Implementing a customer retention strategy for SMEs

A strong focus should thus be on customer retention rather than customer acquisition. A positive spin-off from effective retention strategies is that satisfied customers tell their friends and colleagues and thus new customers are acquired by default.

Effective customer retention strategies demand effective technology tools and affordable technology certainly means that SMEs can be as efficient as large enterprises in this regard. Before committing to a technology solution, however, some careful planning is required.

First step

The first step is to conduct a thorough business analysis to ensure that you understand all processes and systems that have an impact on customer service.

Document all of the envisioned (or existing) company procedures. Preferably do this by using a workflow diagram or flowchart. Be careful to design all processes to be as 'customer facing' as possible - after all, the vital rationale for the entire exercise is to ensure that service delivery matches your customers' expectations.

Customer facing processes should make it easy for customers to deal with your company. As opposed to internal control systems which, if not thought of from a customer perspective, can easily hinder your ability to provide quick and efficient service.

Database segmentation

The foundation and success of the entire project will depend on how effectively you are able to segment your contact database. Many business people make the mistake of not differentiating the different contact types. Clearly customers are different to suppliers and business partners. Within the customer category, further differentiation or segmentation should be specified.

Identify the 'key positioning characteristics' for each segment - these are high level characteristics that will enable broad database segmentation. For example, do you have different categories of clients such as corporate, individuals, domestic, industrial? Do you segment your clients according to an account manager or sales executive? Will marketing campaigns be segmented according to client region or the industry that the client belongs to?

Profiling

If necessary, identify detailed profile headings for each type of client. If you aim to implement targeted sales and marketing programs (and identify client segments where revenue earning potential is greatest), you'll need to understand key indicators for each segment and this is easiest done if you record detailed profile information like occupation, JSE sector, asset value, number of children, existing policy information etc.

It's most likely that you're going to find information existing in various places that will need to be consolidated and checked for consistency. Once this has been done, it should be possible to import data into the chosen CRM software solution.

At this point your technology partner will have enough information to begin installing the selected software, create and configure the applicable system users, customise the database to ensure that all required data fields are catered for and import selected data.

Merge and purge

Once the data has been imported, it's almost certain that a "merge and purge" process will be required. Importing data from numerous existing sources is certain to result in multiple duplicate contact records. It's critical to ensure that duplicate records are merged to preclude future inaccurate recording of interaction as well as duplication of marketing.

In many instances, existing data has not been qualified for years and often contains inaccurate details. The merged records should be subject to a qualification exercise because using inaccurate data negates the entire retention strategy.

Before detailed system training begins, it's helpful to conduct a system overview to ensure that all of the relevant stakeholders (usually all the staff) understand why the solution is being implemented and what the intended results are.

Cheaper and more effective

Clearly, customer retention is much cheaper than customer acquisition. If planned and implemented correctly it's also a lot more effective. Profitability increases that result from increased revenue from existing satisfied customers can be huge.

Understanding your customers, designing your company's processes to ensure that service levels meet or exceed customer expectations, and marketing your products and services accordingly is the quickest and most effective way to achieve sustainable growth and profitability.