Building Customer Value, Satisfaction, & Retention

Understand measures used by MLM marketersprofitability:
and corporate marketers for measuring value toThere were four types of customers when
the organization of its customer segmentsconsidering both loyalty & profitability:
satisfaction, profitability, loyalty, retention,1. True friends - the most profitable group were
complaints, other customer segment measures.loyal in both "thought & deed", that is, they
The Value Proposition is: the whole cluster ofreferred others to the brand, bought often,
benefits the company promises to deliver-the& were profitable. These "true friends" should
promise about the problem solution offered byreceive attention to "delight, nurture, defend,
the company. The Value Proposition includes all& retain them".
the experiences the customer will have on the2. Butterflies - were potentially profitable, but
way to obtaining & using the offering.were infrequent buyers who showed little loyalty
They are guides to behavior within the company.to the brand.
Marketing strategies, tactics, programs, &3. Barnacles - were frequent buyers, but at low
campaigns should support & reinforce thevolumes of purchase, & were loyal but high
value proposition.cost to serve.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is:4. Strangers - frequent buyers, who were
process of managing detailed info about individualunprofitable because they only bought products
customers & carefully managing all customerservices that were steeply discounted, returned
touch points" to maximize customer loyaltyproducts often, and, in general behaved in such a
& profitability.way that management should make it difficult for
CRM focuses on meeting the individual needs forthese buyers to want to buy from the company.
valued customers. The skill requires:o Building aThe key takeaway about relationships between
customer data base or list with info aboutloyalty & profitability: data mining is required
behavior & preferenceso Data mining toto explore the recency, frequency, &
detect trends, segments, & individual needsoprofitability of customer relationships & then
Acting on the knowledge gained from the databe able to take management actions to grow
base & data mining"best friends" & focus on appropriate levels
One popular CRM methodology is the "One toof support for the "butterflies", & "barnacles".
One" CRM model developed by Don PeppersFinally, you should identify how best to minimize
& Martha Rogers, 1st shown in their 1993unprofitable interactions with "strangers". This is
book The One to One Future.important in building your MLM business or any
1 to 1 CRM requires an organization to do fouronline business for that matter.
activities very well:o Identify prospects &The single question that identified the loyal &
customers by name & by needsoprofitable customers was: "How likely is it that
Differentiate the identified prospects &you would recommend (company X) to a friend
customers by needs & differential value toor colleague?" On a 10 point scale, an answer of 9
the organizationo Interact with customers toor 10 was labeled as "Promoters", 7 or 8 was
improve learning about individual needs & to"Passively Satisfied" and 6 or lower was
build stronger relationshipso Customize offerings"Detractors". The important number is the "Net
& communications to each customer in eachPromoters" defined as the percentage of
identified customer groupcustomers who are "Promoters" minus the
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is: the net presentpercentage of customers who are "Detractors".
value of contribution margin of revenue streamsThe key to developing profitable growth is to
from a customer from direct purchases &grow the "net promoters" number.
revenues from referrals who also buy minus theThe key takeaway: ...to grow the net promoters
cost to acquire the customer relationship.number you must identify customers who are
CLV can be computed with accuracy if the"Passively Satisfied" or "Detractors" & take
company has an Activity Based Costing systemspecific actions to "convert" them to "Promoters".
(ABC accounting) that allows variable costs ofEvery company loses some of it s customers
serving each customer to be determined. If thereeach year, often for reasons that are beyond the
is no ABC accounting system, then estimatedcontrol of the company (customer moves, goes
costs can be used for the costs to serve. Costsout of business, no longer needs the product
to serve are variable costs for the transactionsoffering, & the like).
with the customer.To manage the cost of lost customers:o identify
Customers with high CLV should receive benefitsall customers who left, using company internal
that bond the customer more closely with therecords to find out who left,o how profitable they
company. Benefits could include loyalty rewards towere to the company,o why they left,o where
further increase the life of the relationship and thethey went. Such internal measures are often
value of the CLV. CLV measures also helpaugmented by follow up research with the former
determine actions to either increase the value ofcustomerso benchmark best practices in
low value customers or to discontinue relationshipscustomer retention in the industry & in similar
with low CLV customers. There is a danger inindustries
"firing" customers. Therefore, associating a costThe key takeaway from lost customer analysis in
to each customer will make your decision forMLM is to focus on actions for improving retention
downline investment much easier.of profitable customers. These measures should
Customer loyalty may not correlate positivelyfocus on identifying reasons for leaving that you
with CLV. Several studies have investigated thecould have prevented by better management.
relationship between loyalty, satisfaction &