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• March 5, 2025
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The Future of Personalization Is Here: Trends to Look Out for in 2025

14 Customer Retention Strategies That Help Increase ROI 2024

Kate Collinson, an ecommerce consultant and growth marketer specializing in Shopify and Shopify Plus, warns against just focusing on one area of a store when implementing personalized experiences. Most brands already understand the benefit of segmentation-based customizations, Pilon says. However, until recently, only larger brands had the resources required to turn such knowledge into actionable insights. Fortunately there are now powerful, affordable, low-effort personalization solutions for brands of all sizes—and using a one-size-fits-all model is leaving money on the table. Personalization in ecommerce means tailoring experiences or marketing communications to specific customer segments based on the information a business has on its audience.

• Still, no matter what the circumstances, customer service should always be a priority, because it can increase customer loyalty.
• Customer service software provider Zendesk has trained its AI chatbot, Zendesk AI, on billions of customer service conversations.
• Share, from your point of view, why you started your company, why you created your products, and what makes them great.

Long-term relationships are built through compassionate care and consistent, quality service. Interestingly, RPA has been around for several years – but69% of companies have started their RPA journey only in the last two years. Among the top five reasons for implementing RPA is to improve customer experiences (CX). 46% of companies expected major CX improvements from their RPA implementation, while 42% have achieved this goal.

How can we improve customer service?

These pain points often occur at key moments of customer engagement, like website visits, ad interactions, customer support conversations, or product usage. Pepper helps women find the right bra size by having them take a 45-second fit quiz, which results in a personalized recommendation based on their answers. This process not only simplifies the shopping experience, improving customer acquisition, but also ensures that customers receive products tailored to their specific needs and preferences. By providing a perfect fit, Pepper encourages repeat purchases and fosters long-term customer loyalty.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that allows you to measure customer loyalty. To calculate it, ask customers how likely they are to recommend your company to a friend. Subtract the number of negative promoters from the positive promoters to find your NPS. The goal is to have this metric as high as possible, which shows most people who interact with support leave the conversation feeling satisfied. Ensure everyone interacting with your brand gets the same experience with templates. It ensures customers get the same message regardless of which team member they interact with, while also saving your agents time and allowing them to blaze through more tickets.

Two-thirds of customers will share personal information with brands, but only in exchange for some kind of value. 39% of CEOs say customer experience is the most effective method of creating a competitive advantage, which was the most common answer. Companies with a customer experience mindset drive revenue 4-8% higher than the rest of their industries. For example, when one customer placed an order for swim fins from eBodyboarding.com, the founder quickly reached out to let them know about complementary products the brand carries.

Balancing personalization with ethical considerations like customer privacy is crucial to ensure you use customer data responsibly. Businesses should obtain clear consent and provide options for customers to control their information and opt out of tracking if they desire. Take the total number of customers who made repeat purchases in a certain period and subtract it from the total number of new customers you acquired during that same period.

Prudential HK names new chief customer and marketing officer

Since the rules they follow and the prompts they answer are set in stone, they’re less able to converse organically. In 2022, entrepreneurs Gyve Safavi and Mark Rushmore launched their electric toothbrush company SURI after gathering significant amounts of customer feedback. They discussed their customer-centric strategies on the Shopify Masters podcast.

If you automate a significant portion of your customer service workflow all at once, you risk confusing your customers or your customer service team. For example, you could use a workflow automation tool to automatically create customer support tickets after receiving a communication from a customer through channels like phone, email, social media, or chatbot. Making personalized content and delivering seamless customer journeys typically requires investment in advanced technologies like AI, data analytics, and customer experience (UX) design.

Financial products like mortgages, savings accounts, and insurance policies often come with long-term commitments, plus, the hassle and costs of switching providers can be a big deterrent. Make your store stand out by creating a fun shopping experience for your customers. Place your products strategically around your store, employ scent marketing tactics, make sure you provide outstanding customer service, and create beautiful displays that draw customers in. Shopify and Google understand the ever-increasing demands customers place on merchants. Customers want seamless checkout experiences, social media-integrated tap-to-buy options, and the most updated features available, wherever they go.

