4 Reasons Why Brands Lose Customers or Clients
Your customer base is your business’s most valuable asset, and maintaining it ‒ let alone growing it ‒ requires a lot of work. A loyal customer base distinguishes successful businesses from mediocre ones, and mediocre ones from failures.
Keeping your customer base happy ‒ via quality products and services, for example ‒ can go a long way to ensuring repeat business, increased sales and improved cash flow. Neglecting your customers, on the other hand, can lead to a damaged brand reputation, missed opportunities, decreased customer lifetime value, the loss of talented employees, and can ultimately harm profits.
Small businesses, in particular, can only outperform the competition, remain relevant and turn a profit when they prioritise keeping their customers happy. In this blog, our Sydney-based graphic design and branded communication company takes a look at four of the most common reasons brands lose customers and highlights how to avoid them.
1) Choosing An “Out With The Old, In With The New” Approach
Providing unequal treatment to new and existing customers can have negative consequences. Many businesses do this by offering incredible incentives, such as discounts, to the fish they’re trying to catch while ignoring the fish they already have on the line. It is important to keep in mind that acquiring new customers is typically more expensive than retaining existing ones, especially for small businesses.
Customers are not just looking for the cheapest price but for the most value in their purchases from the brands they buy from. If they get the sense that you prioritise onboarding new clients over serving existing clients, you may have massive customer churn on your hands resulting in Brand Switching. Build valuing your clients into your company culture if you want your business to last and your brand to remain intact.
2) Slashing Quality Along With Prices
Prioritising low prices over the quality of your offer won’t end well. While lowering prices may attract customers, there will always be competitors looking to undercut your lowered prices. This can result in a price war and is not a sustainable business strategy or brand.
Instead, businesses should strive to provide the best overall value to their clients and customers. Your customers derive value from your level of service, your unique processes, the value your brand displays, the accessibility of your offer, and even your opening hours, not just the price tag.
Developing a negative reputation among your customer base will harm you in the long run. Remember that customers are willing to pay more for your brand if they can be assured they’ll get more.
3) Turning Loyal Fans Into Indifferent Has-Beens
When your brand fails to call out ‒ and reward ‒ loyalty in your customers, you can rest assured that your business is circling the drain. Especially when you are a small business, making your customers feel appreciated and as if they are a part of something bigger ‒ a community, a family ‒ can differentiate your brand in a big way!
If your business ignores the human need your clients have to feel cared for and needed, your customers will move on to another brand. Even little things like sharing social media raves on your own channels or asking a loyal customer for a testimonial can go a long way for your brand’s credibility. Consider implementing truly rewarding loyalty programmes, too, that reward a certain amount spent, birthdays, and more.
4) Ignoring The Signs
Unhappy customers don’t just happen suddenly. Customers will drop many hints that they’re unhappy before they leave your brand for another one ‒ be it via comments made on social media posts or a concern that is raised with your customer care team.
Modern businesses have an abundance of information available to them and feedback from customers is readily accessible. Neglecting to address complaints and rectifying problems with dissatisfied customers will not only result in losing clients’ business, but it is also likely to discourage potential customers from engaging with your brand. This means that over time, you won’t have access to any information and won’t know what needs fixing with your brand.
If your business has been losing sales recently or if it has been struggling to increase sales, let’s work together to create a more memorable customer experience. Take the first step and rebrand or reposition your business for the better.
From social media marketing to graphic design and more, contact our Sydney-based team today so that we can transform your brand.