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Four ways to tell if a customer in your advocate
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How to climb Advocacy Hierarchy
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Why complainers must be managed and how to do it
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9 ways to minimize detractors and maximize advocates
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How to get online communities spreading your good name
Aaron Strout
Keeping customers who are highly valued can greatly improve profit, Fred Reichheld says in his ground-breaking book, “The Loyalty Effect.” Presenting extensive data across a wide array of industries, Reichheld shows why as little as a 5 percent increase in retention can improve a company’s bottom-line profitability between 25 percent and 85 percent, depending on the industry.
Wow! Who wouldn’t want to increase their bottom line by 25-85%? All it takes is as little as a 5% increase in retention. The problem is, retaining customers these days just isn’t that easy. I made that point earlier when I mentioned the “search and click” phenomena (which in the spirit of full disclosure is the part of the title of Jill’s latest book).
This isn’t rocket science but it does run counterintuitive to the way most companies do business. While your company may provide “content,” it’s likely to be focused on your company’s products and services. [See recent post on Hubspot for another company doing a great job providing value-add content] That’s not to say that your site shouldn’t include that type of information, but that’s not always what customers care about.
In Sony’s case, they have tutorials on how to take better digital photos, irrespective of whether you use a Sony or a Canon camera. In addition to these tutorial (which you can ran
k, review and tag) Sony’s online communities allow members to upload their own photos for others to rate, discussion boards and other social features that allow photo enthusiasts to communicate with one another.
So what are you waiting for? As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is no better time than now to be thinking about engaging your customers with a goal of creating deeper loyalty and greater retention. It’s a new way of thinking but one that provides demonstrative results.
Is your company focused on customer loyalty and retention? If not, what’s stopping you?
Cross-posted on http://theengagedconsumer.powered.com
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