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Companies lose half their customers every 5 years
Companies lose half their customers every 5 years
March 09, 2009
According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, US companies lose half of their customers every five years, with two-thirds of them citing inadequate customer care as their primary reason for leaving...
"If customer loyalty is increased by just five per cent, profits can increase by 25 per cent. "
I often quote the figures from Leboeuf that up to 65% of clients leave you because they feel that you just don't care - you don't make enough effort.
So, how much does it cost for you to acquire one new customer? How long do they stay with you? What is the average gross profit/contribution over the life-time of a customer?
Actions:
- Do a customer survey every three months - find out who is and is not happy with your service (90% of businesses have not done a survey in the last three months!)
- Use a customer satisfaction/happiness form after as many customer interactions as possible
- Find 10 ways to get closer to your customers right now!
How can you not want to have incredibly loyal customers right now?!
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Comments
More importantly than to keep your customers is to grade your customers. Get rid of the ones with unrealistic demands and low margin potential.
Also spend some time cleaning your database. Most are out of date by at least 2% every month, and that just gets worse every month. If you don't chase them up, you will lose them. While 25% wrong after 13 months doesn't mean that they have all moved, it does mean that there will be something really straining with the relationship.
There is also the theory that says train your company to keep looking for new customers, in conjunction with the above, and you may be able to grow the business from both ends of the stick- !
Small enterprises that want to survive the recession need to hang on to their long-standing customers http://www.bignews.biz/?id=797633&keys=payment-preferential-customer-loy...
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