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As Russell H. Conwell said in his famous “Acres of Diamonds” speech from the 1800s: “Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them.”
Many are throwing their diamonds away. That is, they are wasting the high-paying clients they already have. Here are startling statistics.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, a global network of consulting firms, surveyed 15,000 consumers and found that one in three customers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience, while more than 59 percent would completely abandon a company after two or three negative interactions.
There is more bad news out there. A Customer Experience Report noted that 68% of companies believe vendors just don’t care.
And what is that lack of caring costing companies? According to Accenture, the estimated cost of customers in the United States switching due to poor service is $1.6 trillion.
Let’s bring it down to the world of the solopreneur or small business. How can consultants and small businesses show that they care to retain their high-paying clients?
For expertise in the area of client retention, I turned to Patricia Watkins, a Silicon Valley sales leader who has been transforming business development efforts for decades. She is the author of the book Driving More Sales.
“If company leaders focused more on the entire client experience to retain clients, they would expand their top and bottom line more quickly,” says Watkins. “If you consider it takes just one bad experience for a client to consider switching, every single employee in your company can make a profound impact on client retention.”
Client retention should be everyone’s top priority.
“Every single employee can have a profound impact on the sales and success of their company,” Watkins asserts. “Sales is not just a sales problem, or marketing. Every employee, in every department, such as manufacturing, engineering, finance, accounting, operations, services, support, plus every other department I didn't mention, impacts the customer's overall experience.”
Watkins has many examples of how any employee can have a positive impact on client retention.
“Consider the client satisfaction survey that your company has their customers complete once or twice a year,” says Watkins. “What kinds of things do they hear back? They might hear back results like your product is great, but I wish it had two USB ports instead of one. Your products are really great but they require too much service. Or maybe they need more training. Your invoicing is often late or incorrect. Your billing department is hard to get a hold of. It takes too long to get a hold of a customer support agent, or they want more technical resources available 24 x 7. These are just a few examples of the different departments who all play a very important role in delighting your customers.”
Watkins advises taking a hard look at client experience and feedback.
One last note: when clients leave and are unhappy, they freely tell others of their bad experience. That is word-of-mouth advertising you cannot afford.
