Latest news with #customerretention
Entrepreneur
4 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Why Top Brands Use Push Notifications to Boost Engagement
Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you'll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. Businesses that use mobile push notifications see up to an 88% boost in app engagement, while 65% of users come back within 30 days when push is enabled, according to data from conversion rate optimization firm Invesp. That kind of retention is every entrepreneur's dream—and Feedify makes it easy to tap into. Feedify puts a full suite of engagement tools into one sleek, cloud-based platform. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime subscription to a Feedify Push Notification Tool Rising Star plan on sale for $59.99 (reg. $450), featuring a robust toolkit covering two domains, mobile optimization, campaign auto‑responders, analytics, and more. Want to send personalized web and mobile push messages based on visitor behavior? Check. Need exit‑intent popups or targeted newsletter campaigns? Also check. From welcome notes to abandoned-cart nudges and post‑purchase surveys, you can do it all with unlimited subscribers, unlimited notifications, and real‑time analytics. Just imagine firing off a tailored push message seconds after someone leaves your page—or asking for feedback right after a sale—and seeing the spark of customer connection that follows. Trusted by over 10,000 businesses, Feedify makes targeting easy: segment users by behavior, launch surveys, collect after‑sale insights, monetize as a publisher—you name it. And every campaign comes with instant real‑time feedback so you can pivot faster than your competition. This lifetime offer is built for ambitious professionals and small‑business owners aiming to streamline marketing without juggling multiple tools. Grab lifetime access to Feedify's Rising Star plan for 86% off at $59.99 for a limited time. Feedify Push Notification Tool: Lifetime Subscription See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.
Forbes
14-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI Or The Human Touch? Striking A Balance In Customer Retention
AI and human contact: a winning combination AI is transforming customer retention strategies, but does it hold the key to true customer loyalty that is built on an emotional connection with the brand and those behind it? Some argue that the further businesses go into AI and automation, the more their customers crave personal connection and authentic, trusted relationships. Yet, a recent study uncovered some unexpected findings: while consumers inherently trust AI agents less than humans, they actually share more personal information with them, a behavioral shift that has significant implications for companies implementing AI customer service and looking to achieve strong customer retention. And while traditional methods like loyalty programs and customer service still hold value, AI does provide advanced capabilities for predicting customer behavior, personalizing interactions, and proactively addressing potential issues, leading to higher customer satisfaction and reduced churn. Thoughtful integration As founder of a niche e-commerce store, Garden Furniture, Andrew Griffith has found that customer retention in 2025 isn't just about flashy AI, but about the thoughtful integration of tech with old-school customer care. He says: 'Smart segmenting with a light AI tool has allowed us to get those highly personalized emails without straining our team or budget. We follow customers' purchase cycles, for example, seasonal buying habits for outdoor furniture, and send personalized reminders or tips. However, underpinning this strategy is a policy of local-first loyalty. Garden Furniture offers a referral bonus that can be claimed online or in-store, which keeps its North Yorkshire customers firmly engaged. Another key element is the use of UG content. 'We encourage customers to submit images of their garden spaces styled and will showcase that in our monthly newsletter,' says Griffith. 'It is community building, and it encourages return visits.' Building trust Rich Kingly, CEO and owner of New Jersey-based Driveway King, is another proponent of the fundamental principle that AI scales efficiency, while traditional personal touches build trust. He says: 'Take personalized follow-ups for example, I send handwritten thank-you notes post-project, making clients feel valued. This builds loyalty, with 60% of my clients returning for additional work. Other traditional approaches include a focus on community, specifically hosting local workshops on outdoor design, which last year, led to 15 referrals from attendees. Meanwhile, loyalty rewards, offering discounts for repeat clients, has boosted retention by 20%. But Kingly admits that they also rely on AI-driven insights. 'Using CRM tools like HubSpot, I analyze client preferences to offer tailored maintenance plans, reducing churn by 10%. AI predicts when clients need services, ensuring timely outreach.' AI underpins customer retention Some entrepreneurs, however, argue that far from just adding a layer to customer retention, AI is its very foundation. 'The way startups and entrepreneurs are keeping customers today is very different from five years ago,' says Berkay Kinaci, COO at Speaktor. 'The baseline expectation has shifted. AI allows for real-time, personal, and scalable interactions that traditional methods just cannot match anymore.' Speaktor uses voice generation and transcription tools to automatically turn written content into spoken word has helped to build more inclusive, accessible communication. This has resulted in an increase in return visits and longer session times after implementing this. The user base became more diverse without needing to invest more in manual support. No more guesswork One effective approach is the use of predictive AI for engagement timing. Some platforms are using behavioral data to decide not just what message to send, but exactly when a user is most likely to respond. Another is in emotional sentiment modeling. A few of the newer platforms can track how customers feel during interactions, especially through text and audio inputs. The system adjusts tone, pace, and follow-up content based on emotional markers. 