In this guest blog post, Designli CEO/Co-Founder and friend of the Founder Institute Keith Shields explains an effective methodology that startups can employ to retain more customers.
Customers come and go. That’s an inescapable part of being in business, whether your company is an early-stage startup or well-established. But finding new customers is expensive. Research shows that, depending on industry, the cost of finding a new customer is 5-25 times more expensive than keeping one you already had. And losing customers has a snowball effect, as customers who leave are generally dissatisfied — so you’re missing out on the positive word-of-mouth that happy customers could be spreading.
Successful businesses have a lot riding on retaining customers. The good news is that you can follow a proactive process to help you examine each part of the customer experience and identify trouble spots you can fix. Through roadmapping your customer experience, you’ll gain valuable insights that will enable you to turn on-the-fence customers into dedicated fans of your company. Here are six steps to help you map out and improve your customer experience.
1. Identify Each Step in the Customer’s Journey
Roadmapping starts with identifying each step a customer moves through, from the initial sales contact through the day-to-day interactions required to continue providing service and support. As you identify each step, tap the expertise of your team members who are involved in the process to ensure you get an accurate picture of what’s actually happening.
As you’re documenting your current process, be sure to solicit feedback from your team on perceived weak spots and what could be done to improve them. If you notice that customers tend to drop out at certain junctures, ask those involved to help troubleshoot what’s happening and get their ideas for potential solutions.
2. Set Goals for Each Stage
Now that you’ve identified the steps and touchpoints in your customer experience, you’re ready to set goals for improving each stage in the customer’s journey. While goals will vary based on your company’s unique strengths and weaknesses, try to assign an achievable goal to every step in the process. Effective goals are developed with input from your team, have a clear way to measure what success looks like, and have a timeline attached. Let’s talk through a few simple steps you can take to turn your customers into loyal, happy fans.
3. Prioritize Communication
It’s hard to overestimate the positive impact of consistent, proactive communication with your customers. Good communication is arguably the most important insurance policy you can have against customers going elsewhere. It’s tempting to take a set-it-and-forget-it approach, especially when there are no glaring problems. But over time, a lack of personalized communication weakens the connection customers have with your business. When a more proactive competitor starts wooing them, merely-satisfied customers are much more likely to consider moving their business to someone more interested in it.
4. Share What’s Ahead
People like to have a clear idea of where things are headed. Surprises are nice on birthdays, but not so much when it comes to customer service. People will feel more comfortable if they know that you have a plan for their success and if they know what to expect next in the process. As they move through your process and reach the milestones in your plan, they’ll feel engaged and taken care of.
5. Solicit Feedback and Adjust Course as Needed
At various touchpoints in the journey, ask your customers for feedback on how the process is working from their perspective. If there’s been a lapse in service somewhere along the line or dissatisfaction with results, it’s much easier to fix the problem early on. By asking for input and then acting on what you learn, you have an opening to make corrections midstream and build a deeper sense of trust.
6. Empower Your Team
Most startups tend to designate one person as the point of contact. While filtering the day-to-day communications through a single customer representative makes sense, don’t limit communication to just that one person. Introducing customers to multiple members of the team and giving those team members the power to provide service when needed will dramatically boost customer satisfaction.
The roadmapping process is one that will deliver significant ROI for your business. You’ll uncover some important reasons why you may be losing customers who would have happily stayed on board if things were different. And you’ll create a plan you and your customers will have confidence in. You’ll also gain valuable insights into how you can increase your customer lifetime value (CLV) and turn your customers into cheerleaders for your business. It’s both cheaper and more enjoyable to focus on delighting the customers you’re currently working with than to be constantly beating the bushes to find new customers to replace the ones who are leaving.
