Retain Customers and Drive Repeat Business by Optimizing the Customer Experience

According to a well documented study, sixty-eight percent of customers who leave your company for one of your competitors do so because they believe you are indifferent to their needs and opinions.

It is a common organizational pitfall to become complacent about customers’ needs and wants, especially during positive economic times. Although you may be familiar with the statistic that attracting a new customer costs five to six times as much as retaining an existing one, it’s easy to make the mistake of letting customer feedback fall to the wayside when you have two or three new customers lined up for every one that you lose.

But what happens when that reserve of new customers suddenly dries up? Although there were some classic warning signs, many businesses were caught off-guard by the present economic recession. Businesses across all industries are being adversely affected by a shrinking GDP (which decreased at an annual rate of 6.3% in Q4 2008) and rising unemployment (which increased to 8.5% in March 2009). Americans are tightening their spending belts and businesses are clamoring for fewer customers who all have fewer dollars to spend.

With demand for both consumer and B2B goods and services slipping, it is more important than ever to satisfy and retain the customers you do have. While attracting new customers will always remain a goal to strive for, few companies have the luxury in these difficult economic times to spend many of their diminishing marketing dollars on that objective. It is much more efficient to concentrate on retaining, up-selling, and driving repeat business from current customers.

According to a recent survey from Accenture (2008 Customer Satisfaction Survey), “how well companies understood and met the distinct preferences and expectations of the customers they serve” was the number one reason that customers stayed with their current product or service provider rather than seeking a competitive alternative. It may surprise you, given the current economic climate, but customer experience ranked even higher than price when determining when and if to leave a provider.

Given that a positive customer experience with your products, services, and customer service employees is essential to retaining customers and therefore vital to the health and longevity of your business, right now is one of the most critical times in our economic history to listen and respond to feedback from your customers.

Gathering customer feedback must not be viewed as a dispensable expenditure, even in the face of sharp budget cuts. According to a recent report by the Aberdeen Group, 55% of companies surveyed have made zero budgetary cuts in the area of customer feedback initiatives, and 19% have actually increased spending in this area. Informed business leaders realize that an investment in customer feedback and retention is an investment in the long term survival and growth of their companies.

Online customer surveys have evolved as one of the most cost-effective, efficient, and accurate means of gathering customer feedback data. Online surveys allow marketing professionals to measure satisfaction levels from a large number of customers at once, without the incremental time and cost of using paper or telephone surveys. Products like Checkbox Survey are managed from a standard web browser, can be implemented relatively quickly without costly IT services, and can be deployed on a large or small scale depending on a company’s needs. By utilizing online surveys, organizations can easily tap into existing customer email databases and incorporate customer surveys into their current customer email campaigns.

Because online surveys from vendors like Checkbox can be designed and deployed quickly and updated at any time by multiple users (within set permissions), companies are able to easily adjust their survey initiatives to react to shifting market and economic conditions. Survey results and reports are available in real time, allowing for opportune responses and reactions.

Customer retention rates won’t soar overnight, but small incremental changes that are implemented thoughtfully can have a significant impact in your customers’ perception of how you value them and their business. Start by surveying your customers today to create a baseline of your current customer satisfaction levels. Then, consider integrating feedback surveys into your everyday business process. This not only softens the resource requirements of collecting feedback, but also allows your business to check its customer satisfaction pulse at any point in time. Common customer satisfaction surveys include evaluations that are emailed automatically following a purchase transaction or customer service experience.

However your business chooses to monitor and respond to customer feedback, it is most critical that customer satisfaction remains a top priority. The economic tide will turn again, but the businesses that will survive and thrive for years to come are the ones that continue to value the opinions and needs of their current customers, regardless of how many new customers may be lined up to take their place.

For more information about customer satisfaction and survey software options, visit Checkbox Survey Solutions at http://www.checkbox.com or contact a Checkbox Product Expert at 1-866-430-8274 (Int’l +1-617-715-9605).