Companies lose half their customers every five years!

From the Sunday Times :


"According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, US companies lose half of their customers every five years, with two-thirds of them citing inadequate customer care as their primary reason for leaving. The study calculated that it is six or seven times more expensive to gain a new customer than retain an existing one, and that if customer loyalty is increased by just five per cent, profits can increase by 25 per cent. "
Read the whole Sunday Times article.

I often quote the figures from Leboeuf that up to 65% of clients leave you because they feel that you just don't care - you don't make enough effort.

And as the Americans say, " Do the math!".


How much does it cost for you to acquire one new customer?


How long do they stay with you? What is the average gross profit/contribution over the life-time of a customer?


Or put it another way... with, say 1000 clients this year, you will need to replace 200 of them every year just from natural wastage... and yet it costs six or seven times more to sell to new customers... so why not focus on existing customers.


Actions:

• Do a customer survey every three months - find out who is and is not happy with your service (90% of businesses have not done a survey in the last three months!)!
• Use a customer satisfaction/happiness form after as many customer interactions as possible
• Find 10 ways to get closer to your customers right now! How can you not want to have incredibly loyal customers right now?!
  

Calculate how much time/money you spend:

• Acquiring new customers
• Getting them to buy more or more often from you
• Stopping them from leaving you...

RELEVANT LINKS
Read the whole Sunday Times article: Keeping The Customer Happy
Read the book Customer Is King (Virgin Books)
Read the Customer Is King (for professional advisors) article (Better Business)
Read the 10 Way To Keep Your Customers Happier article (Wilts Times)
Read the Exceeding Customer Expectations article (Customer Management)



Attend the Bright Marketing workshops