How to Avoid Losing At-Risk Customers
How to Avoid Losing At-Risk Customers
Guest writer Debbie Frakes returns with practical, step-by-step guidance in “How to Avoid Losing At-Risk Customers.”
How to Avoid Losing at Risk Customers: Recognize the Warning Signs
At-risk customers are the ones that you are in danger of losing to the competition. These are current customers who start purchasing less and less from you and eventually go somewhere else to get what they need. Preventing at-risk customers from leaving you requires two steps: first, you must identify who they are, and second, you must fix whatever is driving them away. In this article, we’ll cover how to do both.
- Understand the key metrics for your business.
The only way to identify who your at-risk customers are is to look at the key metrics. In particular, you want to look at their purchase frequency. If the interval between purchases is longer than usual for a specific customer, it may indicate that they are beginning to work with a competitor instead of you.
If you recognize that a customer’s purchase frequency is consistently decreasing, then you want your sales team to contact them. Most people will not tell you if your company is not meeting their needs. They will just leave you after a certain amount of time. Knowing their purchasing behavior will give you important insights into what they are feeling and how things are going.
Monitoring key metrics like purchase frequency is critical for preventing the loss of customers who are at risk.
- Customer satisfaction surveys are critical.
Once you understand which customers are thinking of leaving, you can take the necessary action to keep them working with your company. The best way to boost customer retention and ensure people stay with you is by conducting customer satisfaction surveys. They help you recognize any issues that people are having with your company before they turn into bigger problems. If you catch the issue early and fix it, then you are showing at risk customers that you care about them, and the odds are that they will stay with you.
Retaining customers is important, because acquiring new ones can cost up to five times more than working with current ones. Immediate profits and long-term growth depend on avoiding the loss of at-risk customers.
- Listen to what your customers have to say.
Once you find out who your at-risk customers are and determine what the issues are that are driving them away, you need to act on that information. When you receive feedback from an unsatisfied customer, you’ll have the chance to contact them and make things right by addressing their concerns. Nothing tells customers you care like giving them your time and attention.
If you actually listen to what your at-risk customers are saying and take the time and effort to fix what they tell you is wrong, then they typically will no longer be at risk. In fact, these formerly at-risk customers tend to become your most loyal and dependable customers going forward.
If you want to know who your at-risk customers are by reviewing your key metrics, so you can prevent them from leaving, you need to begin conducting customer satisfaction surveys. Contact our partner, Winsby Inc. They will conduct effective surveys on your behalf and arm you with the information you need to retain more customers.
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