A strong customer service system enables you or a customer success representative to address customer needs clearly and efficiently. We deliver the latest marketing news, trends, and best practices that serve everyone in the industry whether you’re from small or big enterprises. Try Shopify for free, and explore all the tools you need to start, run, and grow your business. Offbeat Bikes is a retailer that has seen a lot of success since implementing BOPIS options with Shopify POS. It has since increased year-over-year bike accessory sales by 400% and kids’ bike sales by 100%. You could set up a tiered release, starting with your VIPs getting first dibs at 9 a.m., followed by regular customers at noon, and finally opening it to everyone at 3 p.m.

That said, the quality of AI-powered solutions varies by provider, so it’s important to do research. Predictive AI models can analyze customer data to identify patterns and anticipate customer behavior, allowing businesses to improve the customer service experience proactively. Customer data is also valuable for delighting your customers with more personalized service and exceptional customer experiences.

The platform has enabled me to scale, and I have been able to hit astounding revenue numbers. The dynamic political landscape and economic pressures are fostering fierce competition, which in turn drives innovation. This challenging environment compels companies to innovate and refine their supply chain operations, promising improvements and efficiency gains in the coming years. Companies can mitigate uncontrollable challenges by preparing for the unexpected.

Users can see an entire transaction history while using emojis or text to chat. The Hong Kong ‘licensed digital bank’, as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority now characterizes the eight virtual banks in the territory, and its peers are suffering from a problem of building a healthy deposit base. Underpinned by joint oversight and accountability, Ng said the approach has transformed the way in which the bank operates through a healthy combination of ’bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ initiatives. According to Ng, customer science connects customer behaviour with application and system data to understand the impact of behaviour on systems and vice versa.

Customer-centric employees and attentive service also attract repeat customers. Whether it’s a fancy online shoe boutique or a chaotic grocery store, customers notice kind, polite, individualized customer assistance. According to a Gartner report, when customers feel they’ve received value from a customer service interaction, there is an 82% probability of repurchasing or renewal, and a 97% probability of positive word of mouth. The vast array of choices available to consumers means that maintaining loyalty is more challenging. Establishments succeed by offering exceptional service and unique experiences to stand out in a competitive market. With a customer retention rate of 77%, health care providers excel by delivering personalized care and building trust with patients.

Speaking at the launch of the new service in Lagos, Agbodje said they would continue to do things differently, question the norms, come up with innovations tailored to make life easier for Nigerians through technology. It may not be as fleshed out as a big bank’s, but it doesn’t need to charge front-end loads or other forms of commission, because it doesn’t have relationship managers. For example, ZA Bank currently charges no fee for subscribing to a money-market fund, and only 0.5 percent for access to other actively managed funds. But trust depends on reliability, availability and resilience.” For example, in 2023 ZA Bank added a second cloud provider, and it runs duplicate environments for everything. Ng’s not concerned about incumbent banks quickly mimicking ZA’s advances, because to do so would require the kind of weekly or monthly updates that characterizes the business’s culture. “It’s true that virtual banks need growth,” said Calvin Ng, co-CEO at ZA Bank, although he says ZA Bank’s own deposit base continues to outpace that of other virtual banks.

Whether you’re helping website visitors find the right gift or assisting an existing customer with purchasing products that match their last order, the job is made easier when you have inventory data on hand. The more often your customers have a positive experience, the more likely they are to spread the word about it and refer new customers to your online business—creating added value for you along the way. Discover powerful insights about your customers by creating unique segments, then reach out with personalized campaigns to drive sales. It elevates the customer’s experience by anticipating needs, simplifying choices, and fostering a sense that your brand truly understands and values them.

Getting them to come back rests on your ability to show them why an additional purchase is worth their time and money. Calculating your store’s purchase frequency is similar to calculating repeat purchase rate. Using the same time frame you chose for your repeat purchase rate (e.g., a single month), divide your store’s total number of orders by the number of unique customers. Highlight the availability of BNPL on your product pages and during the checkout process.

