2010 Customer Retrospective...

"We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better" - Jeff Bezos


As the Holidays quickly approach and another calendar year has managed to sprint by—it's critical to assess customer/client relationships and the way we have managed them over the past year.

With regard to customer drop off and attrition...most will point to the economy—which may have contributed to some extent, but should not and cannot be blamed for all manner of customer fall out.

If you have made it a 'priority' to keep customers 'front and center', it's a safe bet that customer commitment, loyalty and growth is surging not faltering!

However, if you have not taken time to consistenly cultivate/enhance customer outreach and interaction, then please consider the following data, provided by the United States Small Business Administration & U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

• 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.
• Studies show that 68% of customers leave because they feel they are being treated indifferently, and not because of a “bad” experience, poor quality products or better pricing somewhere else.
• 14% are dissatisfied with the product or service
• 9% begin doing business with the competition
• Customer loyalty and the lifetime value of a customer can be worth up to 10 times as much as the price of a single purchase.
• A dissatisfied customer will tell up to 10 people about his/her experience.
• 13% of those unhappy customers will tell up to 20 people!

The smartest, most fundamentally effective sales strategy is the one where the customer consistently gets top billing…the numbers quite vividly speak for themselves.

Happy Holidays!