Why we will always lose customers unless we have a strategy to retain them.
June 11, 2015
Two of my Facebook friends are deceased now, but they are still in my Friends Count. Of course, I appreciate seeing their names although I don't visit their profiles. I do remember them fondly when I see their names in the list.
Deceased customer names in a marketing database? Not such a good idea. Unfortunately most marketing databases are cluttered with the names of people who moved away or aged out of our market or just rearranged us out of their lives.
We compete not only with chance events but with competitors who are stealing our customers. If we don't have a strategy for retaining customers... checking in with them, ranking them, scoring them and wooing them back, we'll have no idea where they went. Having no strategy to retain customers means that we don't care when they leave. And that means our operating expenses will be higher than our competitors who do care.
Canalside View: Marketing Crack: Kicking the Habit, 2015-May-13 by Martin Weigel
Laurence Freedman (also a military historian) too, makes the same point in his magnum opus Strategy: A History:
Strategy is required when others might frustrate one’s plans because they have different and possibly opposing interests and concerns… The inherent unpredictability of human affairs, due to the chance events as well as the efforts of opponents and the missteps of friends, provides strategy with its challenge and drama… ”
Because they can distinguish between plans and strategy, they’re able to focus on the long-term game, and be able to respond to events and circumstances at the same time.