22 Really Useful Customer Retention Stats
Today I stumbled upon an article titled Top 5 Keys to Customer Retention. The article itself was crap, and since it’s my job to protect you from such overwrought drivel, I won’t give you a link to it.
That said, the article did include a link leading to some fascinating customer retention stats … 22 of them in fact. Most of these I’ve (and perhaps you’ve) seen before, but here they were nicely packaged in a slideshare presentation.
Starting with a retention stat you must have heard, and teasing with a few that are less frequently touted, here’s a sampling (the presentation include citations for all):
- A 5% increase in customer retention can increase business profits by 25% to 125%;
- 68% of customers leave you because they perceive you are indifferent to them;
- 3.36 million pages were featured when googling “customer complaints” in 2010 (I just tried it and got 5.53 million);
- 43% of people feel less inhibited about complaining once they get online (and of course today they can express their full fury in the heat of the moment via mobile!); and,
- Satisfied customers tell 9 people how happy they are, but dissatisfied customers tell 22 people about their bad experiences.
And there are 17 more morsels.
But before you rush off to 22 really useful customer retention stats, let me warn you … you’ll find this slideshare sharing a page with a veritable swamp of additional presentations on customer retention. Take a gander.
But be careful or you’ll be sucked into and drown in a quicksand of customer retention evangelism, never to be seen again by your acquisition mates, who will simply snicker and say “I told her … Enough of this retention preaching already!”
Seriously, it’s worth a look just to see how seriously the commercial world is taking customer retention these days, in contrast to our sector.
But if you’re time-constrained and you want your retention advice tailored specifically to the nonprofit sector, avoid the swamp and head straight for Roger’s book, Retention Fundraising.
Tom
I keep wondering when fundraisers (and their bosses and boards and work colleagues) will get it. I mean really and truly embrace donor centrism…. because it’s morally and ethically and humanly and humanely right. Because – to be crass – it raises more money… if that’s what you think fundraising is and that’s all that matters…. money.
I think maybe I’m crabby this morning.