Raving Fans For Life. How to Systemize Brilliant Customer Retention
There is a pretty simple metric to determine your impending growth or decline in sales: Run a 12-month trailing report on how many new customers with orders you have vs. how many customers quit ordering.
Your subscription program is the best way to see the health of your brand.
New subscriptions are the result of your recruiting and customer-acquisition culture. Cancelled subscriptions are caused by many factors.
With every order, you have an opportunity to either blow out a customer or secure them for life.
Which are you doing?
Many studies have proven that if we can keep a customer for three consecutive orders, we can keep them for years.
If those studies are true, what is the value of a long-term customer? 20 years at $1,200 a year is $24,000. Perhaps $2,400 of that is profit for the company, but up to $12,000 of it is commission to the sales force, which, for them, is oxygen.
There is a lot at stake in securing lifetime customers. The question is: What are we investing in those first 90 days to secure them?
“Event Opportunities.”
Every event is an opportunity: an opportunity to impress and inspire or… generate a “forget it!”
👉 Someone decides to order. Is the cart super simple to navigate? Is it designed for a 70-year-old or a 17-year-old? Are the shipping options clear in terms of cost and ETA? Is payment as slick as Amazon?
👉 We receive the order. This is an opportunity to thank them, show them the order, confirm how it will be shipped, when it will be shipped, and when it is due to arrive. Are we doing all of that in a simple, easy-to-read format? SMS and email?
👉 We pack the order and hand it off to the shipper. This is another opportunity to update the customer and include their tracking number link.
👉 Transit time. This is an opportunity to educate the customer on what to expect when they open their package… what it will look like, how it’s packed, how our packing impacts the environment, and how to use the product.
👉 A second communication during transit can give the customer an update on their delivery date. We can also provide more info on how to best use the product and include 5–6 testimonials from others who just got started on the product and are loving it.
👉 A third communication during transit would offer an FAQ on that particular product. FAQ is a huge part of product selection on Amazon. Are we using it? Do we even have one on every product?
👉 The day of delivery. We know when a product is delivered. Let’s celebrate it. It could just be an acknowledgement of the delivery. And it could include what the customer can do if they have a problem. What if it is damaged? What if it leaked? What if it is the wrong size? What if something is missing? What if it is the wrong product?
👉 Every problem is an opportunity. Most companies use the “Hide and Hope” strategy.
2️⃣ Failure to prioritize the investment capital in retention. What is your “first 3 orders” retention budget? Who is in charge of that department?
3️⃣ Failure to empathize with the fears and frustrations of becoming a new customer.
4️⃣ Hold times over 1 minute. (And stupid messages like “due to unforeseen higher-than-normal traffic.)
5️⃣ Live customer service reps who do not speak my language clearly.
6️⃣ Rude or apathetic customer service is not empowered to make creative decisions.
7️⃣ Lack of email, text, or chat options. (Personally, I don’t ever want to call anyone, anywhere, anytime, no matter how nice they are.)
8️⃣ Customer service that prioritizes saving the company money on errors and “just follows the rules.”
9️⃣ Transferring me to “another department” so I can stay on hold another 20 minutes listening to crap music.
🔟 Asking me to return the product. Are you kidding? A product that has a COGS of 15% of what I paid for it, and you want me to undertake the return hassle, from boxing it up to driving and standing in line, because YOU made a mistake?? Give it to me. Suggest I give it away. Suggest I throw it away, but never, ever, ever ask me to ship it back!
Making the most of every event and avoiding the 10 mistakes of customer retention can secure customers for life, versus them hightailing it somewhere else. Try it, and just see how it impacts your 12-month report.
The Work Is Worth It.
Richard Bliss Brooke
P.S. My blogs are, for me, a conversation. I rant for a bit and then… if so inspired, you respond. Your comments close the loop of conversation. They let me know I was heard. They let me know I contributed something… or not. I encourage you to close the loop… or open a new one and say something.