Tag Archives: Retention

Believe, Change, ACHIEVE!

Posted on 18 July 2011 by | 1 Comment

I read an article about employee attrition recently that rehashed many well-known points.  What struck me was a comment by a person who had been in a dead-end job for 10 years (ugh) and who is slogging it out to retirement (another 10+ years away).

For this person, and others in similar situations, buy and read a copy of Now, Discover Your Strengths.  Then, believe, change, and achieve!

  • Believe – Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton’s book illustrates that we each have a multitude of talents, gifts, strengths.  Whatever you choose to call them, we are good at certain things, and struggle with others.  This richness of ability is at the heart of diversity in the world.
  • Change – A popular quotation says: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” For those who feel “stuck” in jobs, it can be empowering to realize that the constraint is self-imposed.  Take the necessary step and stop repeating the insanity.  Find something new.  Find somewhere new where people value your contributions and where you get to do what you do best each day.
  • Achieve – A certain amount of self-confidence is required to believe in oneself.  Once you believe, it makes considering a change possible.  And once you make the change you will have new chances to use your unique strengths.  Exercising those strengths feels good and creates a self-perpetuating cycle of achievement.

The pivot point is that when we use our strengths on a daily basis we are energized, engaged, and contribute at our highest level.  The work seems more like fun than drudgery.  We owe it to ourselves to be the best we can be.  When we do, the companies we work for benefit, shareholders benefit (through improved profitability) and society benefits.  Life is too short to merely mark time in an unfulfilling job so… Believe, Change, ACHIEVE!

Help someone who’s discouraged by sharing examples of people who have found new ways to use their inherent strengths.

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Posted in Customer Service, Employee Engagement

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Don't Lose Your Customers

Posted on 21 December 2009 by | Leave a comment

You can’t lose what isn’t yours.  And if you recognize that your relationship with “your” customers is tenuous at best, you have a good chance of creating lasting bonds and keeping customers.  Customers are transient.  They are supposed to be transient in a free-market economy.  In our Darwinian economy, only the strong should survive.  In our economy we should want consumers to make the best purchases for them.  I used to feel bad when I didn’t “buy American” until I realized that American’s don’t buy American, they buy smart.  Now I only feel bad when companies think of their customers as entitlements.  Here are some surefire ways to lose customers:

  • Hammer them Like a Nail – If your answer to dissatisfied customers is to run a public relations campaign trumpeting how much you’ve improved, you are on the wrong track and wasting money.  Customer satisfaction can be addressed only by improving customer service.  In the world of social media and connected buyers/consumers, the good news about service will spread.  Without tangible customer benefits your PR campaign will seem like you view service as a marketing problem, rather than a service problem.
  • Treat Customers as an Inconvenience – We focus a lot of time, energy, attention, study, research, and ultimately money on acquiring customers.  Who can argue with an approach that lends itself to growing and building the business?  Yet we invest very little on retaining those customers we worked so hard to acquire.  If our acquisition message of “you are important” is to resonate and remain meaningful, we must back it up with actions and deeds that shout “we still value you!”
  • Create Processes that Benefit You or Your Company (but not the customer) – I had a surreal experience recently when trying to pay off the balance on a loan with Chase Bank.  It took only a few minutes to get the loan.  But paying it back required two (2) hours and the involvement of at least four (4) different departments (I stopped counting).  Amazingly, Chase Bank had to verify that it was authorized to accept payment.  I don’t know about you, but when someone offers to pay me back, I don’t ask where the money came from… I’m just happy to see it again.  Now I’m beginning to understand why people think the banking system is broken.  First it lent money to people who shouldn’t have gotten any in the first place, and now it won’t take the money back?  Quite simply, if your processes aren’t benefiting customers, they are losing customers.

The Pivot Point is that “your” customers have choices.  And so do you.  If you choose to ignore customers or erect barriers to their success they will take their business elsewhere.  After all, customers are yours only as long as you provide a benefit.

What about your experiences?  How have the people who are the face of those companies pushed you to the competition?  Any good stories detailing the things companies have done to lose you?

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Posted in Customer Service, Influential Factors - Harmful

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Retention isn’t the New Acquisition, it’s Perpetual Acquisition

Posted on 9 June 2009 by | Leave a comment

In a previous post I remarked about companies that view customer service as a cost.

Even if service is a cost, various studies still show it to be more effective than sales and marketing costs (as much as 5x, 7x, or 10x).  That is, it costs 7 times as much to acquire a customer as retain one.  So it is interesting to read blog posts that call retention the “new acquisition”.

I’m not arguing with the thought that retaining customers is a good idea.  Heck, it’s a great idea.  But retention and acquisition are part of the same continuum.  You can’t treat them as separate.  When a sale is made, it is largely because the prospect/customer believes they will get value from your service.  But after the sale the customer has to live with that decision.  If they aren’t satisfied, what happens?

Customers Leave – For some products the consumer leaves forever.  If the first impression is a bad one, don’t count on getting a second impression.

Buyer’s Remorse – If the experience is bad enough, you may get the product back, along with a demand for a refund.  Time and money – not good.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing – Unfortunately, this isn’t the kind of marketing you want for your company or its products.  These words will be loud and passionate.  And in the internet marketplace, these words carry the extra poison of being public.

Competitors are always looking out for chinks in the armor.  If you fail to protect your position through exceptional customer service, your customers begin to think, “what have I got to lose by switching?”

Great companies realize that customer expectations must be met continually.  Just like stock performance, no one cares what your past results were.  In retaining customers we acquire them again and again.  While acquisition is a one-time activity, retention is acquisition done perpetually.

Perpetual acquisition is possible through great service.  And great service is much easier with great products.  When it comes to product development, there are two types of companies.  Those that develop with the intention to sell once (and move on) and those that develop to sell many times and retain for a long time.  Simplified, the latter are those that design with customer satisfaction in mind as a goal.  Those companies outpace and outlast those that consider satisfaction a necessary evil.  For these companies the experience is the opposite!

Customers Stay – With good service customers may even forgive bad products.

Buyer Loyalty – If the experience is bad enough, you may get the product back, along with a demand for a refund.  Time and money – not good.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing – Happily this exposure is exactly what you want for your company.  Hopefully these words will be loud and passionate.  Now you stand to benefit from widely available praise for your commitment to excellence in all you do.  Now, instead of worrying about bad first impressions, you’ll benefit from customers recruiting new customers for you!

The pivot point of retention is that it keeps customers you worked hard to acquire and it creates momentum so existing customers sell new customers for you.  Sure, retention costs money, but not as much as new sales!

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Posted in How to Deliver Customer Service, What Is Customer Service?

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