Conversation Defined

customer retention plan

Customer retention and a customer retention strategy is the action of keeping customers coming back for more of your product or service. Customer retention is an integral part of any sustainable business because it is what allows for consistency and the ability to project the future of your company. Customer retention is defined by having loyal customers that come back to you for repeat business. It can also be defined by the action of your customers thinking of you highly enough to refer their friends and family to you. The act of referring business proves that a business has established a know, like and trust factor with its customers and therefore reaps the benefits by way of referral. 

The reason customer retention is important to a business is because on average is costs 5 to 7 times more money to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Existing customers are less expensive to maintain and nurture than having to market and advertise to get new customers. It is said that 68% of customers that leave, leave because they never felt appreciated. Customer retention is solely about the act of showing appreciation and being a resource to your customers. If a business can do those two things they will be successful in keeping their customers and encouraging repeat business and referrals. 

Keeping a customer and/or staying top of mind to your existing customers can be established through proactive communication efforts. Customer retention is easily established by having a strategy and a planned approach to provoking conversation with the existing customer base. A customer retention plan should be implemented upon having the first customer. There is an assumption that a business must wait until they have X number of customers before becoming strategic about their attempt to keep them and it is a misconception. Every business must make a plan to keep the very first customer they have an improve upon the strategies as they grow.