The phrase Customer Retention Management can mean everything and nothing at all. It is therefore no surprise that I get often asked what does customer retention actually mean and what does it involve?
Some marketers will disagree with me on this but for me Customer Retention Management is a tool that helps any kind of business to retain their customer base by providing incentives that encourage customers to continue using the services and products of the respective business. These incentives should be tailor made and should not only meet the need of the customers but also exceed their expectations. By offering a little extra, people tend to become more attached to a brand and are therefore more likely to return. Those incentives do not have to be only of monetary value but can also involve additional services such as 24/7 personal contact, better table or seats as well as longer reservation times or favourite free daily newspaper when staying in a hotel. These small personalised extras can make a huge impact on the overall perception towards the business.
For me it still seems though that most businesses are focusing too much on acquiring new customers instead of keeping the existing ones happy. This is baffling as it is much more expensive to gain a new clientèle than to retain one. I am sure every one of us will have experienced the feeling of being let down by a company with whom you have been dealing with for years. This could be your mobile phone provider who offers new customers additional free services such as hundreds of free texts which was never offered to you or it could be your local gym which provides new gym members with a two months free membership while you have been paying for years without any discount ever been offered to you. Some could of course argue now that if I asked for it I might actually get the same or similar offer as those newly acquired customers but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that I even have to initiate contact after all these months and years of being a loyal client.
By using well developed and managed retention campaigns, businesses avoid neglecting existing customers and making them feel valued and understood. As a consequence the client base is more likely to stay loyal to the brand and to continue doing business with it. As far as I am concerned, this is what Customer Retention Management is all about.
If you would like to share your experience as a customer or as a business in regards to good or bad retention schemes, please feel free to contact me! My next article will be discussing how to communicate retention campaigns to customers.
Some marketers will disagree with me on this but for me Customer Retention Management is a tool that helps any kind of business to retain their customer base by providing incentives that encourage customers to continue using the services and products of the respective business. These incentives should be tailor made and should not only meet the need of the customers but also exceed their expectations. By offering a little extra, people tend to become more attached to a brand and are therefore more likely to return. Those incentives do not have to be only of monetary value but can also involve additional services such as 24/7 personal contact, better table or seats as well as longer reservation times or favourite free daily newspaper when staying in a hotel. These small personalised extras can make a huge impact on the overall perception towards the business.
For me it still seems though that most businesses are focusing too much on acquiring new customers instead of keeping the existing ones happy. This is baffling as it is much more expensive to gain a new clientèle than to retain one. I am sure every one of us will have experienced the feeling of being let down by a company with whom you have been dealing with for years. This could be your mobile phone provider who offers new customers additional free services such as hundreds of free texts which was never offered to you or it could be your local gym which provides new gym members with a two months free membership while you have been paying for years without any discount ever been offered to you. Some could of course argue now that if I asked for it I might actually get the same or similar offer as those newly acquired customers but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that I even have to initiate contact after all these months and years of being a loyal client.
By using well developed and managed retention campaigns, businesses avoid neglecting existing customers and making them feel valued and understood. As a consequence the client base is more likely to stay loyal to the brand and to continue doing business with it. As far as I am concerned, this is what Customer Retention Management is all about.
If you would like to share your experience as a customer or as a business in regards to good or bad retention schemes, please feel free to contact me! My next article will be discussing how to communicate retention campaigns to customers.
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