Anyone in sales can tell you that it’s more cost-effective to retain current customers than it is to go out and find, qualify, and sell to new ones. Increase customer loyalty to ensure customer retention and a low churn rate. Business value consulting can help you determine how to do both.

The two metrics, customer loyalty and churn rate, are intertwined, but they’re not the same thing. Churn rate is a simple mathematical formula. You define a time period over which to measure the number of customers (or amount of revenue) lost. Look at how many customers you had at the beginning of that time period. See how many customers left during that time, then at how many customers you had at the end of the time frame. 

For example, if you began the quarter with 200 customers, acquired 20 new customers over the course of the quarter, and lost 30 customers, plugging those numbers into the formula shows that you had a customer churn rate of 14%. 

Now, these are just sample numbers. Churn rates vary based on industry, age of the company, growth rate, and more. It’s best to benchmark against your own company. There are some industry standards to help you get started:

• SaaS: 4.79%
• B2B Services: 6.25%
• Consumer Goods: 9.62%

If you consider that churn rate measures how many cancelations happen, then customer loyalty measures why those transactions happen. Keeping that in mind, customer loyalty lowers churn rate. And it also creates growth. 

Here are six ways to increase customer loyalty.

Set expectations early

As the saying goes, a confused mind never buys. Your customers need to know what to expect from you at all stages of the sales funnel. What is the topic of this meeting? When is the next meeting, and what will it be about? When can they expect follow-up calls? 

Without clear expectations, customers can easily become upset when they expected X to happen on a certain date, and it didn’t. Communicating clear goals and deadlines helps your customers stay happy and will increase customer loyalty because happy customers are loyal customers.

Create a consistent customer experience

In this digital age, a consistent customer experience is more important than ever before. It’s no longer enough to only have consistent onboarding of new customers or meeting agendas.

When your customers find you online, they need to know it’s you. That means consistent branding and messaging across social media and all your web assets. If they see an Acme, Inc. Instagram post, they need to know, without even looking for the logo, that it’s an Acme, Inc. post. Otherwise, your competitors could be getting credit for your message.

Ask for, and act on, customer feedback

Customers want to be heard, validated, and valued. There is no easier way to ensure that’s the case than by asking them for their feedback, then taking action to get them what they want. For example, what happens if your customers’ business hours are from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., but your support lines are only available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.?

While not all feedback is immediately actionable, all feedback is incredibly valuable. It can help your business value consulting team guide you to more avenues of income, and more hard data to present to your stakeholders on why those avenues should go through research and development.

Make getting service easy

Nobody likes waiting on hold. (There’s even an app for that!) As busy as your customers are, they don’t have time to sit around waiting for you to answer their calls. They want their calls answered fast, their customer service reps helpful, and their issues resolved in one call.

You can make all that happen by having multiple access points for customer service. Yes, people still want to call you, but they may also want to DM you or send an email to get the help they need.

Keep records of all customer communications

There is nothing more frustrating as a customer than having to repeat your story over and over every time you call in to a company for support. Or being called “Robert,” when you’ve repeatedly asked to be called “Bob.” Or any of a number of slights that could be eliminated with an effective customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Your CRM doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. It just needs to be present and get used. Every interaction with a customer needs to have notes taken and placed in the system. Meetings, calls, ongoing issues, and personal preferences are only a few things to store in your CRM.

Delight your customers

Pro Football Hall of Famer Roger Staubach once said, “there are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” Anybody can set and meet customer expectations. An exceptional company goes one step further than simply satisfying their loyal customers — by delighting them.

You can delight your customers by providing them extra products or services above and beyond what they’re paying for. Or by giving them an upgrade in the service they’re subscribed to. Go above and beyond their expectations.

You could also do something as simple as sending a hand-written card, thanking them for being a loyal customer. Something as easy as ordering catering to their office for lunch. Or something as dazzling as sending over a case of sparkling cider and some champagne flutes. Work with a business value consultant to identify what is most important to your clientele.

Increase customer loyalty

Implementing these six strategies will help you to increase customer loyalty, and thereby customer retention. No matter the company, business value consulting can help you figure out the best ways to go about doing so, to maximize ROI through an ever-increasing base of loyal customers.