1.6 trillion dollars … that’s the yearly load lost by brands due to customer churn. A reliable measure of loyalty, churn rate reveals the number of customers ditching a company during a specified period of time.
No problem, you might be saying. It’s just a matter of luring them back to the camp. Well, OK. It can and has been done. The cost, however, is a budget buster. Latest tallies, provided by the research service Forrester, put customer re-acquisition cost at around five times the cost of retaining them. The math is clear – it’s cheaper to keep ‘em.
Customers, of course, abandon brands for a variety of reasons. But out of all the reasons, brand inattentiveness is hands down the major one. To minimize abandonment, brand marketers must, without question, do everything possible to maintain a strong relationship with their customer base.
The first step en route to customer retention goals is determining the cause of abandonment. Don’t guess, speculate, or conjecture. Get the facts. And where can brand marketers acquire the info? Straight from the source – the customers.
Naturally, some serious reaching out will be required, with the most direct and effective method being a telephone call. The next best option is written correspondence of some sort, whether it be email or standard mail. Whatever method implemented, the primary objective is to ascertain where you, the brand, took a wrong turn.
Don’t think this matters? Well, consider the following: most customers, about 68%, ditch because of inattentiveness – the brand, in their minds, simply didn’t care much about them. No outreach, no follow-ups, nothing.
For customers sill on board, engagement is paramount. Productive engagement is most effectively achieved by providing consistent updates and other high-value info. Product news, updates, important announcements, and tantalizing offers all work magnificently to keep customers satisfyingly dialed in.
While conducting this outreach, brand marketers should maintain information flow on all available channels. This means utilizing the full spectrum of media options, from Facebook posts to the U.S. Post Office. But don’t overdo. Too much messaging can be just as detrimental as too little. Find a happy medium and stick to it.
If you have questions or comments about reducing customer churn, or any other brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way. You can connect with the Young Company team at 949-376-8404 or bart@youngcompany.com. And be sure to follow us for the latest brand marketing news and tips.