'The methods that work today are precise, context-aware, and powered entirely by AI,' says Kinaci. 'Traditional retention tricks now feel like guessing compared to what these systems can do.' One AI-driven strategy gaining ground is predictive churn modelling, as Lindsay Marty, founder and CEO of Above the Bar Marketing, explains. 'Using customer behavior data, businesses can identify signals that someone might drop off before they do,' she says. 'Then, the company can reach out with targeted offers, reminders, or even just a well-timed check-in message. It sounds basic, but the key is the timing. You are catching people while they are still deciding and before they disappear for good.' More meaningful customer retention Nevertheless, Marty believes that traditional methods are still effective, and in some ways, more meaningful. One strategy she has seen work well is founder-driven updates. 'Startups that send short, personal messages from the founder every few months build trust and loyalty,' she says. 'The updates can be simple but honest, sharing wins, challenges, or behind-the-scenes context. Customers feel like they are part of something, not just buying from a faceless product.' Finding the balance Ultimately it is all about finding the right balance by strategically leveraging AI for efficiency while retaining the impact that a more empathetic service that human interaction delivers. While AI can streamline and speed up routine tasks and analyze data to identify potential issues, the human touch remains crucial for more complex situations requiring emotional intelligence and personalized solutions. 'Some folks go all-in on AI, while others still stick to the basics,' says Siyar Isik, founder and CEO of Delaware-based Transkriptor. 'The real winners do both. One thing that works across the board is smart nudges based on what a user's doing, not spammy popups. We worked on a meeting assistant that would gently remind people at just the right time, based on their habits. Sounds simple, but it cut churn way down.' Data and empathy He highlights the importance of creating small moments of delight. 'One product rolled out custom confetti when someone hit a milestone,' he says. 'Their name popped up, the screen lit up, and suddenly users were sharing screenshots. It's goofy, but it sticks.' Allowing users to shape the roadmap is another winning strategy. 'People want to feel they're part of something, so, showing feature votes, collecting ideas, even just saying 'we heard you' makes a difference. When someone sees their idea become real, they stick around longer.' Ultimately, when it comes to customer retention, the startups that will succeed are the ones who use data and empathy together. Marty adds: 'You can learn more about your customers with tech, but relationship is what keeps them coming back.'
Forbes
29-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Revenue Growth Lies In Synergy Between Brand and Customer Experience
Great brands have always promised more than just a product or a price—they offer an experience. But too often, the brand experience that draws in new customers and the customer experience that follows are disconnected. That disconnect can cost companies growth, retention, and credibility. It's a complicated challenge for brands wanting to put their best foot forward but not wanting to overpromise and underdeliver. In a recent conversation, Dipanjan Chatterjee, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, laid out why bridging this gap matters more than ever—and how Forrester is helping companies do just that. Chatterjee explained that Forrester has long maintained two key tools: the Customer Experience Index and what used to be called the Brand Energy Index. The former focuses on how customers perceive their interactions with a brand—how effective, easy, and emotionally resonant those experiences are. The latter, now refined and renamed the Brand Experience Index, looks at how prospects and customers perceive a brand—through salience, fit, and trust. Forrester's new move is to merge these two into a single metric: the Total Experience Score. This unified view offers a complete picture of how a brand is perceived before and after someone becomes a customer. According to Chatterjee, this is the first time any firm has brought these metrics together into a single system, and it comes with a practical application: helping companies drive growth. Brand Experience And Customer Experience Will Drive Growth Chatterjee describes growth as happening along two axes—winning new customers and serving existing ones. The Total Experience framework maps brands across both dimensions using a simple grid. Companies that perform well on both axes are considered leading brands. Those that struggle on both are lagging. Some win new customers but fail to keep them—these are churning brands. Others serve existing customers well but struggle to attract new ones—they've plateaued. To make the concept more tangible, Chatterjee shared a few examples from the airline industry. Among the major U.S. carriers, Delta, American, and United have similar Total Experience scores overall. But Delta leads the group, while United ranks third. The nuance is in the details: Delta performs better in both customer experience and brand perception among existing customers. Interestingly, United performs better than Delta among non-customers, suggesting it's doing a good job with marketing—but not delivering on those promises once customers are MADERA, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 20: A Tesla Cybertruck is displayed at a Tesla dealership on ... More December 20, 2024 in Corte Madera, California. Electric car maker Tesla is recalling 700,000 vehicles over a tire pressure warning system that could fail to warn drivers of low tire pressure. 