If you want glamour, status and prestige within your company, go out and get new customers. If you want to stay in business, specialize in keeping the ones you have happy and loyal. Customer retention isn’t flashy, and it doesn’t earn extra pats on the back from executives or big promotions — which is a shame, because it’s usually more profitable over the long term than hauling in new accounts. It can be a lot more profitable. Acquiring a new customer is six to seven times more costly than retaining a customer.
Great story Chris. The unsung heroes of sales are often the customer success managers. They're on the hook to grow existing accounts through renewals and upselling. It's particularly hard when they have a large number of accounts to manage. It truly is a "retention economy". CSMs need their CRM systems to keep them informed as people and organizations change, or when business events or news happens. CRM solutions have to get smarter. We're calling this drive to deliver relevant data, news and connections CRM Intelligence. With it, CSMs as well as sales pros will have an easier job.
Thanks for the great information, Christopher! It shouldn't be surprising that an intelligent social CRM will assist with customer retention, and I agree that customer retention is a crucial component for all businesses. With an SCRM a business can attain the ability to understand the needs of each unique customer. Therefore, online cloud-based business suites like Greenrope, are now a necessity for businesses and the flexibility of functions offered are unparalleled. The ease and accessibility along with social media integration, allows social CRM to open channels of communication previously unavailable. Furthermore, this encourages a relationship to form between the business and the client. By encouraging the growth of client-business relationships, there is a larger possibility of customer retention and through this valuable retention, you are able to have a consistent flow of revenue.
Retention equals loyalty and increased repeat and referral business from existing clients. It's absolutely amazing how much potential revenue is hiding in plain sight within a companies own database. Having a system in place to solicit referrals from existing clients at the various levels of interaction can bring a wealth of new accounts through the door and the cost of acquisition way down.
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Sales Get the Glory but Retention Gets the Gold
Posted by: Christopher J. Bucholtz August 2, 2013 05:00 AMIf you want glamour, status and prestige within your company, go out and get new customers. If you want to stay in business, specialize in keeping the ones you have happy and loyal. Customer retention isn’t flashy, and it doesn’t earn extra pats on the back from executives or big promotions — which is a shame, because it’s usually more profitable over the long term than hauling in new accounts. It can be a lot more profitable. Acquiring a new customer is six to seven times more costly than retaining a customer.
Jim Williams