If you run a business with the attitude that customer retention is elusive or impossible, you will get what you thunk. No customer retention.
Are any executives really thinking (thunking) that customer retention is impossible? I cannot pin down a few executives I know to admit they think this but all their behavior leads to this conclusion.
I won’t name names – for now – but I’ve worked with several executives over the past several years whose tactics do anything but make their customers want to stick around. The executives’ focus on bottom line results looms so large in their mind, they have simply lost the ability or energy to include a strong program for customer retention.
I empathize with all the pressures of running a company yet my empathy fades away when leaders fail to understand how damaged their company will become if the customer, along with their complete satisfaction, is not fully front and center in everything the company does.
Here are a few reasons some companies fall short on customer retention programs:
a. Lack of vision for developing the programs
b. Not aware of or open to innovative ways to create the programs
c. Short of staff and expertise to administer
d. More focused on sales than on customer retention
e. No good feedback or research to indicate customer retention levels
f. No candid research to indicate why customers leave
g. No candid research to indicate exactly why customers stay
These are all lame excuses for not developing the best customer retention program your company can possibly create and execute.
