Statistics show that customer churn rate can be as high as 30% in some industries – but, with numbers so dauntingly high, how can you protect against it? To start, remember that the phrase ‘B2B customer retention strategy’ is just another way of saying B2B customer loyalty – and that any enterprise thriving in this arena will prioritise a comprehensive customer loyalty programme in order to ensure strong retention across the board. For this reason alone, utilising a B2B customer loyalty programme specifically designed to address each of the following methodologies for retention (and much more besides) is one of the most valuable commitments your business can make to its customers.
1. Take and Action Feedback
Businesses thrive on open lines of communication. Not only does creating these channels signal to your customers that you are actively seeking to improve and augment your services, but it also creates a mutually beneficial channel through which genuine and lasting improvements can be made, and B2B incentives optimised.
2. Give the Right Kind of Reward
There are examples of successful and highly mutually beneficial customer rewards programmes across the world of commerce, but it’s not as easy to get right as some business owners anticipate at first. Sales force incentive promotion is a fine art. You need to be able to stand out from other competitors employing similar tactics within their business models, and ensure that your client incentives are sustainable for you and your business.
3. Remember that Long-Term Sales Incentives Don’t Need to be Long-Winded
Simplify everything. Creating a strong, well-tailored B2B incentive programme that sets you apart from your competitors does not mean that the customer experience needs to be lengthened, complicated or turned into something that they’ll need a detailed map to navigate. Yes, keeping it simple but making it somehow different sounds like it’s verging on ‘contradictory’ territory, but utilising a purpose built programme will resolve that issue for you – before it even becomes an issue in the first place.
4. Create Direct Sales Team Incentives
When it comes to ensuring a high B2B customer retention rate, not everything that requires optimisation sits on the customer-facing side of the business. Incentivising your own sales associates will ensure that you are stepping out into the world with the strongest team possible. While, in the past, sales have been most heavily pointed toward acquiring new clients, a strongly incentivised team will be naturally geared towards cultivating and strengthening those existing relationships with clients who will, over time, prove to be the backbone of your salesforce.
5. Plan for Mistakes and Missteps
Thinking that any disgruntled or frustrated client is automatically a write-off is doomsday thinking, and doesn’t belong in any strong B2B channel. For any business driven by sales, whether B2C or B2B, there will be times when righting a wrong is the name of the game. And, while it’s certainly easier to press on with meeting and making new targets rather than dwelling on the ‘what ifs’ and worst case scenarios, it’s important to have a strong plan in place for redressing any errors. The alternative is not just the risk of losing a valuable customer, but of receiving an influx of poor reviews that do not truly reflect the capability of your business.
