First, the good news – on average, businesses across all sectors retain more than three-quarters of their customers, around 75.5% on average. Now, the bad news. This still means that around a quarter of customers are lost, and the average company will lose between 10% and 25% of its customers each year. The hospitality, travel and food services industries are the worst for losing customers, and retail isn’t far behind. Media companies and professional services organisations tend to perform better than average.
What does this tell us? It tells us that churn is very, very real. However, this does not mean you need to just give up and let those hard-won clients and consumers just slip away. You can take steps to stop this churn and prevent customer disengagement. Here’s how:
Put the Customer First
Around three-quarters of customers say a bad experience with a company can ruin their day. This means customers really care about how you interact with them and how you treat them. And what happens when these ruined days start to stack up? Well, 73% of customers say they will move on to a competitor after more than one bad experience.
It’s crucial to put the customer first in every instance. You certainly want your customers to buy from you, but to achieve this, you have to think about why these customers would buy from you in the first place. It’s not enough to offer a great product – you must back this up with excellent service and great experiences across every customer interaction.
Think About All Aspects of Value
Value used to mean a great product at a fair price. Today, however, it means far more than this. Modern consumers have many different ideas about what constitutes value, and this means plenty of opportunities to engage your customers and keep them engaged.
- Show your customers that you believe in the same things they do, like environmental sustainability and a fair deal for employees and partners.
- Offer genuinely valuable content that positions you as a leader in your market.
- Share user-generated content, with full credit, and show your customers that you hold their options in high regard.
- Host events that bring your customers together, creating a community with your business at the centre.
- Focus on developing products and services that solve key customer problems, differentiating your business through innovation.
Offer Unique Experiences for Different Customer Groups
You may sell a number of different products and services, but most of your customers won’t be engaged with all of these areas of your business. Instead, they are interested in the products and services that will directly benefit them in their own lives, and they want content and support that relates to these specific products. In other words, the experience that one customer wants may be different from the desired experience of another.
Gathering data on customers and using this data to create well-defined user profiles and audience segments is a good way to provide a unique experience. You’ll be able to show consumers that you really understand them and their needs, and this is something that your customers will really appreciate.
Learn from the Ones that Got Away
In life, breakups are often sad experiences, but they also offer the chance for reflection and the opportunity to grow as a person. It’s a similar story in the business world. When customers break up with your business, you won’t always be able to win them back, but you can learn at least a useful lesson.
Try reaching out to some of those former customers. They might not all want to give you feedback, but some will – these customers can help you understand what went wrong and what you can do better in the future. It’s important not to be bitter here. Instead, work on fixing the mistakes of the past so you can keep hold of customers in the future.
Know Who Your Best Customers Are
Of course, you want to keep all of your customers, and you certainly want to offer great service to everyone who comes your way. The reality, though, is that some customers are worth more to your business than others. These are the loyal customers, the ones that keep on coming back to your business in the long term.
Let’s say you identify a customer who might be about to fall victim to churn. You put your retention strategies into overdrive, focusing your resources on keeping that mid-range customer who spends maybe $1,000 a year in your store. Good work. But, in the process, you neglected some of your other customers – maybe some of those bigger clients who are worth $10,000 a year. Because of this neglect, you lost them – they felt ignored and headed elsewhere.
Don’t let this happen to you. Yes, you need to work hard to keep your customers whenever possible, but you also need to be aware of full lifecycle value. Don’t let your most loyal customers down by focusing all your attention on the more flighty ones.
Get Customers, Keep Customers, and Grow Your Business
Growing your business requires a double-pronged approach – you need to be bringing in new customers, and you need to be keeping hold of existing ones. Learn more about this and about how Impressive can help – reach out to our team, book a consultation, and get your Free Marketing Plan today.
