Sometimes it’s worth your while to take a step back and rethink what your company is spending its time and money focusing on. For most businesses, sales and marketing garner a lot of attention, and for good reason. For you to succeed, your organization must build awareness and acquire new customers.
But it seems that often the focus on acquisition pulls attention away from efforts that are usually even more important: those designed to keep the customers you already have. For instance:
Research shows that increasing customer retention by just 2 %, you can decrease your overall costs by 10%. 10%! Think what that does to your bottom line, even without the accompanying increase in customers and revenue.
Speaking of customers, if you can increase your retention by 5% – for most companies, not an unrealistic goal – the financial impact is staggering. Over five years, your customer base will have grown by over 25%, with no increase in your sales growth! Over ten years, you’ll have over 56% more customers.
So, let’s ask again: is it worth it to focus on customer retention? What do you think?