2024 Cybertrucks, 2017-2025 Model 3 and 2020-2025 Model Y are being recalled. (Photo by)Tesla Brand Reputation Drops Another example is Tesla. Current Tesla customers report high satisfaction with the product and service, but non-customers have the lowest perception of the brand of any major company Forrester studied. Tesla is no longer just a car company—it's a cultural flashpoint, and that's affecting its brand experience score. Chatterjee notes that this is a brand with strong retention but declining acquisition potential due to eroding external perception. The takeaway for business leaders is clear. First, connect your brand and customer experiences. If these teams are working in silos, you risk losing prospects before they ever convert. Second, use a unified metric like the Total Experience Score to understand and manage the complete journey. Third, benchmark your brand against others in your category to understand whether you're leading, churning, plateaued, or lagging. That's the only way to identify the right strategy for growth—whether it's investing in brand awareness, improving service delivery, or both. Revenue doesn't come from brand or customer experience alone. It comes from the synergy between the two. And in a competitive, fast-moving marketplace, brands that close the gap will be the ones that Experience Quadrant Analysis Action Why It Matters 1. Diagnose the Gap. Map your BX promise against CX reality by segment. You can't fix what you can't see. 2. Adopt a Unifying Metric. Use a Total Experience score. Shared KPIs align marketing and CX toward growth. 3. Plot Yourself on a Growth Grid. Are you Leading, Plateaued, Churning, or Lagging? Strategy depends on knowing where you stand. 4. Invest Where the Leak Is Largest. Let data—not organization charts—drive decisions. Churning brands need delivery fixes; Plateaued ones need brand revitalization. After reflecting on my conversation with Mr. Chatterjee, it is clear that having the visibility to brand gaps will give CMOs the advantage of making better growth bets.
Forbes
09-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Five Ways A Postsale Digital Experience Reduces Risk During Volatile Times
Five Ways A Postsale Digital Experience Reduces Risk During Volatile Times Reprioritizing customer retention lets B2B companies better weather economic uncertainty and volatile market conditions — a daunting task when executive leadership asks everyone to deal with the chaos by cutting costs. But cutting costs independently of business strategy — especially strategies that protect and grow revenue from current accounts — can hurt more than help. Postsale teams come out on top when they optimize costs by pivoting resources and communicating more consistently. They also provide easier access to the tools and information that existing customers use to gain more value from their current investments. Forrester's 2024 Buyer Insights research shows that 81% of business buyers expressed dissatisfaction in at least one area with the provider they chose at the end of a successful purchase. Becoming customer-led is a principal way to avoid this result — and is a pivotal step in any company's journey to customer obsession. Customer-led organizations boast higher revenue growth, increased employee engagement, and (most importantly!) greater customer retention. A primary way to become more customer-led is to make postsale experiences more streamlined and self-directed — something that can be done using existing technology, business assets, and people and (if done creatively) without much additional investment. The key today is understanding how your best customers thrive and getting started on ways to help the rest follow their lead. By understanding how your best customers excel, top postsale teams can construct digital signposts and way stations that direct others along the right paths to value. Teams that make even the most basic investments in developing a postsale digital experience (DX) can see significant returns, as our Total Economic Impact™ models predict. Read on for five areas where pulling together even the most basic DX can have an outsized impact on customer health. Yes, we know: Customer data is a mess, and modifying back-end systems is expensive and time-consuming. But making customer data more robust — and getting customers to help manage their profile information — is a first step that B2B companies should commit to that can lend itself to further automation and enhancement with AI down the road. In the meantime, we see customer teams deploy uncomplicated capabilities that: Consolidating the access points to your support ticketing system, knowledge-base answers, and contact information (phone numbers, email, chatbot, etc.) in one interface/portal page can pay off in reduced customer frustration and streamlined interactions. You can also: Striking the right balance between messaging and reminding can help (new) customers or users remember how useful your existing online education can be. You don't need a full learning management system: Take the time to survey or interview customers about which courses or modules they find most useful and promote those. You could also: Online community platforms are powerful but can require resources that you might not be ready or willing to commit. Look for creative ways to get your customers to engage, network, and share their experiences, advice, and knowledge. At a minimum: Market digital and in-person events to your customers and focus on aspects that benefit them. Track attendance, gather feedback, and look for signals that indicate new purchase interest. Analyze these results to make the business case for further investment. You can: These five areas represent practical, straightforward DX changes that any B2B team can implement quickly as postsale teams explore further investment — particularly for using generative and predictive AI to enrich, personalize, and make each aspect of the DX more effective. For example, the use of AI agents can greatly scale and increase customer productivity in many aspects of the DX. This post was written by VP, Principal Analyst Laura Ramos and it originally appeared here.
