About eight years ago I noticed our refrigerator was leaking. This paved the way to the discovery that our ice maker water line was leaking and water was leaking down into the hardwood floor every time ice was being made or someone filled a glass of water from the door dispenser.
Of course, I spent the requisite two to three hours valiantly searching for ways that I could do it myself. I watched countless minutes of YouTube videos explaining how to remove old disposals and install new ones. I Googled images of tools I would need and hadn’t yet heard of, much less owned. I became exceptionally skilled at decoding wet and blurry model numbers that looked like they belonged in a Salvador Dali painting. Finally, I browsed Amazon, The Home Depot, and Lowes for the precise equipment I would need to actually execute the project successfully.
As you can imagine, all of the above led inevitably to one final search for the nearest, cheapest professional who could come by in the next 24-48 hours and do the job for me. Fortunately, I was able to find a guy who lived in my community and operated a one-man home improvement business right out of his home. He was fast, convenient, and affordable. He told me to give him a call if any other appliance broke down and needed fixing. I thought to myself, this will be the start of a beautiful, lifelong friendship.
Flash forward two years later, to when our dryer needed to be repaired, and I knew just who I would call. There was only one problem. My friend never gave me a card, I didn’t remember his name, and I had neglected to save his number into my phone. Now, when I really needed him, I couldn’t remember who he was or how to get in touch with him. Instead, I ended up going with someone else who probably was more expensive and also fails to remain in my memory. It would appear that we humans never do seem to learn from our mistakes.
This brings me to the real crux of this blog: the challenges of customer retention. By now, you’re probably familiar with the idea that a customer retained is more valuable than a customer earned. At the very least, customer retention is costly. Partly, this is a product of the familiarity an existing customer has with your services.
Going back to my friend the handyman, he had initially won me over with quality service and a good price point. But even when I, the customer, wanted to be retained, I wasn’t, simply because of a hole in — or rather a complete lack of — his customer retention strategy.
There were no follow-up emails, phone calls, surveys, or texts. All of the responsibility was on me to remain in touch and engaged with this guy’s small business, and my failure in this respect resulted in him losing out on my business forever.
The point is, customer retention is an ongoing process that should never be left to the customers themselves. You could have the best products and services and the premier price point in your industry, but if you don’t have a coherent customer retention strategy — one that demonstrates appreciation and provides continued gestures of engagement — you’ll likely find that even your best customers don’t stick around for very long. Just ask my favorite local handyman — whoever he is.
