We all know that the cost of acquiring new customers can be very expensive. Depending of course on the product you are selling, the cost of getting a new customer can be as high as $1,200 or more. One of our clients maintains that the cost of obtaining a new client is over a thousand bucks.. If you do the financial analysis, the cost of losing a client long term has huge effect on your bottom line.. The truth is, sometimes it does, and it doesn’t matter how much effort we put out.. And if you lose the customer, and dont learn from it and make improvements, shame on you as a manager/owner. I have always said, its not so bad that an employee makes mistakes, as long as they learn from them. And the key is, if they continue the same behavior, something needs to change..
The best lessons learned come from the teacher, so question your customer why they left.. And this generally involves a phone call to the lost client to find out where you went wrong. The truth is, most business people don’t want to put out the effort to recover a lost client, which is why they ignore lost customers.. Since you have already lost the client, you figure, why rub salt in the wound, or give them a chance to rub it in. However, as I have discovered when conducting this activity for clients, on more than one occasion, we were able to rescue the client. Since we demonstrated to the client that we were concerned with the level of service, some of the clients actually gave us another shot.. This can only be a positive outcome.. We obtained a lost customer back, and sharpened our customer support as a result, which may have saved others.
The Lost Client Survey should always be conducted over the phone, or even better, in person when possible. I would try at least three times to reach the client, and after the third, make a personal call to the place of business, or if not possible send them a letter of apology along with a free coupon that they might appreciate. They will appreciate the effort whether they come back or not.. It is rare that they will throw away the questionnaire and keep the coupon, but if they do, it will have a lasting effect on them nonetheless. And if your method doesn’t work, you are better off firing the customer and moving on.. Basically this sends a loud message that you care..
Open with an apology whether you know enough or not, then begin questions. Your apology always opens the door to a better relationship.. Interview your people to attempt to understand the issue, but do not describe it to the customer. Whatever you do, allow them to talk and communicate to you.. I know its hard to believe, but your folks dont always shoot you straight anyway. It’s a big mistake to pass the buck to the person that screwed this up, take the project on yourself.. They are the worst person you want doing this. If they left because of you, and you are the management, put your ego aside and strive to ask honest questions such as, where did we go wrong?. Make sure that your questionaire for the client is detailed, but easy for you to analyze, and your people can get access to it easily.. If your employees observe that you take service and support serious, they will too..
In part 2 of this series, well develop some suggestions for survey structures that may be helpful to you.
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