“The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour”
-Japanese proverb
Even customers we know "like the back of our hand" will change over time. Too often, assumptions are made about how long-time customers will respond to us and companies stop nurturing customer relationships after they have matured.
As time goes by, the same level of service becomes less effective. The lure of competitors will encourage the customer to reevaluate their loyalty to existing vendors or service providers. A question that needs to be asked is, “What is the incentive for customers to stay for three, five, or ten years?”
National studies and CRM data can tell us about a customer's attitudes, wants, and needs. However, these can never replace a personal approach to keeping customers in the long run. By increasing quality focus on customers, your companies’ employees increase revenue and create positive brand awareness.
Your companies’ staff has worked hard to gain today's customers! Now, companies need to make sure they use every quality tool and technique possible to build a fence around their customers to keep competitors out.
Build a customer “touch” content/program matrix. This matrix should include the customer by segment, the content that fits the persona of the segment, and what is the call to action. Start the engagement once a salesperson marks the opportunity as closed-won within your CRM solution.
How will you want to onboard the new customer? What content will help support the lifetime value of the customer?
Create content that is strictly for customers so they can hear from multiple people in your organization. Articles, videos, podcasts, eBooks should come from the CEO, the product manager, customer service, billing, and sales. This way the customer feels “loved” by all members of the organization. Frequency is important as new content should be written and disseminated based on the consumption habits of the customers.
Tactics in this program should include:
Add an automated system for NPS. The Net Promoter Score is calculated based on responses to a single question: How likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague? The scoring for this answer is based on a 0 to 10 scale.
Net promoter score enables you to gain insights into your customer base through these standards.
The Net Promoter Score is % of Promoters - % of Detractors.
Passives count toward the total number of respondents, thus decreasing the percentage of detractors and promoters and pushing the net score toward 0.
Make sure to build out NPS dashboards with the CRM system, so you can view real-time the health of the customers!
Many companies have deleted these type programs from their budget, but if your company can afford a nice way to say thank you to your top-tier customers, I would plan a VIP event. Make them feel special and highly-valued, because they are!
Note: Some verticals are unable to provide this program due to gifting rules and requirements.
Invite a handful of top customers globally to participate in a special advisory committee once or twice a year for a day and let them see something to which the general public does not have access. This will also allow the executive team to listen to their customer’s valuable feedback.
Referrals are the best lead source. Continue to ask for referrals and follow-up with a handwritten thank you card. A nice branded, embossed, thank you note will be received much better than a text. The goal is to mitigate attrition.
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With these customer retention programs in place, you'll enjoy greater lifetime value of existing customers for your bottom line while increasing the value of new customers in one go.
Planning for customer engagement will make or break your marketing revenue number. If you think you're missing something, we can help!
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