“In my opinion, client retention has never been more important during an ever-changing landscape.”
– Heather Francis
Altify’s 2017 Business Performance Benchmark Study found these to be B2B CEOs’ most important strategic focus:
87.3% – Customer Retention
86.5% – Revenue Growth
73.1% – Profit Growth
65.2% – Operational Efficiency
64.6% – Increased Market Share
38.0% – Cost Reduction
Customer Retention edged out all the others for the #1 most important strategic focus.
Why?
Because:
- Acquiring a new customer is 5-7x as expensive as retaining an existing customer.
- The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.
- Increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by 25-95%.
If all this sounds important, we need to remember that:
- 89% of businesses report their customers state that their user experience is the key factor in their loyalty.
The user experience is essentially customer service, how we serve and provide value to the customer (continually).
Well, what is the user experience that will drive customers away (to churn)?
Strategic Insights’ 2019 survey found that the overwhelming majority of the reason customers leave is within the control and influence of the sales rep:
9% – Customer persuaded to go to competitor
14% – Customer is dissatisfied with your service
68% – Customer believes you don’t care about them or their business (you only care about yourself)
Add that up and 91% of the reason customers will leave is within the control and influence of the Funding Pro!
So to retain customers, the customer must feel satisfied with your service and believe you care about them (you are aligned with their interests and business goals).
Never has it been more important to deliver than in the age of Covid.
Definition of Customer Retention:
Customer retention is the ability to retain customers over a set period of time. It is represented by a percentage that measures how many customers a company keeps at the end of a set period of time, and that number impacted by the number of new customers acquired as well as the number of customers who churn (leave).
This formula has been impacted substantially by Covid, as the number of new acquired customers has been greatly reduced for most for one reason or another.
Heather Francis does a great job charting out the path forward on her deBanked article, highlighting “established merchants and renewals” as being their “saving grace to drive their momentum forward.”
In times as uncertain as these, revenue preservation is synonymous with renewal preservation.
In a recent Gallup poll, they found that B2B agents that engaged their customers by doing only what they could do to help them succeed in tough times were perceived as “trusted advisors” and perceived as “delivering customer impact.”
Why does this matter?
Because B2B agents who were perceived as Trusted Advisors delivering customer impact – helping them succeed in tough times – are seeing 50% higher revenues, 34% higher profitability and 63% lower customer attrition.
What can you do to continue helping merchants succeed in these tough times?
-FundingStrategist
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