Daily Mail
01-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Why a huge social media presence and millions in the bank doesn't mean you've made it in 2025
An e-commerce expert with 15 years experience has warned Aussies keen to start their own brands about the pitfalls that have caused so many to fail. Joshua Uebergang, 40, has been helping businesses navigate the Shopify online storefront since 2010 with his marketing agency Digital Darts. He told Daily Mail Australia the two simple rules that can help any business thrive - customer retention and keeping a handle on spending. Mr Uebergang said the recent closure of Exoticathletica, an online activewear brand founded in Noosa in 2014, was an example of companies outspending their profits without locking in a loyal customer base first. The activewear brand collapsed earlier this month owing $13million to creditors after raking in $7million in sales of an 'ultra-comfortable' crop top in 2021. It accumulated debts of over $6.2million, including $800,000 to the ATO, $6.7million to the Commonwealth Bank and $114,000 to staff. 'What you generally see on TikTok is customer numbers, high revenue numbers and media mentions but that's all meaningless compared to what really keeps the business afloat,' he said. 'Building up a brand is perfectly fine but the main thing these brands are missing is the fundamental basis of businesses: Can you acquire a customer for less than what they give you over their lifetime?' Emerging companies are too focused on social media visibility instead of investing in creating loyal customers at a cheap price, Mr Uebergang explained. He pointed to the Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost ratio (LTV/CAC) which compares a customer's lifetime value to the cost a business puts into acquiring them. This roughly translates to how much a customer is willing to spend on a brand compared to the money a business invests in attracting them in the first place. When the ratio becomes lopsided - usually when a customer spends less than three times the amount a business had spent on them - it can cause issues. 'The smaller that ratio is, the more dangerous the business becomes and it also becomes more of a long-term bet,' Mr Uebergang said. Venture-funded start-ups have more time to make up the margin compared to those which are self-funded as the latter relies on the founder's personal wealth. With venture-funded companies, investors and stakeholders are able to make up the initial difference between profits and spending. 'They can really can push because they've got more money than its founder initially had when they started it. If someone has a small business, self-funded company, they can't push that hard,' Mr Uebergang said. He warned new business owners can easily become obsessed with creating the illusion that they're living 'the dream'. 'Founders are incentivised to promote a dream, and it's a bit like general human reality with social media that we want to favour our successes and not highlight our failures, so it's no different to e-commerce brands,' he explained. 'It comes from a "make money quick" belief, which can be great, because it's good for people to try new things.' But he said some start-up owners can I greatly underestimate the debts their start-ups owe at the end of the financial year. 'It's pretty common to see people in their first year or two of business, someone who is not particular to the e-commerce space, shocked to find that after making $4million they might have to pay $2million in taxes,' Mr Uebergang said. A good rule of thumb for newcomers is to focus on making ends meet first before focusing too much on expansion or growing their customer base. Making sure the business is making enough profits and listening to customer feedback is essential to creating a lasting business, Mr Uebergang said. 'Start from day one with profit in mind, so that's having a product that you pay for and then having at least 500 per cent on top of that with what you will sell it for,' he said. 'That will help account for freight costs, general labour, customs, even some marketing to help get customers. 'Second, really master one marketing channel, focus on one and get really good at it. This can take you to $1million in annual year revenue. 'And thirdly, listen to your customers and improve on their feedback from your first sales. Build 100 customers initially and really seek to make them returning sales because they are the people that you ultimately serving.'
