Customer Retention - The Proper Care and Feeding of Your Customers
Customer Retention - The Proper Care and Feeding of Your Customers
When we were new residents to Nevada, my wife and I had a lot to learn about desert flora. There are many choices and decisions to make. However, the biggest choice, which has nothing to do with geography, is whether we wanted Perennials or Annuals. How were we supposed to know? We knew there were flowers that die each season and others that always return, but we didn’t know what they were called or how to control this miracle of nature. Since we never did this before, we pleaded ignorance and asked for help. What we learned was that Perennials come back every year and Annuals last only for one season and never come back. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Well, not quite. There’s a price to pay for the yearly return of these flowering marvels.
While Annuals don’t need much tending to, aside from routine watering, it seems that Perennials need a bit more caring. Perennials need to be fed, they need to be weeded, they need insecticides, they need pruning, and they need continuous attention to ensure their healthy return and growth each and every year.
At this point I began to think about work and my customers and saw a striking resemblance. Being somewhat of a workaholic, and since Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the reason for my existence, or at least for my business, this analogy isn’t as far fetched as it may seem. It occurred to me that customers are like flowers and you can treat them either like Perennials or Annuals. Sure, you can acquire a new customer, sell them what they need, and then move on to the next prospective buyer. These customers will blossom nicely for a while with their new product or service. You can even use them as a showcase, or reference account, to show other prospects what a good job you do for your customers. However, without continuous care and attention, they will eventually die off, not as a business entity or individual of course, but as a customer of yours. You will lose them as a client. Like an Annual, their flowers will fall off and they will wither away and never return.
With the costs of acquiring new customers being 7 to 10 times higher than selling to your existing customers, according to studies, why would any business not want to do everything they can to retain their existing customer base? This, of course, requires businesses to treat their customers like Perennials, not Annuals. With constant care and attention, your customers will remain loyal and dedicated to your business. They’ll keep coming back year after year flowering you with more business.
It’s not sufficient, either, to simply care for your customers “just enough” to keep them from complaining. If you barely water and feed your Perennials just enough for them to flower and return each year, you will more than likely only get marginal results. The flowers will be sparse and lackluster. Likewise, if you simply keep your customers satisfied, you may also get marginal results. Today, customers are so used to poor service and performance that they have learned to accept mediocrity as the norm. It’s a sad state of affairs, but an unfortunate reality in today’s business world. As a result, when customers receive minimum service and attention, they are satisfied only for the simple reason that they were not treated poorly or negatively. This sort of treatment will never yield a fully blossoming relationship, nor loyalty to your company.
Marginal service will yield marginal results. Consequently, loyalty and commitment to your business will suffer. Your clients will migrate to another competitor as soon as they see a better offer. What many businesses don’t realize is that the relationship begins, not ends, after the sale is made. Once the sale is made, this is your time to shine and show the customer what you are really all about.
What is needed is exceptional service – above and beyond what is expected. Your customers should be so happy with your service, support and attention that they actually tell other people about their experience with your business. This is what Dr. Ken Blanchard calls “Raving Fans” (see Dr. Blanchard’s book entitled “Raving Fans”, William Morrow and Company, Inc.). If you take really good care of your Perennials, they will come back year after year in full bloom and continue to grow and prosper. Your customers will do the same.
Exactly how should you care for your customers? Let’s review 5 tips on the proper care and feeding of your customers.
1) Feeding. Just like Perennials, you must feed your customers. Feed them with attention. Show them you care. Feed them information about your company, your new products, the market place, their competitors, and any other information that can help their business grow. Even though they are already a client of yours doesn’t mean they know everything going on in your business. If you won an award, expanded your business, delivered a new product or service, or changed in any way, let them know. This shows them that you are not stagnating and will continue to be there for them in the future. It will also help their business as well.
2) Weeding. Don’t let your customers get choked by problems. Just like clearing deadly weeds from around your flowers, help solve problems for your customers. Your sales ordering and delivery processes should be problem free. If they aren’t, fix them. If there’s a problem with your product or service that is affecting your customer, do everything possible to resolve it. The best way to know if there are problems is to ask. Don’t wait for your customers to call you with problems. Call them and ask how things are going and be prepared to jump to the rescue if there are problems. Just like Perennials, weed before they start to die.
3) Spraying. You don’t want those pesky bugs destroying your Perennials. Likewise, you don’t want those pesky competitors destroying the relationship you have with your customers. So, prevent that from happening by ensuring you have a healthy, positive relationship with your client so when a competitor comes calling, your client isn’t prone to listen. We all know someone who pays a little more or travels a little further to deal with a business simply because they like the relationship they have with them. It isn’t always about money, but it’s almost always about the relationship. Keep the bugs, and competitors, away.
