“Start the retention process when the person is still open to staying and not after they’ve already told you they’re leaving.” – Pinterest
In the earlier exposition, we spoke about what constitutes customer success, and what it is not. It is true however, that making customers successful with lead to retaining them for a long time. The question arises though of whom the responsibility of customer retention lies with in a company – is it the customer service team, or the customer success team, the leadership? The answer to this, we believe that no in particular ‘owns’ or has individual responsibility for retaining customers, simply because it is the responsibility of each person in the company. Customer retention is one of the toughest challenges companies face today and unless everyone in a company contributes towards this end, it would be tough to achieve. In fact, strategies for retaining customers should be part of the overall growth and profitability strategies of a company. Every touch-point, every person managing the respective channels of communication, are all equally responsible for retaining customers and their business for the company.
It actually should be obvious that the responsibility of customer retention should lie with every person in a company, since the experiences customers have with a company decide whether they stay or not, and these experiences are not in control of one team / person. A company must empower every employee to be able to delight the customers. This is achievable through pertinent and timely training, skill enhancement, knowledge development, and making the requisite tools and technology available. Each interaction with customers must be treated as unique and the queries and issues of a customer must be given due importance, irrespective of how many similar queries / issues the teams may have handled in the past. For a customer her or his issue is a first and extremely important. Allowing employees some flexibility and keeping them informed of any changes in protocol or company situation, would enable them to provide value-added service to customers, which in turn would delight them.
Customers seek companies and brands that provide value, satisfying experiences, and quick resolutions consistently, and tend to ‘stick’ with such companies. Given that a company is not in a position to know, which person / department the customer may ‘land’ with and which channel a customer may use to connect, it would follow that the responsibility of customer retention would lie with each employee. A nasty interaction such as poor behaviour, inability, / unwillingness to resolve their problem, and other such behaviours on the part of any employee could easily anger a customer, which could lead to them leaving the association with a company. Every experience with the company must be relevant and useful, ensuring that the customer moves on to the next level – that of engagement with the company. Top class experiences build trust with a company, while even one poor one can sharply detract from the feelings of loyalty and trust in the company. A combination of automation and the human touch will ensure that the company delivers the same top class service across. As mentioned, customers may begin the interaction with a company from one channel, but move the interaction further by communicating through another channel – their experience across all channels must remain pleasant, engaging, and useful. Ensuring consistency is one major responsibility of customer retention, and cannot happen through one person / team.
While the responsibility of customer retention lies with each person, parts of the overall strategy could be the core responsibility of particular teams. For example, a team / teams could be responsible for ‘observing’ and monitor customer behaviours, such that the company is able to understand its customers and provide interactions, experiences, and offerings that are relevant and useful to the customers. Strategies cannot be based on experiences of a company with its customers – but rather on present, real-time and actual events and behaviours of customers. It is only then that strategies would be engaging and relevant to the needs and expectations of customers – we know that needs and expectations of customers change continuously.
Taking responsibility of customer retention must begin at the source – that is with the customers. Companies must build a culture of customer-centricity such that every person in the company understands that irrespective of their job role and department, they would be directly or indirectly part of the responsibility towards customer retention. Companies can collect customer data from feedback surveys, online behaviours, buying patterns, social media pages, and other such sources, which in turn would allow companies to prepare relevant customer profiles and personas.
By creating customer profiles and segmenting customers based on their needs and expectations, a company would be better able to manage the changing expectations and emotional reasons for buying of its customers. Through this understanding, a company can set relevant and manageable expectations with customers early in the association such that there are no irrelevant expectations or unreasonable demands. Companies must remember that in their responsibility of customer retention, one of the biggest reasons for churn is when they over promise and under deliver – the converse should be true at all times. By setting reasonable expectations, a company would be able to give customers more than they expect, which serves to delight them, leading customers to stay with the company for a long time, translating to loyalty and brand affinity.
As part of the responsibility of customer retention, every person in a company must know what they need to do in order to exceed the expectations of customers. Being proactive and quick would ensure that the company would address any service issues even before the customer became aware of them, or before the customer actually speaks about the issue. This is a sure-shot way to delight customers, and doing so consistently will ensure that customers never want to leave.
We know that today the expectation of top class customer service trumps pricing and product quality. In fact, as part of the responsibility of customer retention, top class customer service should be the top priority for each team and person in the company. Customers want to experience empathy, courteousness, helpfulness, and efficiency when they connect with a company, and do not care whom in the company would be providing them with such service. Research shows at least 68% customers would leave a company if the service provided by the company were below their expectations, slovenly, did not match up to the promises made by the company. Customer service can happen through any touch-point, and unless each person is equipped and ready to provide it, a company cannot hope to retain its customers, and no customers mean, no business. Even constantly getting in new customers to replace the old ones would ultimately erode the revenue and profitability of a company.
Employees must be made aware of their responsibility of customer retention and service to customers – making it part of the core KPIs for all, would be a good starting point. Research shows that even a minimal increase in retention rates can prove extremely beneficial for the profitability of a company. Gaining customers and running a business today is tough enough, it would be prudent not to make it tougher by ignoring customer retention strategies. Does everyone in your company understand their responsibility of customer retention?
