The main reason you lose customers (it’s not price by the way).
The loss of customers is something that, in my experience, business owners don’t work hard or smart enough to prevent happening.
Simply put, the more customers you retain each year – the more profitable and successful you’ll be.
Here are 4 pieces of research that I have gathered over the last few months on this subject, all of which demonstrate the importance of working hard to retain your customers, clients, or patients…
- “Price is NOT the main reason for losing customers, it’s actually due to the overall poor quality of customer service” – Accenture global customer satisfaction report.
- “The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5 – 20%” – Marketing Metrics.
- “70% of all buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated” – McKinsey
- It costs 6 – 7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one” – Bain & Company
It’s fair to say that most people think ‘price’ is the deciding factor when customers leave. This perception is often skewed because a departing customer will often use the ‘price objection’ for leaving.
But saying “you’re too expensive” is more often than not…code for ‘I’m not getting value for money from you anymore’. So if any of your clients are saying this, you need to start working harder on delivering more value – NOT REDUCING YOUR PRICES.
It’s so much easier to sell to existing customers but often it’s them who drive this, not you. Having a proactive system for selling more products and services to existing customers is not actually that difficult – you just have to put a process in place for doing it.
Keep all this in mind as you look to grow your business