4) Pruning. Perennials need to be pruned, or cut back, to prevent wild growth. Wild growth is not just unsightly, but it is bad for the plant, since the food and water cannot reasonably satisfy the requirements of an overgrown plant. The result could be weak and sickly looking flowers. Businesses need to prune their customers as well or else they will grow larger than their capacity to service their clients successfully. Don’t be afraid to walk away from business. If it is too large for you to handle, don’t let greed cause you to take on too much and get over your head. It will negatively affect the relationships with your existing customers. Don’t be afraid to fire your customers. If they are causing you to move into a direction that is not the focus of your business or that is not in line with your business plan, tell them so they can either work within your business strategy or move on to another vendor. Controlled grow is good growth whether you are a business or a Perennial.
5) Caring. Perennials don’t grow healthy all by themselves. The previous tips show there is a lot that needs to be done to ensure healthy plants. This means you have to care for them and about them. Same with your customers. In addition to the previous tips, general caring is in order. Stay in touch and don’t be a stranger. You sold them your product; therefore, it is your responsibility to make sure it is indeed what they needed, that it solved the problem in which it was intended, and that they know you honestly care about the success and growth of their business. Caring means going beyond a client-vendor relationship. It’s about a Partnership. You take care of them, and they’ll take care of you – year after year.
So now that we have a beautiful floral garden in our yard, we expect to see it grow and flourish every year with proper care and feeding. Your customer base is the same way. They are your garden and you have to take proper care so you can enjoy them year after year. This is called “Customer Lifecycle Management.” You market to suspects, sell to prospects, and support customers. As you ensure your customers are happy, Raving Fans, you continue to market and sell to them. This is more cost-effective and efficient for you, and better for your clients since they continue to benefit from what you have to offer and from your lifetime relationship.
Now, it’s off to the garden to do some weeding. My only challenge now is how to get all this mud off my shoes.
Good Luck and Good Selling!
Russ Lombardo
russ@PeakSalesConsulting.com
702-655-5652
Customer Retention The Proper Care and Feeding of Your Customers - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.
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With the warmer seasons upon us us, I love the Spring now more than ever. I love this time of year. Everything is in bloom and the vivid colors of red, green, gold, and more, contrast with the browns and grays of the Nevada desert, where we live. What beauty. So much so that last Spring my wife and I got inspired to go flower shopping so we could accent our landscape. So, we ventured out to our local nursery and sludged through the mud to gratify our botanical desires.
When we were new residents to Nevada, my wife and I had a lot to learn about desert flora. There are many choices and decisions to make. However, the biggest choice, which has nothing to do with geography, is whether we wanted Perennials or Annuals. How were we supposed to know? We knew there were flowers that die each season and others that always return, but we didn’t know what they were called or how to control this miracle of nature. Since we never did this before, we pleaded ignorance and asked for help. What we learned was that Perennials come back every year and Annuals last only for one season and never come back. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Well, not quite. There’s a price to pay for the yearly return of these flowering marvels.
While Annuals don’t need much tending to, aside from routine watering, it seems that Perennials need a bit more caring. Perennials need to be fed, they need to be weeded, they need insecticides, they need pruning, and they need continuous attention to ensure their healthy return and growth each and every year.
At this point I began to think about work and my customers and saw a striking resemblance. Being somewhat of a workaholic, and since Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the reason for my existence, or at least for my business, this analogy isn’t as far fetched as it may seem. It occurred to me that customers are like flowers and you can treat them either like Perennials or Annuals. Sure, you can acquire a new customer, sell them what they need, and then move on to the next prospective buyer. These customers will blossom nicely for a while with their new product or service. You can even use them as a showcase, or reference account, to show other prospects what a good job you do for your customers. However, without continuous care and attention, they will eventually die off, not as a business entity or individual of course, but as a customer of yours. You will lose them as a client. Like an Annual, their flowers will fall off and they will wither away and never return.
With the costs of acquiring new customers being 7 to 10 times higher than selling to your existing customers, according to studies, why would any business not want to do everything they can to retain their existing customer base? This, of course, requires businesses to treat their customers like Perennials, not Annuals. With constant care and attention, your customers will remain loyal and dedicated to your business. They’ll keep coming back year after year flowering you with more business.
