How to Keep Your Customers for the Long Haul

For many businesses, it’s common for customer retention to take a back seat to customer acquisition. While customer acquisition will always be important, it is critical that wineries pay attention to their existing customers and ensure they are satisfied in order to create loyal customers and members.

Happy and engaged customers lead to higher order values, more repeat purchases, and lower attrition rates. To drive loyalty, wineries need to start with implementing better customer retention initiatives. Let’s talk about 4 strategies that will help keep customers for the long haul.

Keep your customers in control

We always talk about the benefits of flexibility and customization online, and when it comes to customer retention this couldn’t be more important. Consumers are looking for customizable shopping experiences - the more in control they are of their orders, from frequency and product selection, the happier they will be.  

Our data shows that:

• 28% of members will edit their package if given the opportunity
• Edited packages had a 20.7% increase in order value
• Churn within 1 year of signup drops 18% to 12% for members who are able to edit their orders

The more flexibility a winery can provide, the more they will see more repeat purchases, drive retention, and lower attrition.

Loyalty programs

Loyalty programs have been popular for years and for good reason. Incentivizing customers based on purchase is a powerful way to drive revenue through repeat purchases while also rewarding customers. 

With so many loyalty and VIP programs out there, it’s important for wineries to clearly define the value of their loyalty program and ensure that the rewards are ultimately beneficial to customers. If the perks don’t resonate with consumers, they won’t be enticed to purchase as often.

Ask yourself - What are the benefits for a loyal customer? Are you offering special discounts or points for them to collect and redeem? A good loyalty program ensures that it’s also achievable for all levels and customer-types so that anyone who spends at your winery can reap the benefits.

Stay in touch

When it comes to customer retention and engagement, communication is key. While there are many channels wineries can use to effectively communicate, email marketing is a great tool for wineries to utilize, especially if they are already using a DTC platform that has integrated email marketing tools.

Wineries can utilize email to easily check-in with their customers and send targeted emails that offer special pricing, release new collections, suggest pairings based on their likes, and so much more. Email is a creative way to deliver personalized content to keep customers engaged with your brand - 82% of customers feel more positive about a brand after engaging with personalized content. Keep your customers engaged and they will stay loyal to your brand.

Referrals, referrals, referrals

Referrals are the perfect way to balance customer acquisition and retention. Reward your customers while encouraging them to spread the word about your winery and drive more business. With the click of a “share with a friend” button, existing customers are able to share your brand with their friends and encourage them to purchase. 

Your existing customer will receive their referral bonus once when their friends complete a purchase. Referral programs are a strategic way to attract new customers and keep loyal customers engaged.

About Commerce7

Above price and product, the number one reason why a consumer will choose a brand is customer experience. At Commerce7, we make it easy for wineries to create great consumer shopping experiences. We do that, by offering the industry’s most modern and customer-centric club management, ecommerce, POS, reservation, and CRM tools.

Learn why over 490 wineries choose Commerce7 as their DtC platform.

Book a demo.