Question

Topic: Student Questions

My New Position At Work Is "customer Retention"...

Posted by Anonymous on 3/28/2008 at 2:00 PM ET 250 Points
...and I am having a difficult time creating a worthwhile retention plan to put in place for our industry. I come from a very strong customer service background and have a knack for building trust and "saving" clients from canceling their service with us...thus the new position. The company head is asking for a retention plan to be put in place immediately and it's on me.

I am in the information business with a company that has over 4000 clients that retrieve info online through our site which we collect nationwide for them. Currently, our retention plan includes monthly f/u, split between four of us on staff in customer service, and emails to active clients offering tips and tricks on how to find information on their subjects more effectively and efficiently and at the least expense to them.

Our advertising, trade show marketing, etc budget is very slim and I'm working on that as well to bring in more clients from different industries. I'll bring up those questions at another time.

I want to be at the next level of retention... if I only knew what steps to take or a proven combination of strategies that can help us retain our really good clients and also come up with a way to get clients back that have not used us in 6 months or longer.

Is there a general Customer Retention Plan template out there that I can build off of? Any help would be sincerely appreciated!
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  • Posted on 3/30/2008 at 12:58 PM Accepted
    Hi there,

    It sounds like you've got some basics in place. A retention effort must be aimed at delighting customers in areas that they consider important.

    Have you conducted a comprehensive customer satisfaction/loyalty study or do you benchmark regularly? If so, analyze these data with an eye for identifying the drivers of customer loyalty. The most important survey question in this regard is to ask customers to what extent they would recommend your product to others. Looking at this data in light of satisfaction ratings can help to identify which product features are strongest drivers of (or detractors from) loyalty.

    Also, you have 4k clients, but they may be in different market segments or using your product for different purposes. There could be different perceptions of your product depending on these segments.

    Once you have the data in hand, you can tailor retention strategies for maximum impact.

    Without knowing much about your business and use frequency, some retention vehicles could include:

    -Discounts for regular, frequent users, or reward points stored that can be redeemed for rewards

    -Dedicated customer service/order line for top-tier clients (typically those who are most profitable to the company)

    The same approach should be used to appeal to lapsed clients. Do you still have their contact information? If so, you could deploy a small, targeted study (either interviews or a quick web survey) to determine the reason they stopped using your firm. If it turns out to be a competitive issue, study the competitor and strive to construct a positively differentiated offer.

    There are myriad strategies for retention, but the successful ones are built on solid and updated customer need and satisfaction data.

    Good luck!
  • Posted on 4/9/2008 at 5:59 PM Accepted
    I am not an expert in customer retention and I think you have got some great advice already here, so do combine all this.
    But I would ask one question:

    "Why should your 4k customers still carry on using your services and why not switch?"

    Now, if you could make a list of WHYs honestly, I am pretty sure you'll come with a plan.
    Add offers, improve service processes, highlight your USPs,highlight your good points and internally address the flaws, compare yourself with your competetitors and always one up them and make sure you highlight this to your customer base.
    Do you have a periodic newsletter doing all this communication? Must have.
    Remember to have both a long and short term stragey.
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