It’s not sufficient, either, to simply care for your customers “just enough” to keep them from complaining. If you barely water and feed your Perennials just enough for them to flower and return each year, you will more than likely only get marginal results. The flowers will be sparse and lackluster. Likewise, if you simply keep your customers satisfied, you may also get marginal results. Today, customers are so used to poor service and performance that they have learned to accept mediocrity as the norm. It’s a sad state of affairs, but an unfortunate reality in today’s business world. As a result, when customers receive minimum service and attention, they are satisfied only for the simple reason that they were not treated poorly or negatively. This sort of treatment will never yield a fully blossoming relationship, nor loyalty to your company.
Marginal service will yield marginal results. Consequently, loyalty and commitment to your business will suffer. Your clients will migrate to another competitor as soon as they see a better offer. What many businesses don’t realize is that the relationship begins, not ends, after the sale is made. Once the sale is made, this is your time to shine and show the customer what you are really all about.
What is needed is exceptional service – above and beyond what is expected. Your customers should be so happy with your service, support and attention that they actually tell other people about their experience with your business. This is what Dr. Ken Blanchard calls “Raving Fans” (see Dr. Blanchard’s book entitled “Raving Fans”, William Morrow and Company, Inc.). If you take really good care of your Perennials, they will come back year after year in full bloom and continue to grow and prosper. Your customers will do the same.
Exactly how should you care for your customers? Let’s review 5 tips on the proper care and feeding of your customers.
1) Feeding. Just like Perennials, you must feed your customers. Feed them with attention. Show them you care. Feed them information about your company, your new products, the market place, their competitors, and any other information that can help their business grow. Even though they are already a client of yours doesn’t mean they know everything going on in your business. If you won an award, expanded your business, delivered a new product or service, or changed in any way, let them know. This shows them that you are not stagnating and will continue to be there for them in the future. It will also help their business as well.
2) Weeding. Don’t let your customers get choked by problems. Just like clearing deadly weeds from around your flowers, help solve problems for your customers. Your sales ordering and delivery processes should be problem free. If they aren’t, fix them. If there’s a problem with your product or service that is affecting your customer, do everything possible to resolve it. The best way to know if there are problems is to ask. Don’t wait for your customers to call you with problems. Call them and ask how things are going and be prepared to jump to the rescue if there are problems. Just like Perennials, weed before they start to die.
3) Spraying. You don’t want those pesky bugs destroying your Perennials. Likewise, you don’t want those pesky competitors destroying the relationship you have with your customers. So, prevent that from happening by ensuring you have a healthy, positive relationship with your client so when a competitor comes calling, your client isn’t prone to listen. We all know someone who pays a little more or travels a little further to deal with a business simply because they like the relationship they have with them. It isn’t always about money, but it’s almost always about the relationship. Keep the bugs, and competitors, away.
4) Pruning. Perennials need to be pruned, or cut back, to prevent wild growth. Wild growth is not just unsightly, but it is bad for the plant, since the food and water cannot reasonably satisfy the requirements of an overgrown plant. The result could be weak and sickly looking flowers. Businesses need to prune their customers as well or else they will grow larger than their capacity to service their clients successfully. Don’t be afraid to walk away from business. If it is too large for you to handle, don’t let greed cause you to take on too much and get over your head. It will negatively affect the relationships with your existing customers. Don’t be afraid to fire your customers. If they are causing you to move into a direction that is not the focus of your business or that is not in line with your business plan, tell them so they can either work within your business strategy or move on to another vendor. Controlled grow is good growth whether you are a business or a Perennial.
5) Caring. Perennials don’t grow healthy all by themselves. The previous tips show there is a lot that needs to be done to ensure healthy plants. This means you have to care for them and about them. Same with your customers. In addition to the previous tips, general caring is in order. Stay in touch and don’t be a stranger. You sold them your product; therefore, it is your responsibility to make sure it is indeed what they needed, that it solved the problem in which it was intended, and that they know you honestly care about the success and growth of their business. Caring means going beyond a client-vendor relationship. It’s about a Partnership. You take care of them, and they’ll take care of you – year after year.
So now that we have a beautiful floral garden in our yard, we expect to see it grow and flourish every year with proper care and feeding. Your customer base is the same way. They are your garden and you have to take proper care so you can enjoy them year after year. This is called “Customer Lifecycle Management.” You market to suspects, sell to prospects, and support customers. As you ensure your customers are happy, Raving Fans, you continue to market and sell to them. This is more cost-effective and efficient for you, and better for your clients since they continue to benefit from what you have to offer and from your lifetime relationship.
Now, it’s off to the garden to do some weeding. My only challenge now is how to get all this mud off my shoes.
Good Luck and Good Selling!
Russ Lombardo
russ@PeakSalesConsulting.com
702-655-5652
Customer Retention The Proper Care and Feeding of Your Customers - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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