Customer retention vs customer acquisition

Many businesses spend a lot of time and money trying to find new customers. But what about the customers they already have? How much time and money do they spend nurturing them?

Acquiring a new customer can cost 5X more than retaining an existing one. That doesn't mean you shouldn't market to new customers because of course, you need to. But maybe it's time to reconsider how much money is spent where.

The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.

OutboundEngine

Go above and beyond

So how do you retain a client? We think it's all about going above and beyond for your customer. Take the time at the start of the relationship to understand the way they work and how you can complement this.

First, make sure your customer knows who the point of contact is so they can start to form a real connection and feel comfortable communicating with them.

Don't underestimate the power of human connection. In the digital age we live in, people often miss the human interactions. Whether it's seeing a face on a Zoom call or hearing a voice on the phone, your client will appreciate the personal touch rather than another cold email.

64% of customers say experiences are more important than prices, and that number is growing.

MyCustomer

Understand what your clients love about you

Once you have loyal customers who continue to want to work with you, you might think your job is done. But it's not. Clients can churn at any time and then all your hard work on providing a great customer experience so far would be lost.

Understanding what your clients love about you can help make sure that doesn't happen. Whether you use regular NPS and feedback check-ins or just have a casual conversation here and there, find out what it is your customers value the most and what they think you could improve on.

Then it's simple, keep doing what they love and improve where you need to. If you repeatedly give your clients everything they want and more, why would they ever leave?

A 5% increase in customer retention can increase company revenue by 25-95%.

HubSpot

Stay in touch

When acquiring a new customer, you've probably spent months nurturing them with insightful content and engaging marketing emails. So why stop just because they're now a customer?

If you won them over with your content, chances are they enjoyed it! Stay in touch with your customers by keeping them in the loop with your new blogs, upcoming events and top tips.

Here at Six & Flow we send a bi-weekly newsletter to all our customers sharing tech updates, insightful books or podcasts and invites to our events.

Reap the rewards

Ensuring a great customer experience will not only help you retain the customers you already have, but it will help you win even more loyal customers for your business.

If your clients are satisfied and loyal, they're more likely to spread the word about their experience. They will refer you to friends, family and colleagues bringing you new customers completely free of charge.

This in turn gives you more marketing budget to spend on nurturing those all-important existing customers. Win-win, right?