Building a Customer Retention Program Through Direct Mail

04/11/22

According to Forbes.com, research shows it’s 5x cheaper to keep existing customers than attract new ones. Additionally, a returning customer is not only more likely to spend more money with you but a 5% increase in retention can result in 25 – 95% increases in profits.

A customer retention program can be a very beneficial part of your marketing plan. Direct mail can be an excellent tool in building and maintaining a customer retention program for your business, whether you specialize in B2B or B2C services.

Trust is defined as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.”

While any initial purchase or use of your services will start a foundation for trust, it’s not the final step.

When working to build trust with your customers it is crucial to remember that just because they bought from you, it doesn’t automatically mean they trust you. Developing trust takes time and effort.

Reliance is a key factor in building trust. Consistently following through with quality products and customer service is a key building block of establishing trust.

A communication calendar is essentially a system that lets you track not only how often you communicate with your customer, but how frequently how often they communicate with you. Potential uses for a communications calendar include:

• Tracking the last customer communication you received.
• Schedule promotional mailing campaigns for new products and services.
• Send out reminder mailers for recurring services like dental appointments and oil changes.
• Recognize a customer’s special day with a Birthday mailer providing a special gift in products or services to help them celebrate.

Direct mail is an excellent way to reach out, and creating a communication calendar allows you to plan exactly when and how often different types of messaging can be sent. Additional ways a calendar can be useful are:

If customers haven’t visited you for a while, sending out a direct mail postcard with info about a new product is a great reason to give them a nudge.

Pairing that with a Gift Card to go towards a purchase or use of a new service will provide even more incentive for them to re-establish a connection to your business.

Let a customer know their consistent patronage is appreciated by sending out a select promotion rewarding them for their support.

If your business utilizes agreements that need to be updated annually, you could benefit from sending out reminders that the customer’s current contract is about to expire.

Own a medical or dental practice?  Appointment reminders are especially helpful these days as people are often going in several directions at once.

Customers want to be viewed as people, not statistics. Include personalization methods in your Customer Retention Program to help them understand you do view them as a person. When a customer receives a mailer that is not only addressed to them but uses their name in the main area of the piece, you establish an immediate connection.

Providing a personalized version of any type of direct mail campaign can make a significant impact on the customers you want to retain.

We’re all human, which means none of us is perfect.

Mistakes are going to happen despite the best of efforts.  How you deal with that mistake is what matters when working to build a customer retention program.

Apologizing and then offering ways to resolve the issue will make the customer feel heard and make your business look like it truly cares about the customer experience.

Once a mistake has been recognized and resolved, follow up with a special direct mail message.  This lets the customer know you want to continue to show them they are important to you.  It will also help continue to smooth things over and rebuild any trust relationships that may have been affected.

As mentioned earlier, a good customer retention program is a beneficial part of your marketing plan. Direct mail can be an exceptional tool in building and preserving your customer retention program for your business.