You’ll want to make sure whatever promotions you’re running consider the “landed cost” of products (i.e. COGS, shipping/handling, return rates, etc.). Find what level of personalization your audience is comfortable with, then build a strategy to interact with them at all stages of the customer journey. Successfully implementing personalization hinges on prioritizing your customer base.

Another KPI is analyzing simple customer satisfaction scores that potentially improve over time. A painful (yet informative) KPI is a business’s customer churn rate, which is the rate current customers stop purchasing goods or services. With a solid customer retention rate of 83%, businesses in this sector excel by delivering reliable services and building trust over time. Whether it’s ensuring timely repairs or providing seamless transport solutions, keeping customers on the move is key. Personalizing shopping experiences can win customer loyalty and encourage shoppers to come back to your brand.

Improve customer support FAQ

When a customer shops and they feel the products or a particular service will help them reach their goals and achieve success, they come back. If someone is actively making DIY home improvements, for example, they will be more receptive to a housewares store that offers expert support and storage solutions. Effective customer service training involves making all of your employees experts in your business. A satisfied customer will return to an establishment to make more purchases, raising the customer retention rate.

Cowboy’s bot also offers the option to connect to a live agent after each question, making it easy for customers to speak with a human representative if they need to. Botsify is a no-code bot-builder that supports conversational commerce in 95 languages across websites, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Telegram. You can sync Botsify with Shopify stores so customers can browse your product catalog and even check out within the messaging app. The three positive emotions that do have the most influence on US customers’ loyalty as a whole are feeling valued, feeling appreciated, and feeling respected.

From snacks and arcade games to massage chairs and rock climbing walls, merchants are going the extra mile to create “stay awhile” experiences for in-store shoppers. Both new and existing customers want undivided attention and personalized advice when shopping. Adding gift customization services in-store can be a draw for customers who want to buy something special for their loved ones.

It often requires multiple touchpoints along multiple channels or platforms before they eventually pull the trigger. Instead, a far better approach is to identify your most valuable customers (i.e., personas) and map their journeys one stage at a time. After completing the return process, John receives an email containing a CES survey from the company. It asks him to rate the ease of the return process on a scale of 1 (very easy) to 7 (very difficult). To measure either of these metrics, you’ll need a software provider that helps you track your support ticket completion rates, such as HelpScout.

Companies can show that they value, appreciate, and respect customers by treating their customers as humans who have lives outside of their purchases. This can manifest in myriad ways, including respecting customers’ time by not making them jump through endless, repetitive hoops; closing the loop and taking appropriate action on feedback received; and rewarding loyalty. Taking an experience-based approach is the way forward from the pandemic — regardless of whether a business is recovering or thriving right now. As an emerging technology, AI customer service solutions still have several limitations and potential risks. There may be factual inaccuracies in the information generative AI produces, and biases in the data or algorithms used to train an AI system can surface when using these tools. A variety of AI tools are available, so it’s important to choose one that’s right for your business.

Banks report improved customer experience in 2024 – KPMG – Businessday

Banks report improved customer experience in 2024 – KPMG.

Posted: Thu, 09 Jan 2025 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Boasting a customer retention rate of 83%, insurance companies succeed by fostering trust that they’ll provide support in the face of disasters and emergencies. Clients depend on their insurers to protect what matters most, and maintaining this trust is crucial for long-term loyalty. Understanding the average customer retention rate by industry helps businesses gauge performance.

The quality of products or services is a fundamental factor in customer retention. When customers perceive that they are getting high-quality products or services, they are more likely to return. Quality not only meets but exceeds customer expectations, ensuring satisfaction and loyalty. Investing in both your product and the marketing/publicity for your product is the only way to find success with this strategy. Beyond product development, make sure you have a strong influencer marketing program. The financial services industry—which includes banks, insurance companies, investment firms, and credit unions—boasts an impressive average customer retention rate of 78%.

