payments as easy and quick as possible. The easier it is for a person to pay, the more likely they will. Therefore you need to remove unnecessary steps, forget about only cash, implement contactless card payment, and even consider Bitcoin payment gateways.

Build customer trust

Building customer trust and long-term relationships are proven to be one of the most effective customer retention strategies. Businesses should always aim to provide value to their customers and show that they are reliable. For one, businesses can educate their customers about their products/services prior to purchase and after. They should ensure that they are always there to help customers should they need help. 

Furthermore, it’s important to provide excellent customer service to help them solve issues. Be sure to ask for customer feedback to know what area of your business can you improve on. When customers see that they can rely on your business, they trust you and become loyal to you.

Thank your customers

Even though it may sound like a simple customer retention strategy, it works wonders. Even if it’s just a simple thank you email or sending gifts, it shows your customers that you value them and appreciate them for sticking around. 

If a customer doesn’t feel appreciated, they are more likely to jump ship when a better opportunity from your competitor comes along.

Leverage social proof

User-generated content is still one of the best marketing strategies for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones. Since reviews influence people’s buying decisions, it can greatly help if you encourage your customers to post their experience in using your products/services. 

People trust brands that are recommended by their peers or if the brand has many positive reviews on their page. By showing proof that many customers had positive experiences doing business with you, you can convince existing customers to stick around.

Be active in your community

Customers are getting increasingly concerned about social issues, and you should be too. Hence, customers want to know if your business gives to charity if employees participate in community service initiatives, and with whom you communicate and cooperate. 

Find a way to support a cause that fits well into your brand. For example, you can donate a percentage of your proceeds to a charity organization, plant trees for every purchase, or finance scientific programs. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it’s done with good intentions and pure heart. Your customers will see and recognize this effort, and reward you with their loyalty.

Furthermore, suppose you’re a tech business, for example. In that case, you might volunteer to go into a local school and guide the future generation of technologists. You may also write blogs about how to get into the sector or record a short podcast about it. The trick is to be innovative when it comes to your brand.

Conclusion

Retaining existing customers is probably even more important than attracting new ones. In fact, statistics show that satisfied, loyal customers share their positive experiences with a brand with 11 other people. This means, that by retaining customers you’ll be also bringing new ones, hence don’t wait any longer and implement the most suitable customer retention strategies in your business.

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