No matter how spectacular your brand marketing efforts … no matter how revolutionary your product, it will happen. A certain number of customers will leave your brand. See ya!
Not a good thing. In fact, customer retention is among the major issues facing virtually every business or brand. How do we keep them from leaving? is an oft-asked question in the local marketing circle.
Realistically speaking, you can’t keep them all. Every business must confront customer churn — the rate at which customers leave during a specified time frame. Understandably, marketers will climb mountains to regain lost customers. The problem is, this noble effort often proves a shameful waste of resources. Most defecting customers will remain that way … inflexible to the core, no matter how extensive your recapturing efforts.
A much more productive and effective route is the employment of churn-prevention strategies – stop ‘em before they zip away. To accomplish this feat, brand marketers should focus precious resources on customers who give evidence they’re about to leave. Once they exit, recapturing is virtually impossible — and rarely worth the expenditure of resources.
Brands may employ various churn-prevention strategies. One of the most effective is simple communication. Reach out to customers at timely intervals. But be selective with messaging. Typically, helpful hints and friendly reminders have the most positive impact.
Orienting new customers to your product or service also scores points. Many shoppers, particularly the newly on-board, may be unfamiliar with your product’s snappy features. Help them get acquainted with targeted input that unveils these unknown benefits.
And don’t forget to incentivize. Customers contemplating abandonment often can be steered back by juicy offerings. Gift cards, special promotions, hefty discounts, and other tempting incentives frequently work wonders.
Never underestimate the value of solid customer-retention efforts. Researchers at Bain & Co., a prominent management consulting firm, report that a modest 5% increase in customer retention can boost bottom line results by anywhere between 25% to 95%. For the profit-conscious, churn-prevention clearly is well worth the effort.
If you have questions or comments about reducing customer churn rates, or about any other brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way.