Survival of the Smartest? Part 1: Focus on Customer Retention

Here at Concentrix we’ve not been allowing ourselves to indulge in moaning about how "times are hard"; we’ve been knuckling down and getting on with it, which is what all smart businesses are doing.

OK, so things aren't ideal, but it isn't the end of the world and neither is it about to get better overnight. So what to do? As I spend the majority of my time talking to business about just this I thought I would share some (of their) ideas on how to be smart and stay ahead.

Focusing on your existing customer base is essential, but is overlooked surprisingly often by sales-driven companies.  

It's a well used cliché that it is about 4 times more expensive to land a new customer than to do business with an existing one. Regardless of how accurate this is, you need to keep your customers and keep them happy. Here are a few examples of how and why.

Keep your customers happy

Improve customer services

Simple things like giving people a "ticket" number and sending them updates on service cases can have a big positive impact and make you look pro-active and caring. You should aim for the customer to only contact you once (to report an issue / raise a question) and then your people (and your system) to do the rest. CRM will help you standardise and automate your service processes, empower your customer service people and also allow you to report on performance.

Improve marketing and communications

- You don’t market to your existing customers? Why not? 

- How many customers know the full extent of the services or products you offer?

- Would your customers respond to something like a "thank you for your order last quarter, here’s a special loyalty offer" email from time to time.

- Are you haplessly "spamming" your customers with unwanted or poorly targeted material and driving them away?

Once they are happy, make some sales!

Cross-selling and Up-selling

- Let’s say you sell 3 products. Do you know how many of your customers who buy product 1 even know you sell product 3? Can you identify these companies? 

- How easily could you communicate to them that "over 100 other customers who bought product 1 also found product 3 delivered excellent results"? It works for Amazon.com.

- If they bought product 2.1 a year ago can you try and upgrade them to product 2.2? Do they even know it’s been released?

Referrals and Recommendations

As we all know, sales leads are best served hot. And there is no better lead than a good solid referral from one of your existing (happy) customers. Keep them happy and they will tell their friends.

- Track and report on who has referred who. If a particular customer is already referring people then a little "thank you" might be appreciated and incentivising them might bring in even more business.

- References and case studies can play a major part in closing deals. Manage your relationships better, keep customers happy and let them be cheerleaders for you.

CRM can help

None of these concepts are ground-breaking, but if they are not things your business is used to doing it can be a big step to put them in place. A well-thought-out, properly designed and implemented Customer Relationship Management system can help you with this, putting processes in place and giving you the tools to explore and exploit your data and, utlimately, make yours a more profitable business.

Which CRM is right for you and how much it will cost is hard to say without talking to you about it. There's a guide in the CRM knowledge base on the Concentrix website called How much does a CRM system cost? which will get you started, and if you would like to find out more please contact me and I will be happy to help.

More?

I'll be blogging shortly on other tips and ideas I pick up on my travels, including focussing on your products and on your competitors. Also, see if you can answer a couple of questions about Counting the Cost of Sales Leads.

John Odell - CRM Consultant