Imagine you’re carrying a bucket of water on the beach. But the only bucket you have has lots of holes in it.

To keep it full of water you have three options.

You can:

1)    Keep putting more water in it

2)    Fix the holes

3)    Invest in a new bucket

Option 1, to keep adding more water, is highly inefficient. 

Option number 3, buying a new bucket is the most optimal but it will take some time and require additional investment.

So that leaves us with option 2 – fix the holes in the bucket. 

How do you go about fixing the holes? I’ll get to that in a sec but you’re no doubt wondering what has all this got to do with increasing your Marketing ROI and getting more marketing bang for your buck?

Actually a great deal.  Here’s why

Most businesses, large and small go with option number one to increase their marketing ROI. They focus their marketing efforts, almost exclusively on attracting new clients, adding water to their leaky bucket by increasing their digital marketing budget and adding new media to top up their “bucket” with lots of new clients to try and replace the ones that fall out of the holes. They do all this instead of fixing the root cause of their marketing problem – which is that their clients only buy once then move on. Sadly a company like this will spend an absolute fortune on attracting new clients for very little profitable growth. 

According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs it is 6-7 times more costly to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.  But that’s not all.

According to a recent study by research company Bain & Co, a 10% increase in customer retention levels results in a 30% increase in the value of a company. 

In other words, the real money in any business, is in its ability to retain clients.

So let’s then examine three of the most common “client retention holes” and discuss how to fix them.

1.   Front-end Phone Mis-management

Let’s say you’ve invested all this money on your marketing to get your phone to ring, and when it does it’s possible one of three things goes wrong:

• The call gets answered but the prospective new client almost immediately gets put on hold (there’s no faster way to lose a prospective client than by doing this)

• The call is not answered live and goes straight to voicemail

• The call is answered in a timely fashion, but the person answering the call is not exactly helpful

Fixing any of these problems is easy. The real issue is that most companies don’t even realize this phone mis-management might be happening. Answering the phone is one of the most important jobs in any business – whether answered by a giant call center or a personal assistant. This is why I’d recommend you implement a division of labor and never have the same person responsible for answering your phones versus reporting back on incoming call metrics such as how many new calls came in today, how many booked appointments, how many went to voicemail, how many people hung up etc. Both of these functions are extremely important to your sales process and should never be combined. 

2.   Lack of a Follow Up System

How regularly do you communicate with your existing clients? Are they made to feel special and given offers that are not available to new clients? Or do you rely on goodwill and hope they will return?

For example, if you own a plastic surgery practice and you’ve performed a facelift, is your patient also part of an ongoing special skin treatment program with you to protect their “investment” – or do you take a more “one and done” approach.

Women are the world’s “super-consumers.”  According to a study conducted by Mass Mutual Financial Group Senior women age 50 and older control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth. Chances are if your business serves women and 80% aren’t turning into repeat customers, it’s not because they can’t afford your products or services. It’s because they either don’t know about what else you offer or they don’t see the value in what you offer – both of which are marketing problems that can be easily fixed.

3.   A “Visible” Sales Process 

Management consultant Peter Drucker once said “the aim of marketing is to know and understand your customer so well that the product or service fits her and sells itself.” 

I call this “invisible selling.”

Many prospective clients walk away from a business, not because they’re not good enough, but because they feel pressured at some point along the sales process. It might be a mis-timed offer of a package deal or, some form of pressure tactic (both conscious and un-conscious) or even something as simple as asking them directly for a referral.

If your clients don’t feel understood and valued with each interaction they have with your business, you can bet they’ll be voting with their feet and buying elsewhere. I once visited a medical spa that came highly recommended and offered a unique set of anti-aging skin treatments that wasn’t available anywhere else. On the phone the booking process was awkward to say the least. When I arrived I was “underwhelmed” with both the spa itself and the staff who worked there – the tiny treatment rooms had products over flowing on their shelves which tipped me off about the “upsells” that I would likely be subjected to. 

When the consult actually happened it was a blatant sales pitch. There wasn’t a glimmer of genuine care evident anywhere. Despite the recommendation from a trusted source, my need for their services and my initial eagerness to spend a lot of money with them I high-tailed it out of there as quickly as I could. 

So take a good look at your entire sales process – not just what happens at the point when money is about to change hands.

Evaluate the scripts your staff are using and the entire choreography of the client’s experience with your company – including your follow up marketing.

Are your clients made to feel special? If so expect much repeat business and a steady flow of referrals from them.

If not – it’s never too late to start.