Improving customer retention doesn’t happen overnight. A strategic customer success strategy needs to focus on the entire process involved in the customer journey and can take weeks (if not months) to hash out and develop. While there is no “one-size-fits-all” customer retention plan, there are three primary stages of the journey that need to be measured for success.
Happy Customers are Lifelong Customers
Customer retention increases your ability to control repeat business. While happy customers are lifelong customers, there are other factors to consider when creating a customer retention strategy.
Customer churn is when someone chooses to stop using a product or service. It’s when a customer decides to stop being a…customer. At Big Red Dog Marketing, we understand that keeping an existing customer is easier than gaining new ones. We also know that saving a potential departing customer is easier than tempting them back. So, measuring churn is the first step in any customer retention strategy.
Measure Customer Churn
Customer churn rates are a key metric to track because it is a concrete measure of those who stopped being customers. To figure out the customer churn rate, follow the equation below.
Customer Churn Rate = (Customers beginning of the month — Customer end of the month)÷Customers Beginning of Month
Get Feedback
The second step of the customer retention process is to better understand why those individuals are leaving. Getting quality feedback from customers that have left will help in two ways.
- Show the customer you care about their needs and wants
- Use that feedback to change the customer journey to improve the product or service
Set Measurable SMART Goals
To improve customer retention, you need to have unified goals based on the data collected from those customers that have deserted your product of service. Once you have a general idea of what goals you want to set going forward, make sure to make them SMART goals. SMART goals are
- Specific to the goal
- Measurable and able to be tracked
- Attainable and realistic
- Relevant to the company mission and data collected
- Time-based with a deadline
Reduce Customer Churn
With relevant data and SMART goals in place, the final step is to implement your plan of action and reduce customer churn. While the strategy should help with customer retention, this isn’t a singular retention event. To truly connect with your customers, a business owner should elicit feedback throughout the year as an ongoing conversation with your customer to improve the experience with your brand.
Need Help With Customer Retention
No matter the size of your business, understanding Customer Retention metrics is a solid marketing strategy. However, there is a lot of work that goes into creating a customer feedback loop, analyzing the data and creating relevant SMART goals. If you want to learn more about customer retention or want to discuss a comprehensive marketing strategy, contact us at Big Red Dog Marketing.
At Big Red Dog Marketing, we understand the value of a strong marketing plan when it comes to PPC advertising strategies. With clients located across the country, we focus on what your business really needs and understand how to make your company competitive to deliver high-quality results. From Integrated Marketing to SEO, we tackle any marketing need to help drive quality traffic to your website, raise conversions that build results and solve those complex problems every business owner faces.
Want to learn more about our team and how we can help your business? Feel free to give us a call at 919-926-8727 or email us at hello@bigreddog.marketing.
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