Nowadays, customers demand more information from their service providers and a refusal might cost you in retention rates. They want information instantly, and if they don’t get it straight from you, they can likely find it elsewhere.
Withholding or reshaping information is no longer a viable option for this new era of consumers who are savvier than any generation before them and for whom skepticism seems to be a default setting. In order to build brand loyalty, companies need to first build trust.
Being transparent with your customers can be seen as a sign that you respect them enough to share with them. And statistics back this up! About 94% of the customers say they were likely to be loyal to a brand that offers complete transparency. They’re also likely to try more products produced by the same brand.
Not sure exactly how your brand can open up in that meaningful way? Here are a few ways to use transparency to gain an advantage in customer retention:
Humanize your CEO
Perhaps one of the most important strategies is building a connection between your end users and the team at the very top can bring more of an impact to all of your communications.
For example, a customer may not care as much about a product news email if it’s from a faceless email address then if it’s from the CEO. If said CEO has already developed a relationship with them and customers are invested in them as people, they’re more invested in everything else as well.
Transparency doesn’t mean they need to share anything huge or groundbreaking to build a relationship (although that never hurts). They can share thoughts based on their journeys in business, they can open up their personal lives to their audiences to build a more emotional connection.
Get them invested
Involve them in the actual development process by asking for feedback, sharing progress and helping them shape the product. This makes your customers feel like all of their requests, support, and feedback is actually being heard.
Giving them a sense of investment in the future of your product also makes people more eager to stick around and experience it. If someone knows that something they wanted and has given input on is coming, he is going to be all that more excited to see it launch and to use it. In addition to building a relationship and anticipation for the future, mind you, this tactic creates user engagement right now.
Demonstrate value
Make it obvious how much customers benefit from having your products around, on a regular basis. When you create reminders everywhere, users won’t forget what they gain from continued use. This is frequently done by delivering content or telling stories outside of the product itself, which can work well – especially in terms of a customer retention strategy.
Show them how they are made
Instead of showing your customers end result or value of your product, you could go back to the beginning and share more of the production process. You can give customers a glimpse into the work that goes into the product they’re using. This can give them a new appreciation for it.
This can help customers get in touch with the value of both the product itself as well as the team behind it. And if done well, it also provides a sense of delight, forging an association in people’s minds between your brand and the peek behind the curtains that you have given them.