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Invest in your tech and sad tale of Fab
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OK, this feels like a”no s**t, Sherlock” pronouncement. But, hey, we’ve got numbers! In customer retention, companies that invest in tech do 50% better. The tech budget for customer success teams lags its importance in the success of the overall business, so always good to get some ammo!
7 fundamentals of sustainable growth? Some fluffy stuff and retention.
On this list of the seven, there’s stuff like brand, purpose, community and partnership. But there is also retention: reducing customer defection rates by just 5% could increase profitability by 25% to 130%. Hey, that’s more numbers for you! But the most interesting stat from this article is from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: the average business in the U.S. loses around 50% of its customer base every five years.
To Tradeshow or Not to Tradeshow?
I’ve been in business long enough to have had this conversation a dozen times. While there is not a cut-and-dry answer, the claim that events can lead to better retention is… often true. Once again, it depends on the event. That said, I am a big fan of the user conference. Treat those folks well, show them a good time, teach them something and you will get good retention.
Did you read the NYTimes article on the Amazon work culture?
You should. It’s long, so snuggle up with it over the weekend. It feels a little hyperbolic. The story says (as has been said before) Amazon.com is a company obsessed with the customer and REALLY pushes its employees to the brink of their sanity in order to meet their goals. Has Amazon.com gone too far?
Fab and its sad tale of an acquisition-only culture
Last week, I talked about Homejoy and its retention issue. This week, Forbes covers Fab and how it neglected customer retention. Fab did a great job getting the customer to buy through discounting, but they did a poor job keeping them as customers (only 6.2% bought again in 6 months). Kinda reminds me of this classic Seinfeld bit.
All-Hands On Deck to Fight Churn
Here’s how one company fights churn and shares their best practices. Getting everyone involved is part of the solution. I’ve done that as well. But I am hoping (cue shameless plug) we can bring some technology to help make it easier for customer success teams to battle churn.
