How Do You Ensure That Your Customer Retention Management Team Is The Best?
Even
small increases in customer retention rates can boost profits substantially. A
Harvard Business Review study found that increasing customer retention by 5
percent raises profits by anywhere from 25 to 95 percent. Further, the US Small
Business Administration and Chamber of Commerce jointly found that customer
acquisition costs 5-7 times more than retaining present customers.
Clearly,
it pays rich dividends to ensure your retention management team is the best.
Sound customer retention management strategies are integral to business success. But many
companies focus on customer acquisition, without realising it pays to invest in
customer retention management instead. Here’s how you can ensure you choose the
best team for your business’s customer retention requirements.
#1 The Team Should Excel at Instilling Brand
Loyalty
After
investing energy and time to bring in fresh customers, keeping them loyal to
the brand is important. Choose a client retention firm that can help you to do
that. The experienced team of client retention experts need to work with your
business to strike the right balance and manage retention concerns.
#2 The Team Should Provide a Differentiated
Customer Experience
Your
chosen team should be adept at going on-site and developing a differentiated
customer experience that sets your business apart from competitors. Working on
end-to end client mapping, the team members should be skilled at
personalisation and helping your business to connect with its current clients.
#3 The Team Should Ensure Customers Keep
Coming Back
Through
customer loyalty initiatives and reciprocity programs as well as personalised
experiences, customers need to keep coming back for more. Designing a feedback
system for learning first-hand what is important for customers should form a
core of the essential skills of the team. Additionally, the response and review
systems developed by the team should be able to focus on timely solutions for
customer problems.
#4 The Team Should Excel at Communication
Many
surveys across geographies, markets, product and service types have found that
keeping communication channels open with clients resulted in over 90% customer
retention. Teams need to have critical communication skills. This includes F2F
communication, direct communication, marketing communication as well as social
media interactions. Customers need to be able to come right back after making a
purchase and sort out their queries with ease. This goes a long way in
retaining customers and earning their loyalty. The top retention teams
understand this.
#5 The Team Should Be Skilled at Gathering
Feedback
Feedback
is a must for client retention. Your team should be skilled at not just
cross-selling or up-selling, but also surveying clients after a purchase is
made, post the launch of a new product or service and other such important
milestones.
Your
customer retention team must be in place
to protect your revenue stream, and in view of the fact that repeat customers
spend more. Additionally, cross-selling and up-selling culminate in sales more
often for existing customers. Not only will a customer retention program help
to retain clients and reduce the churn rate, but it also increases customer
value. Loyal customers further serve as brand advocates and are even less price
sensitive. All in all, retention increases profits. So watch out that you select
the best retention team, as it can impact your business’s profits and
ultimately, its growth.