Customer Retention vs. Satisfaction

Problems?

Customer retention rate should depend upon the absence of problems. Right?

Wrong. As reported, customers are more likely to be satisfied if they actually face a problem, but it is solved quickly and responsively. Really, if we stop and think for a moment… we don’t feel like the service is provided if we don’t ever need it.

Zendesk’s research survey found that 69% of participants associated their good customer service experience with the quick resolution of their issue.

However, there’s no need for banging your customers into a known issue to then resolve it at your best. Some people will just turn around right when they run into an issue. Well, there are of course other reasons for leaving. But those are the ones you won’t even know of.

So, it’s better to invest in quick analysis and masterful execution of solutions – basically, to invest in support. Whereas everything else can be predicted, foreseen, and prevented, timely support is always a need. This is doubly true if you are working with a digital product. In customer’s perspective, it’s a piece of cake to reply to their chat message right away so untimely replies will inevitably decrease satisfaction rate and can even damage brand’s image.

Support

It won’t be you to catch a leaving customer and make them stay. Retention is one of the focuses of a good support team. For example, your perfect marketing strategy can grow your customer base by 20% yearly. But your net growth rate only will increase by 5% if you retain 85% of customers. Instead, you will have 15% net growth rate by retaining 95% of the people.

That’s what you really have to think of – otherwise, you won’t have much to support in the long run. Investing time and money into hiring, training and improving your support can influence retention, of course. But instead of inventing an instrument to then hammer a nail – why not just buy one? Or, rather, why not use the expertise of someone who knows all about hammers and nails?

To sum it up: customers are satisfied when their issues are dealt with quickly and responsively. Satisfaction improves retention. It’s that simple.
Make sure to manage your support well and make great customer service your priority – and your happy customer base will keep growing.

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