From hiring interior designers to introducing engaging visual merchandising, there are many ways to elevate the in-store experience. The Mission currently offers Public Diplomacy grants, PEPFAR grants, and Ambassador Self Help fund grants. USAID Nigeria vacancies are listed below on this page with instructions on the application process.

As these technologies continue to develop and improve, customer service is poised to become even more efficient, personalized, and proactive. Boston Consulting Group estimates that, when implemented at scale, AI technologies could increase the productivity of customer service teams by 30% to 50% or more. Identify the pain points in your customer service process that automation tools can improve. For example, maybe you’ve noticed your customer support team spends a lot of time responding to phone calls with basic inquiries about shipping costs or product availability.

Here are the most important customer retention metrics and examine why they matter. This approach leverages the service recovery paradox, which suggests that effectively resolving a mistake can build more goodwill with customers than if the issue had never occurred in the first place. A great returns experience encourages customers to return and buy again, while a poor one can drive them away. Encourage customers to invest in the program by giving them welcome points when they create an account. When they see how easy it is to earn rewards, they’ll be excited to come back to your store to do it again.

Customer experience champions often face an uphill battle trying to start new initiatives or change their company’s mindset. It often isn’t as easy to see the value of customer experience as it is to see the ROI of other investments. Executives often won’t invest in customer experience without “proof,” even if the writing is on the wall. To stand out in a sea of sameness, customer experience is the only way to to do that. These 50 statistics prove the value of customer experience and show why all companies need to get on board. Personalization platforms like Nosto also integrate beautifully with Shopify, allowing you to provide personalized shopping experiences based on previous touchpoints at scale—no manual data entry required.

Sometimes personalization is best left to post-purchase, or at least once you have a relationship with customers. Any personalization methods you choose to implement should be opt-in only, to allow customers the chance to say no. Whether you’re using facial recognition applications, brand loyalty programs, or AI-driven product recommendations, you need to get customer consent first. Using an AI-powered platform built on internal customer relationship management (CRM) software, Ruti offers personalized recommendations based on each shopper’s style preferences and size.

The simple decision to open the back door to customers made her retail location more accessible for parents. To Katherine, this element of personalization is an essential way to connect with consumers. So, instead of eliminating thank you cards as the company grew, she identified cost-saving areas like Francis Henri’s shipping boxes and wrapping tissue—details that felt less specific to the company’s brand identity. Communication is the foundation of every successful relationship, and keeping customers up to date on developments can build trust. Depending on the nature of your business, this could involve reaching out to clients when you introduce new features or providing regular email updates to let customers know their orders are on the way.

Hiya Health uses its story page to build awareness, leveraging it as an external force to push consumers from one stage to the next. Studies show that despite only accounting for 21% of a brand’s audience, loyal customers contribute 44% of a merchant’s total revenue. Would you like to chat to your customers from Instagram, Facebook, and more with one handy chatbot, in real time? Shopify Inbox is a free messaging app that lets you turn chats into checkouts. That’s why customer experience improvement has seen a 19 percentage point increase in priority from 2019 to 2022, according to research from McKinsey & Company. The staff at Apple retail stores are all screened and trained with a great deal of scrutiny before they make it out onto the sales floor to interact with customers.

All of these mistakes feed into whether the personalized shopping experiences you create for your client’s customers will be successful. Some mistakes can be easily avoided while others can take some time to undo if they’re already embedded practices in your client’s online store. There are some simple ways to integrate personalized shopping into the customer experience. That content can come in a variety of forms, including customized store experiences and personalized ads, both of which enhance customer satisfaction and drive sales in highly competitive markets. You can deploy AI chatbots and other AI-powered customer service systems across various communication channels, including chat boxes on your website, email, and social media.

If you have unhappy customers, go above and beyond to resolve customer complaints. If it’s a complaint about damaged products mid-transit, for example, send a free replacement and a handwritten apology note. “We have a parking lot, we have a back entrance, which pretty much has now become a front entrance, because everyone parks in the lot and brings their stroller in that door,” she says.