Customer Retention and the Role Communications Play
On paper, all companies want to retain their existing customers. They go to great lengths to espouse how much their customers matter and how dedicated they are to their customers’ needs. But in practice, many companies aren’t taking advantage of all the tools available to them to effectively implement customer retention strategies. Whether consciously or subconsciously, many companies still focus their efforts on selling to new customers. A glance at your company’s marketing collateral might confirm this. Are your materials predominantly geared toward new clients, or are at least some of them geared toward existing customers?
Since customer retention investments are five times more profitable than new client acquisition efforts, it’s well worth the investment to create and distribute marketing materials aimed specifically at your existing customers. And with database segmentation, it’s easy and highly effective to implement a customer targeted campaign.
One of the most fundamental needs of a customer is the need to feel appreciated. Sending an existing customer a communication that gives the impression of being targeted to a non-customer can be disastrous to your marketing efforts. Not only do customers want to feel appreciated and recognized by your outbound communications, they also seek the same when they contact you. This underscores the importance of maintaining centralized data on all of your customers.
Customer recognition also breeds loyalty. Much of this loyalty was lost during the shift to the mass marketing and discounting campaigns epitomized by the supermarket industry. Now we are seeing a resurgence in targeted customer campaigns that seek to win loyalty and promote value by appealing to a specific segment of a company’s database, its customers! The advances in computer technology and software make it possible for any size company to segment and target its customer databases with communications that greatly enhance the effectiveness of its efforts. And as noted earlier, the ROI will easily justify any added costs.
If you haven’t already, consider modifying some of your existing materials or creating new ones that speak more specifically to your existing customers. We’re happy to discuss this with you.
