5 observations about retention and loyalty

We recently attended the Advanced Loyalty and Retention Conference, where we met some of the best and brightest in CRM and customer marketing. Between sessions, panel discussions and networking opportunities, five common themes came up time and time again.

1. Customer experience is critical for improving retention, and CRM teams have a crucial role to play. Businesses that haven’t already done so need to optimise processes to capture and respond to customer intent better and faster as trading conditions get tougher.
2. That being said, many teams appear to be overly-focused on optimising comms for the small percentage of customers who are in market at any given time. Arguably the most significant revenue gains come from trade and BAU comms to the wider base. These are harder to optimise due to category ownership and demand from stakeholders across the business, leaving many marketers struggling to keep pace. However, marketers need shift focus from volume to relevancy via personalisation in order to see real gains. This will require investment, which will ultimately necessitate better measurement and reporting to show the true impact and value of CRM.
3. CRM transformation takes time and is not purely dependent on technology – it needs the right people and the right processes. CRM teams can start by using their onboarding and early life programs, which are great proof of concept initiatives for personalisation, AI-backed decisioning and next best action, customer value management and more.
4. Identifying customers on the cusp of churning is just one piece of the retention puzzle; another is understanding what to say to prevent them from lapsing. While predictive models can help marketers identify at-risk segments and determine when, where and how to best reach them, it’s up to the business to understand their customers’ perception of value and how it can differ from group to group. This represents an interesting opportunity for marketers to use value perception to inform pre-lapse and win-back content.
5. Businesses need to show a great deal of empathy in marketing given the current economic challenges. At the very least, it’s a lens through which we should evaluate the emotional intelligence of messaging. At the most extreme, it’s a framework, extending from privacy-first data strategies to marketing pressure and customer-centricity management.

Learn more about retention strategies in our latest eBook, or get in touch to see how we can help.