Every day, a new company arises in the market and brings in a plethora of innovative ideas that could lure away even the most loyal customers. Every new company comes with its own set of technologies & ideologies in an attempt to stand out from the crowd in the market. All such ideas, technologies, and strategies pose a potential threat to the existing companies in the industry. Therefore, marketers need to remain wide awake and look out for any possible threat arising with a new technology that might completely wash out the ones under your possession. It is always easier to be prepared with counter actions when you are aware of the potential threats rather than being caught off-guard.
Albeit, the only straightforward way of retaining customers is to deliver more than any competitors or new-comers.
So how do you deliver more than anyone else in the market? Which new or existing technology can you utilize to its ultimate potential to stand out? How would you engage with customers from different categories with campaigns relevant to them?
The answer to all your questions is pretty simple and straight-forward: QR codes
What are QR codes and how to use them?
QR codes are codes consisting of information readable by a machine, which is designed to open the encoded URL when scanned. Statista states that around 11 million US households are all set to scan QR codes by the year 2020. The numbers vouch for the level of importance QR codes are receiving from the customers and the prominent reason for this is the amount of convenience of usage attached to them. You can deploy QR codes on any of your marketing materials like banners, flyers, emails, and so on to achieve a different use-case from each of them while the convenience for the customer remains intact.
7 smart ways to use QR codes for customer retention:
When you create QR code-based campaigns using a QR code marketing platform, it usually allows you to track the number of scans and you can also track which QR code campaigns were scanned the most and which ones were scanned the least. Based on the intent and content of each QR code, you can derive a location intelligence model that allows you to retarget different locations and segments accordingly on your social media profile.
2. Design an engaging scavenger hunt for giveaways
Organize engaging scavenger hunts where the winner receives a free goodie bag or giveaway one of your popular products. Scavenger hunts can be organized in both indoor premises and outdoors based on the duration, difficulty level, number of participants and the worth of the prize. Scavenger hunts are best when you segregate the participants and questions based on age-groups. Fun giveaways are something that every customer looks forward to irrespective of age, gender, and income group.
Encourage customers to subscribe to your monthly or weekly newsletter with the help of visually stunning QR code campaigns backed by a compelling CTA(call-to-action).
Engage regularly with the customers that actually make an effort to subscribe to make them feel rewarded.
4. Reward the most loyal customers with loyalty programs
Building customer loyalty is one of the primary goals of any marketer. Reward your most loyal customers by encouraging them to sign up to the loyalty programs. Amaze them with a surprise reward out of the blue or give them interesting and achievable tasks that help them earn loyalty points to be redeemed later.
5. Target individual customers with personalized offers rather than targeting a group as a whole
Customers always feel more valued when you deliver relevant offers that are customized to fit their needs and purchase patterns rather than randomly spamming them with offers that they might not even be interested in. Tracking the purchase pattern of a customer is now simpler than ever with the technologies like Geofencing taking over the market. All you have to do it is track the behavior of customers remotely either by the type of QR code campaigns they choose to scan or by leveraging newer technologies like Geofencing and then deliver relevant offers right to their smartphone app using BLE beacon technology.
6. Take feedback actively and make an effort to overcome the drawbacks
It is important to make customers feel that their opinions are valuable to the organization that they are loyal to. Deploy feedback QR codes on invoice receipts or at the check-out counters or even at the store exit depending on what is the niche of your business. Actively taking customer feedback and implementing on them helps them know that the feedback they are giving is actually valued and not just a waste of their time.
7. Spoil them with convenience
Spoil your customers with convenience by delivering the relevant information about a product by deploying a QR code on the shelf, product label, price tags or you can also embed funky looking QR codes within the product. Through QR codes, you can deliver information right when they need it.
Alternative ways of spoiling your customers with convenience by enabling easy payment and checkout options or enabling them to reorder a product with the scan of a QR code.
Conclusion
Statistics state that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25% increase in the profits of a business. The numbers are self-explanatory of how important customer retention is for a business. Moreover, the cost of retaining an existing customer is always lower than the cost incurred in acquiring new customers. Also, the customers who have an emotional relationship with a brand possess a 306% higher lifetime value than the other customers. Therefore, it is necessary for all companies to try and utilize any possible ways of retaining customers, be it QR codes or different technology. Besides, if QR codes based ad campaigns help you acquire a few extra customers in the process, where is the harm in that?
