The Sales Mindset Coach Customer Retention

25th February 2019

Research by Harvard Business Review shows that one year after being contacted for feedback, customers were how many times as likely to have opened new accounts? 1.

Twice as likely 2. Three times as likely 3. Four times as likely 4. No difference Approaching customers for feedback can be daunting and intimidating especially face-to-face. The benefit outweighs the cost of asking for it, the cost of attracting a new customer is five times as much as keeping an existing customer. The answer to the quiz above is customers who were contacted for feedback were three times as likely to have opened new accounts. Top tip #1: Don't be afraid to ask for feedback it's not a weakness. There's an appropriate way to ask for feedback from new and existing customers to improve your product or service. When asking questions, whether through an online form or face-to-face use open-ended questions to give them chance to provide a detailed, honest answer e.g. what could be better? There are so many different ways of collecting customer feedback. How many of these have you tried? 1. Face-to-face conversations 2. Telephone calls 3. Your own website 4. Testimonials 5. Google Analytics 6. Social media monitoring e.g. Twitter, Facebook 7. Reviews 8. Comment boxes/forms 9. Online surveys 10. In-app surveys 11. Online polls Top tip #2: Work out your churn rate. Understanding your churn rate is a crucial metric to measure, just as important as your customer acquisition rate. Use your churn rate to see if your existing customers are happy with the service you provide them. Working out your churn rate is simple: Churn Rate = (Customers who left/Customers at the start of the month) x 100 For example, churn rate: 5/25 x 100 = 20% churn rate Top tip #3: Improve relationships with customers by sending an agenda before calling them. Sending an agenda to customers before you call them will show them you are serious about doing business but also that you value their time. Having an agenda for each call will help you and your customer stay on track and keep calls to no longer than necessary. This will give off a professional attitude to the customer. Download my handy pre-call planning template for free at The Sales Mindset Coach website. Top tip #4: Document your sales calls. Foster a long-lasting relationship with your customers by keeping a record of every call. As well as recording contact data remember to record details that are personal to them such as birthdays, sports teams, business events, etc. This information can be recorded on your CRM or use my post call report template available to download for free from my website The Sales Mindset Coach. The next time you call your customer you will be able to ask them how the business event went or wish them happy birthday. This will show your customer that you care about their business and will help to build repeat business or interest in other products in your ecosystem. Top tip #5: Share your product ecosystem with existing customers. Your product ecosystem is all the products and services that are offered by your business. When you are selling to existing customers you don't need to convince them of your reputation, skills or quality of your product. Listen to your customer feedback and use this to pitch another product or service in your ecosystem. Be mindful of selling them something that is suitable for their needs and you are likely to have success. Thank you for reading, and please don't forget to stay updated on my future blogs by signing up to our notification list. You can do so on my homepage www.thesalesmindsetcoach.com