Win The Retention Game

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Win The Retention Game

BursaSnipers

Publish date: Sat, 15 Jun 2019, 04:38 PM

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Win The Retention Game

9 The biggest source of lost revenue for companies, on average, is the customer or prospect they never knew vanished.

That’s from David Avrin, author of “Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back).”

In companies’ efforts to create a greater level of efficiency and automation, “they have too often eliminated flexibility, individuality, accommodation, and even a measure of humanity in regard to their customers,” Avrin said.

Tips on preventing customer defections and boosting customer retention:

› Customer retention: Say yes more. Companies tell their customers and clients “no” far more often than they recognize, Avrin says.

“The excuse companies hang on to is ‘if we do it for them, we have to do it for everyone,’ ” he said. “Wrong! The reality is that you only have to do it for those who ask, if you can. Most customers won’t ever ask for accommodations.

“What’s the alternative? Not giving them what they request? And then they never come back and rant about you on social media. Remember that every time you say no, there is likely a competitor who will say ‘yes.’ ”

There are things you have to say no to. But for everything else, “find ways to say yes or offer reasonable alternatives,” he says. “Your customers will reward you with their business and loyalty.”

› Scrutinize self-service. Automation is one thing, but constantly transferring your work to customers is annoying to them, Avrin states.

Instead, consider adding back services or amenities that others have eliminated, he says. “Offering simple conveniences can tip the scales in your favor” vs. the competition.

› Satisfy customer needs. What will lead to a sustainable competitive advantage is a firm’s ability to learn more about a customer.

That’s from Nicolaj Siggelkow, who with co-author Christian Terwiesch wrote “Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage.”

“Technologies are fairly easy to copy; customer insight is not,” Siggelkow adds.

› Probe. Managers should ask themselves a few questions about how they interact with customers. Siggelkow recommends first asking yourself, “What kind of information do I receive about my customers’ needs?” Next find out, “How does information flow from the customer to me? Does it rely on customers taking the initiative, or me?” Lastly, ask yourself, “How long does it take for a customer need to reach me and how soon do I react?”

› Earn trust to boost customer retention. Customers are rightfully skeptical about giving their information to companies they work with.

In a recent Deloitte study, 83% of consumers put brand trustworthiness as key to patronizing a brand. Also, 66% of consumers expect brands to use their feedback to provide new products.

The ideal model, Siggelkow says, is when the customer provides the firm with some data and then the firm shows how it is able to make the customer’s life better using it.

Data privacy and data security play tremendously important roles, he says. “If you don’t treat your customer’s data respectfully, you will lose the trust quickly. But once you have created a trust relationship, you won’t have to compete transaction by transaction anymore.”

› Create easy access. If there is one aspect of doing business that’s universally despised, Avrin says, “it is companies that refuse to let you easily talk to a real person or (don’t) include direct contact information on their website.”

Yet so many have chosen to inflict this “ghosting” on their customer, he adds. “What do we get instead? The horrible website contact form. Here’s the reality: We don’t like filling out the form. We don’t know who is going to receive it, or when someone will get back to us. So most will not fill out the form. Get rid of it!”

Instead he says, give people an option of talking to a real person — and don’t make them go through six minutes of phone options to get there. You have no idea of how many customers or prospects have either hung up or clicked you into oblivion if you do.

Avrin offers this powerful perspective: “A staggering amount of lost revenue is because you didn’t want to be bothered to talk to your customers. Mind-boggling.”

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