Losing customers is frustrating, disappointing, and really hurts profits. That’s because it costs so much more to find a new customer than to keep an existing one. I’ve seen estimates that it costs 8 to 13 times as much to find a new customer. So losing customers and then having to replace them is pretty expensive.
There are lots of reasons for losing customers
From your own experience as the consumer, you know why so many businesses keep losing customers. Bad service, price increases, losing control of quality. These are great ways to destroy your relationship with a customer. There are even scores of lists with the reasons for losing customers. Read them an weep: everyone has lost a customer at one time or another.
Losing customers doesn’t have to happen
How can you hold on to your existing customers? The answer is usually pretty simple:
- Consistent service, provided by a knowledgeable team, and a personal contact that your customer knows can be relied upon.
- Show them the value: don’t market features, tell your customers about benefits
- Keep learning about your customer: what are their goals? Where do they want to be in the future? What are their problems? This works just as well for a Dry Cleaner in Bridgeport, CT as an insurance agent in Hartford.
- Make it easier (less painful) for your customer to work with you. Collect any important information that will help you to help them. There’s plenty of CRM software that will help. Being able to anticipate your customers’ needs prevents losing customers.
- Educate them about how you help them. The more they know about what you really do for them, the more they can appreciate it.
- Help them in new ways. Bankers in Connecticut know that customer loyalty is strongly linked to the number of services the customer uses. So tell them about more of the services you provide and they’ll have more reasons to stay with you.
Losing customers is avoidable
It’s not guaranteed that you’ll lose a customer after a month, or a year. We’ve worked with most of our customers for over 5 years. Many for more than 10 years. That’s because we help prevent losing customers with Informer Messages on hold. Informer Messages give your telephone callers information that they appreciate, and help you with most of the 6 points we talked about earlier.
Want to talk about putting an end to losing customers? Call for a free 10-minute brainstorming session today:
Call (800) 862-8896.