Master Customer Retention with Automation & Personalisation in Email

Does your business use customer lifecycle management (CLM) to up-sell, cross-sell, and provide customer support? If so, then you’ll understand how customer retention is crucial to effective CLM – in addition to keeping your business profitable. 

 

But holding on to customers and keeping them satisfied has never been more difficult. On the one hand, customer expectations have become more complex, and on the other, businesses must compete for a worthwhile place in the global market. 

 

In this article we’ll focus on how email can be used to support customer retention because it’s still a major communication channel and a trusted tool of many relationship managers.  

 

So, let’s jump in. 

 

How to Keep Existing Customers Satisfied

 

A major part of keeping customers happy is giving them seamless, relevant, and perfectly timed customer support. 

 

But having dedicated in-house support teams is expensive, and given the growing need for “human” connections in this field, you’ll likely need a real person on the other side of your support emails. 

 

So how do you scale this authentic connection in email without overwhelming your team?  

 

Whether you have a large customer support department or not – engaging effectively in email can still be a challenge. But with the right focus, you can master this channel to support customer retention. 

 

First, let’s look at what you can do to make your customer journeys smoother. 

 

Create Seamless Customer Journeys with Automation

 

Automation has become somewhat of a buzzword, and it brings up mental images of car assembly robots and AI. But in this case, we’re referring to automated journeys that take your customers from point A to B, to C, and beyond. 

 

In fact, automation can help you maintain a customer retention rate of up to 90% if used correctly. 

 

To hold on to customers, you’ll have to make the ride as smooth as possible. The good news is there are several ways you can use automation to support customers on their journey. 

 

Let’s explore a few of them. 

 

Plot Your CLM Journey

 

Many aspects of your CLM process can be mapped onto automatic email workflows. For example, you can send specific types of emails automatically when customers reach points in the journey, keeping them engaged. 

 

Use Dynamic Data to Update Journeys

 

Update journeys as you interact with customers. When you use data in this way, you can first plot your journeys and revise them on the go. This approach makes your customers feel heard and saves your support team a lot of heavy lifting. 

 

Customer Service Management

 

If you’re already automating journeys, you might as well automate customer satisfaction surveys to meet customers when they’re at their happiest, or when they’re about to drop off your client list. This can help you better manage strained relationships and can help you up-sell or cross-sell more effectively. 

 

Once you’re automating, you’re finally at the halfway mark. There’s another dimension you’ll need to add to make customer journeys worthwhile and engaging though. 

 

Making Customers Feel Heard with Personalisation

 

According to Accenture, 33% of consumers who abandon business relationships did so because of poor personalisation. If this stat is anything to go by, you might be able to reduce customer churn by a third when personalising emails properly. 

 

So, what practical steps can you take to make personalisation work for you? 

 

Segmentation

 

With segmentation you can avoid spamming your customers by keeping your emails relevant to their needs. To do this, you can create filters that send specific, targeted emails to customers depending on their profile data and interests. 

 

Basic Personalisation 

 

Simulate personal engagement and strengthen relationships with personalisation fields in email. For example, you can use basic personalisation to address customers by name, display unique account numbers, or even show customer loyalty levels. 

 

Hyper-Personalisation

 

This is a major step up from simple personalisation. Here you can use customer behaviour tracking – or how customers engage with your emails – to optimise content to their needs. In combination with dynamic content (see below), you can stay agile when engaging with customers. This makes your emails feel more authentic, relevant, and useful. 

 

Dynamic Content

 

Create email templates with both static and dynamic sections that give you the ability to customise content based on the data you have for each customer. This means each step offers unique content that marks milestones and gives guidance. Dynamic content is great at creating customer loyalty because you’re meeting them where they are and giving them value.  

 

You can expect better engagement and more conversions when using dynamic content.  

 

Recommendations

 

You can also recommend content using rule-based templates that put relevant content into the layout of your emails. Presenting useful content like this will make your customers feel valued because you’re keeping their interests at heart. 

 

What You’ll Need to Get Started

 

To truly master customer retention with optimised email support, you’ll first need data. 

 

If you’re using a CRM to support your daily operations, then this is the perfect place to look for the type of data that makes automation and personalisation possible. 

 

These systems detailed data pictures of your customers’ profiles, needs, and pain points. When you combine this data with an advanced marketing automation platform, you could build a single, simple, and powerful overview of each customer. 

 

If you’d like to learn more about managing your customer lifecycle using marketing automation and machine learning, then register for Everlytic’s CEM Africa workshop on 23 August 2022 (Workshop 3E). 

 

In the meantime, please visit our website if you’d like more info on our company and services.