For companies offering reseller hosting plans, retaining customers is critical to ensure sustainable revenues. As a website hosting provider, it is estimated that acquiring a new customer costs 5-25x more than retaining an existing one. Moreover, retained customers spend more over time and drive new business through referrals.
Hence, reseller hosting providers must prioritise customer loyalty and retention in their business strategy.
Effective Customer Retention Strategies
Here are some of the most effective customer retention strategies you can deploy for higher lifetime value:
Provide Best-In-Class Customer Support
Having a skilled, responsive customer service team is one of the best ways to keep customers happy and retain them long-term. Some tips:
- Offer multiple seamless contact modes like phone, email, and live chat 24/7.
- Hire technically sound support staff and train them extensively to resolve common issues quickly.
- Create comprehensive self-serve troubleshooting guides, FAQs and how-to articles.
- Set and meet timelines for query resolution and provide status updates if delayed.
For example, have a Service Level Agreement (SLAs) that responds to chats in under 5 minutes and emails in a maximum of 24 hours. This reassures customers you highly value their time.
Create and Promote Customer Loyalty Programs
Special loyalty programs give existing customers exclusive perks and discounts to continue using your reseller web hosting services. You can provide:
- 5-10% off on subscription renewals after the first year
- Additional account resources like more disk space for free
- Higher referral bonus earnings or cashback on upgrades
- First preference for new product previews or betas
Make this exclusive only for long-term or high-revenue customers. Announce these loudly in communications. The perks make leaving counterintuitive.
Personalise Every Aspect of Your Customer Journeys
Customers crave personalised experiences today. So, make efforts to tailor all touchpoints to individual contexts as far as possible. For example:
- Address them by name in emails, not generic greetings
- Track individual behaviour to recommend suitable upsells
- Proactively assist them with any specific pain points you know
Doing this extra bit of customisation helps each customer feel valued, earning their loyalty.
Delight Customers with Unexpected Surprises
Consistently wowing helps make great impressions to stay top-of-mind. For customer retention:
- Send small customised customised gift cards on events like birthdays, major festivals, etc
- Give loyal customers bonus resources like free SSL or more disk space out of the blue
- Inform customers early on about upcoming deals and new products before the general release
These small delights spark smiles that customers will remember for long.
Make Payments, Upgrades & Renewals Easy
Reduce cart abandonments by supporting seamless payments. Auto-renewal avoids unintentional churn due to payment failure. Convenient options like offline EMI also help customers upgrade or renew without hassle. Automated payment reminders further help.
Actively Seek out and Act-On Feedback
Too often, customer pain points remain unknown until it’s too late. Actively collect feedback via targeted surveys. Identify churn risks early and mitigate them. Also, respond to public complaints and negative reviews promptly. This reassures customers that their voice holds weight to bring real change.
Focus On Overall Brand Building
Customers naturally feel greater reassurance and pride when associated with popular, reputed brands. Invest in boosting marketing efforts to popularise your brand name, reputation and image. Great branding makes retaining customers easier.
Facilitate Referrals and Social Sharing
Let customers easily spread the word about your brand on social media. Create short links to share.
Also, actively encourage referrals from happy customers via referral programs. The bonuses and perks they get make customers feel valued while getting you cheaper and better acquisitions, too.
Conclusion
In the reseller hosting business, growth cannot be sustained without loyal, engaged customers who refer others, too. The strategies above will help you maximise lifetime value and client retention. Plan your customer engagement well and see your revenues grow faster.