Seven Customer Retention Strategies

On average, U.S. corporations lose 50% of their customers every five years says business researcher Frederick Reichheld.

An average company has a defection rate of 10%-30% of their customers each year, he says.

Raising your customer retention by 5% can increase the lifetime value of your average customer by 25% – 100%.

So how you do that?

Seven Strategies To Use To Create Customer Loyalty And Retention

Here are seven strategies from my presentation to the ISCS annual conference, “Content Is King” held in Richardson, TX recently. I’ve included my PPT presentation as well.

1. Create A Culture Of Buzz

You want people talking about your organization both online and off. And you want positive communication about your organization.

“If the marketplace isn’t talking about you, there’s a reason. The reason is that you’re boring. And you’re probably boring on purpose. You have boring pricing because it’s safer…You have boring products because that’s what the market wants.” ~ Seth Godin

2. Consistency Builds Trust

Customer retention is a long-term game, not a drive-by event. Repetition, consistency and authenticity build trust. They are the foundation blocks of customer retention.

3. Trust Is The Most Important Factor

Lack of trust is the single greatest reason you can’t keep customers. Trust is earned by keeping promises. Trust is lost by overpromising and under delivering. When you’ve earned trust, you can make mistakes, own up to them and correct them without losing your customer.

4. Staff As Customer

Ultimately, your staff treats your customers the same way you treat your staff. You need to retain your best employees in order to retain your best customers.

5. Create An Open Dashboard

Create a one-page, high-level view of key strategic, marketing and financial indicators. Transparency with employees is the key to company success as well as customer retention.

6. Golden Rule Of Customer Retention: Have A Give To Get Mentality

Those who usually give…get. We need to approach our customer relationships with “What am I here to give?” Or “How can I serve you?” Not, “What can I sell you?” We need to develop a strategic partnership relationship with our customers with a view towards adding value.

7. Turn your attention to educating, not selling.

Successful customer retention provides valuable content and education that meets their customers’ needs. It shows how brand understands customer. Content marketing is one of the most important strategies for customer retention. When your organization begins to provide useful and helpful content of value, you understand how educating, not selling is important strategy.

Which of these seven strategies resonate the most with you and your company? Why do you think so many organizations turn to cold-call selling and aggressive marketing techniques that bombard customers?