Does Your Business Have a Customer Retention Strategy?

Jul 24, 2023

Most companies can expect to lose 15% of customers every year

Hopefully, they will be your smaller customers, but you are going to lose some business every year. We all know that new customers can be hard to come by and are often costly to attract. That's why it is vital to focus on customer retention.

What's the number one cause of customers leaving?

The most common reason that customers give for moving their business elsewhere is perceived indifference. In other words, they think their supplier doesn't care enough.

In some cases, this can be very unfair. For instance, the customer may not know how hard you are working in the background fixing their file errors.

Here are two things you must do to keep customers happy

Firstly, provide excellent customer service. Secondly, make sure your customers know you are providing it! Tell them what you are doing to help them. And keep in touch with them: Send them an appreciation e-mail every now and then. Even better, send them a hand-written card.

Aren't I always telling people not to sell on service?

Absolutely! Good customer service is vital. But it's a business retention strategy, not a sales strategy.

PS How do you attract customers back if they have left you? I have a script which covers this perfectly in my book "Done For You Sales Scripts". Here's the link: https://profitableprintrelationships.com/online-training-resources/done-for-you-sales-scripts/

Find out more ideas on how to engage with today's buyers: download my free e-book "Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them" right now at https://profitableprintrelationships.com/e-book/ You’ll also receive my regular "Views from the print buyer" bulletin, full of ideas on how to sell print effectively.

Many printing companies are frustrated how hard it is to engage buyers in today's world. That's where Matthew Parker can help. He is a gamekeeper turned poacher. Parker has bought print for more than 20 years and received over 1,400 print sales pitches. He now uses his buyer's point of view to give practical advice to printers. He helps them engage with prospects and customers to create profitable relationships. Download his free e-book, "Ten Common Print Selling Errors And What To Do About Them" and check out his recently launched book, "How To Succeed At Print Sales: Setting targets, planning the right activities and making sure goals are met."