Mapping Out the Customer Retention Journey [Calculator]

Taking it step-by-step

Here are some steps to help you map out the customer retention journey for your eCommerce business:

Identify your customer personas

The first step in mapping out the customer retention journey is to understand who your customers are. You need to create detailed customer personas that describe your typical customer’s demographics, interests, pain points, and motivations. This will help you understand your customers’ needs and preferences and tailor your retention strategy accordingly.

Map out the customer journey

The customer journey is the path a customer takes from the initial awareness of your brand to becoming a loyal, committed customer. You need to map out the various touchpoints that a customer has with your brand, such as browsing your website, making a purchase, receiving the product, customer service interactions, etc.

Below, we follow Jane’s journey to retention, but she offers just one example of how brands can connect with their customers across channels.

When mapping out your own retention journey, we encourage you to download Jane’s Path to Retention above and think about how you can tailor some of the strategies to your brand.

Identify the key retention metrics

You need to identify the key retention metrics that will help you measure the effectiveness of your customer retention strategy. Some of the key retention metrics include:

• Customer lifetime value
• Repeat purchase rate
• Customer return rate
• Churn rate

With these metrics in mind, input your business specifics below to calculate your repeat customer rate and see if you’re positively impacting your customer rate. Use these insights to guide your retention strategy.

Calculate your return customer rate.

Choose your timeframe

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Retention rate:

It’s good to establish a baseline understanding of how many of your customers have come back to purchase from your brand again. While this number isn’t equivalent to

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Develop a customer retention strategy

Once you have identified the key touchpoints and metrics, you need to develop a customer retention strategy that is tailored to your customer personas. This may include tactics such as personalized email marketing, loyalty programs, excellent customer service, post-purchase follow-up, and targeted social media campaigns.

Continuously track and optimize

The final step in mapping out the customer retention journey is to continuously track and optimize your efforts. Use your key retention metrics to measure the effectiveness of your strategy, and make adjustments as needed based on customer feedback and changes in the market.

Remember, the journey toward customer retention starts with your first interaction with a customer and continues throughout their path to purchase.