At this years Sirius Decisions Summit, 67% of the audience claimed that they didn’t have a formal standard of tracking post sales efficiency. Which, to me, is surprising after so much effort and energy is put in to filling the funnel. I cannot fathom why B2B organizations would neglect these hard-won customers, new and old. It got me thinking, have B2B stopped loving their customers?
I’m cynical – and even I can’t believe that this is the case.
However, I do hear phrases like “we need to fix the leaky bucket”, “we need to improve our retention rates”, and “we’re losing market share” far too often to assume that our best intentions are translating into perfect customer experience – or that we’re maximising the value to and from our customers. According to @megheuer and @lisanakano 80% of B2B buying decisions are based on either direct or indirect customer experience, so making sure that your customers know you love them and that they love you back is critical.
So, maybe the question isn’t whether you’ve fallen out of love with your customers but whether they have fallen out of love with you? Whilst you’re focusing on top of funnel acquisition, if you’re neglecting your existing customers, why would you expect them to still love you?
The world is competitive, whatever your business, your customers have a choice to stay or to leave. It’s obvious that if you neglect your customers, they’ll leave and you’ll be working harder to fill the hole they’ve left behind.
83% of the SD summit audience claimed they didn’t know the behaviours that predict retention in their customers- yet we track, measure and monitor the life out of new prospects on their journey to becoming clients!
It’s a big deal however you think about, happy clients = increased advocacy = better conversion = better growth – two engines working together to accelerate growth.
So, look after your customers, understand the value that they see (or don’t see) in your solution, treat them with the same care, attention and respect that you do with new business and make sure they know how much you value and love them – after all, Love is all you need.