Keep loyal clients, acquire new ones, and achieve overall satisfaction to help decrease your customer churn rate.
Your customer churn rate is the percentage of clients or subscribers who cut ties with your service, product, or organization during a given time period (monthly, quarterly, annually) as calculated with consideration to new customers acquired.
Limiting, or even better, eliminating, your customer churn rate is critical for profitability and growth. Ensure your clients are happy with your service and products, and you’ll earn a lifetime customer who will also recommend your business to others. Otherwise, you’re sure to lose business and essential revenue.
Tracking your customer churn rate also allows you to identify if your marketing and sales endeavors are effective. The lower the churn rate, obviously, the more effective your business initiatives are proving to be.
If you want to keep your customers, you need a quality CRM system to manage your leads, customers, referrals, and past customers. Schedule a free demo of our lead management software and gain loyal customers with less work!
Customer retention and growth is as easy as spelling out END CHURN
E – Engage
Of course, to retain customers, you first need to acquire them. Customer acquisition balances out lost customers for a more favorable churn rate. Here are things you can do to acquire customers.
- Get their attention. Dynamic and targeted prospecting materials and sales initiatives are essential tools for getting in the door with new customers.
- Innovate. Try unique approaches to attract the right prospects. If the old way isn’t working, it’s time to test out something new.
- Don’t over-promise. Make sure you can deliver on expectations outlined in your marketing materials, sales pitch, or through your online presence.
N – Nail down your target audience
To gain a new customer, or retain an existing one, you need to truly understand what your customers value so you can anticipate their needs and exceed their expectations. What are your customer’s pain points, and what solutions can you offer? Is there a specific demographic you need to reach?
Do your research to determine what outside influences, if any, are affecting your customers and ultimately your business.
- Are there environmental changes in the marketplace or in your customer’s individual lives to consider?
- What competition do you have, and what will set you apart?
- Are there political influences affecting your customer, or changes in their work environment or policies?
- Are there shifts in consumer behavior, economic influences, or changing and evolving technology to consider?
Lastly, know what customers to target. Split customers into groups of profitability, probability of going elsewhere, and their motivation to respond favorably to your message, product, or services. Is the customer likely to be a one-off visitor and participant, or do they have the potential for repeat business? Focus your endeavors on the customers most likely to identify with what you have to offer, and those who will have the most longevity of engagement.
D – Discover what your customers really think
Survey. Ask. Research.
Go right to the source and speak to your customers as often as possible. Find out their honest opinion about what is working for them, and what isn’t. Better yet, contact your lost customers directly to ask why they left in the first place.
C – Capitalize on learnings
Make sure you listen, listen, listen. Information gained directly from your current and lost customers has a premium value when developing strategies for addressing similar needs. Once you have identified issues, be immediately responsive. Failure to address customer concerns will increase churn and alienate your audience.
H – Hold their attention
Make sure you are getting the right balance of exposure through various touch points and frequency.
A touchpoint is one interaction between you and a customer in a series of interactions. Examples of touchpoints are: direct mail, a sales call or visit, a search engine result, a web page, an email, a social media post, an interaction at a trade show or professional event, a point-of-sale piece, call center interactions, and even invoices and packaging. Touchpoints, and the frequency with which they happen, build brand recognition and aid in retention.
Blogs, professional articles, and white papers are ways to combine touchpoints with thought leadership, to establish credibility and expertise, and to impress upon your audience that you are an authority in your field.
Be present, create buzz, stay top of mind. In today’s marketplace you need to remain relevant to your customer.
U – Understand why they’re leaving
Troubleshoot. If you’re losing customers, you need to find out why. Understanding customer abandonment is critical to identifying issues with your product, service, or perhaps your approach to marketing. If you can identify an underlying issue, you can take steps to rectify it for better satisfaction and loyalty.
It’s also important to recognize how your business decisions might ultimately affect your customer churn rate. Some business decisions that may inadvertently increase churn are: price increases, product redesign, unaddressed quality issues, customer service, and lack of responsiveness.
As an example: Benedryl cream is used topically to counteract allergic reactions. At one point, Benedryl added aloe to its ingredients. Customers allergic to aloe could no longer use Benedryl. The additional ingredient, meant to be a product improvement, was now a detriment, and in turn increased customer churn rate.
R – Reactivate lost customers
Be ready to fix problems and rectify business decisions that adversely affect customers and create churn. This is where responsiveness and flexibility are key. Act fast, be willing to make changes and adjustments, and then address concerns through PR, sales channels, and marketing endeavors. Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes, to apologize, or to offer something to win a customer back.
N – Nurture the relationship
If you do all of the above, you’ll secure a lifelong customer and reduce churn. Stay up-to-speed on the marketplace. Find your competitive advantage, establishing authority and trust, and don’t forget to interact with your customers regularly so they are aware of your good work and efforts.
If you want to keep your customers, you need a quality CRM system to manage your leads, customers, referrals, and past customers. Schedule a free demo of our lead management software and gain loyal customers with less work!
When was the last time you checked in with your customers to see how you’re doing, what they think about your products or services, and how you could improve?