Peter Drucker said: “The purpose of a business is to gain and keep the customer”.
Customer retention management is all about keeping the customer preferably for life.
Some of the best practices of managing customer retention are:
Do not accept a certain percentage of customer churn as normal or “cost of doing business”
Create a system where early detection of a customer moving towards leaving..
Consider and treat that customer as if they are a new prospect.
Create a comprehensive program around keeping the customer.
Build a community, this could be a loyalty club, private Facebook page, etc.
Make sure the customers are using your product to its full value, meaning that they get the 100% of the benefits your product offers.
Conversely, be proactive and follow up and go after the customers who may not be using your service/product to the full extent or sometimes none at all.
Have an attitude that says: retention starts on day 1.
Do you know your Customer Lifetime Value?
Make sure whatever was promised is delivered. Over delivery would be much better if you can do it.
Monthly meeting online or face to face to go through what’s new what’s working etc.
Customer Segmentation and appropriate benefits for each tier.
Random Suprises – Benefits and Rewards that are totally unexpected.
Case studies for as many customers as possible.
Monthly surveys.
Track Emotional Metrics – Use Smiley Face Pain Chart from 1-5.
Be sensitive to customer’s buying frequency, if re-purchase has not happened at the set and usual frequency, there may be a problem.
