I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the value of retaining your current clients and the cost of losing them to a competitor.
Fact: it costs two to three times more to find a new customer than to keep an existing one happy.
A common problem that businesses encounter is that they provide services to their clients so well that clients often forget the value of the services being provided to them and eventually begin to wonder why they’re paying you.
Most businesses fail to find ways to reinforce the value of the services they provide to their clients. This can be a fatal mistake, especially given this economy. Your chief challenge in this economy is protecting your current client base and guarding them as if you were secret service and they’re the president. Hold down the fort, reinforce your value and you’ll largely destroy any chance of attrition.
If you’re doing a great job and you know it, your customer may have a differing opinion. YOUR opinion of your services doesn’t matter. Your services are only as valuable as your customers believe them to be. It’s a completely subjective mindset and you have a key opportunity to influence their thoughts by reinforcing your value.
Part of the onboarding process, the process of setting up a new account, which is often forgotten, is to capture the reasons why the client has chosen your services over your competitors. First you must understand what your customers value the most about the services you provide and documenting internally why they bought from you instead of someone else. These buying decisions can be used to directly reinforce your value as your relationship matures.
About the Author
Brooks A. Brown is the founder and principal of Shout Out LLC, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based marketing, public relations, and communications firm serving clients throughout the nation.
