But attracting new customers is just one of the ways for you to grow your business. Another way, is to use the asset you already have – your existing customers.
Consider this – increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%*. By offering your clients outstanding customer experiences, one - you’ll build customer loyalty which will impact your customer retention, and two – you’ll create powerful word-of-mouth advertising which will drive referrals to your business.
So how do modern travel agents create happy, loyal customers?
Here are the top 6 ways from Bedsonline:
Your CRM tool’s a great place to start. As a central repository of data, your CRM gives you insights on all your clients.
In short, by analysing your clients’ past data and purchase history, you can leverage those insights to improve the customer experience of your current and future clients. Here are a few ways:
You’ll be able to identify market trends, for example, you can include new destinations in your portfolio that clients have been asking for, so you don’t send them away and lose business.
You’ll also uncover a wealth of product insights such as:
- Products that sell better during upselling and cross-selling
- Products that are part of customer testimonials
- High-priced but popular products
- And those that need to be fixed before they become disruptive
In other words, you’ll be able to identify those products that offer the highest value to your existing customers.
Using your CRM software, you can identify: your most valuable customers, the ones who book frequently or who have stopped booking, those who have shared leads and testimonials, those you have cross-sold to and are likely to upgrade in the future, and so on.
Many companies discover 20% of their clients give them 80% of their business. Is this true for you? If yes, identify your VIP clients and make sure you give them special attention and even more personalized service.
ALL your clients need personalized communication to keep them engaged. Using your clients’ purchase history from your CRM, you can predict the most relevant products and create personalized email campaigns that would be interesting to them. Similarly, using data, you can get customers who have stopped buying, to return to book with you.
Make sure ALL your communication both online and offline is personalized. If you have a social media presence on Facebook for instance, don’t just broadcast your posts – engage with your audience. When your regular clients post comments, get involved in their conversations. People love to be acknowledged online and little gestures create affinity towards your brand. To find out more tips to engage with your clients via social media watch our video
Yes, things can go awry while your clients are on vacation - but after fixing the issue, offer something for free. No, not a discount for a future purchase – but a free product or service to let your customers know that you care enough to give them the best possible experience. Chances are, your customer service will give you the best gift of all – word-of-mouth publicity and referrals.
Today’s customers are value-creating partners who are adding to your business by giving you referrals. Referrals are a travel expert’s best performance indicator and all clients who recommend your services must be rewarded. Giving your VIP and regular clients discounts for repeat bookings, or restaurant vouchers and thoughtful personalized gifts, will go a long way in making them feel special.
In conclusion, customer engagement done well, is a win-win for both you and your customer. Great customer experiences will help you get more out of every booking and will create better customers for your business who’ll return to you with more clients along the way.
*Research done by Bain & Company
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