How Technology Improves Customer Retention

Featured article by Sarah Sidney, Independent Technology Author

Industries such as ecommerce, healthcare, learning, and more are dramatically changing the way they operate due to the rise in technology usage. Using technology can help retain customers, increase your customers’ lifetime value, and improve customer experiences. So, which technologies are available to achieve your business objectives and help to retain customers? Read on to find out.

Technology is vital for improving customer retention

Repeat customers can be much more profitable than obtaining new ones, so if revenue is at the top of your agenda, then customer retention software is a key area to focus your efforts on. Businesses are utilizing technologies such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, and more to improve customer retention.

Companies are using this tech to:

– Automate manual and mundane activities
– Streamline their marketing strategy
– Improve customer service techniques
– Modernize practices for their workforce, implementing tools and measures to increase efficiency
– Improve the entire business as a whole

Identifying and preventing fraud

Customer retention improvements require collecting and analyzing big data within any given business. Customer data can be precious, so you should be keeping a record for each of your customers. Having all of this personal (and sometimes sensitive) information requires advanced security to be in place. You should be upfront about what you are recording about your customers, how it’s stored, and what you use it for.

An expert should revisit your privacy policy often to ensure it keeps to what you are communicating to your customers. Data leaks and loss can be prevented with various tools and software to ensure you have a robust fraud prevention system in place for your own safety and the security of your customers.

Create an innovative in-store experience with AI

Online sales are thriving more than ever as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, and although many physical stores remain closed, AI has allowed businesses to create an experience much like customers would get if they visited the store in person. AI can change the entire customer experience for online shoppers, and as a result, customers may be willing to stick with an ecommerce business being innovative over one that gets left behind.

Transforming manual back-office processes with automation

The tools and software we have mentioned above are more than satisfactory for back-office process automation. These tools are not to replace a human workforce but to aid employees and make their daily tasks more efficient.

Let’s take chatbots as an example. They can give a customer response any time of the day, which is ideal for the times when all employees have signed off for the day as it means customers are not waiting overnight for a response.

In summary

It is no easy task to retain customers as you need to continually implement new ways of improving customer satisfaction, analyzing customers’ trends and needs, and keeping them engaged rather than going elsewhere. You may have a hard time keeping every single one of your customers, but by implementing some of these technologies, you can positively impact customer retention numbers.