Stop the Revolving Door: How to Keep Customers Coming Back for More

Acquiring new clients is great, but imagine how much better you would feel if you could keep your existing customers too?

Many companies I visit focus heavily on growing their new client base through sales. While this is important, it's like focusing on getting people through the front door while ignoring those leaving out the back.

Neglecting customer retention can hurt your bottom line. Every year, organisations invest heavily in sales to increase revenue, but if they don't retain existing customers, it's a wasted investment.

One of the things we emphasise at Neural Networks is building value around your products and services to new and existing customers. This is integral to both ensuring that they meet the customers criteria, and to assist with creating a strong and lasting relationship with the customer, based on experience. Failing to consistently identify and meet customer needs, every time you have contact with them, leaves the customer with a poor impression.

Organisations can make it harder for their customers to leave by providing excellent service to them at every opportunity. People are willing to pay more for consistently good service and many organisations could benefit from placing the same level of focus on customer service and retention as they do on sales.

Salespeople naturally focus on sales because that's their job and their reward system. It is also easy to identify the rewards that salespeople receive for achieving or exceeding target, because this usually takes the form of cold hard cash. A question that I always ask when working in service environments is how do you reward your service representatives for providing great service? The scary part is that I rarely get an answer!

Another concern is that sales and service teams often miss customer cues about ending the relationship. They might hear hints but lack the skills or confidence to address them, leading them to simply agree with the customer and "open the back door" for them.

Addressing this is a win-win for sustainable growth. By plugging the leaks and maximising acquisition efforts, organisations can achieve significant progress. The solution starts with training employees to listen for customer cues and actively respond to their needs.

In short, remember these three points:

1. Sales are crucial, but they're just the first step.
2. Provide outstanding service to your new and existing customers – do not provide them with a reason to leave.

3. Listen to customer concerns before they escalate and take action to retain them.

To discuss customer service and retention further, please call us at (03) 9555 7955.