Customer retention
Also called: client retention, customer retention or retention
Customer retention refers to a company's efforts to retain existing customers and minimize the number of departing customers. Attention to retention prevents the effort put into acquiring new customers from being negated by the inevitable loss of customers.
Beyond the impact of customer retention on the overall size of the customer base, loyal customers can be extra valuable to a company. For example, less marketing is needed to (continue to) earn from the customer. In addition, loyal customers are valuable ambassadors for the company, while the experience of former customers can be damaging to its reputation.
Obvious activities include making an appropriate offer when a contract is (about to) expire and properly handling complaints. However, whether or not a customer is retained is determined by a large number of factors. Every experience and every contact moment affects customer satisfaction and can contribute to the fact that a customer will remain loyal to the company, or will consider switching.
The accumulation of a customer's experiences and decisions is also referred to as the customer journey. Describing and analyzing existing or fictitious customer journeys can help identify opportunities and bottlenecks and link actions to them that can help with customer retention.
