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It’s time to dive into Pillar III: Leadership. This pillar is all about bringing your department leaders together to achieve a common goal: customer retention. Everyone needs to be on board to make this goal a reality.

You’ve been learning about pivoting toward a retention-first mindset and laying the groundwork for your retention strategy. Today we’re putting on the finishing touches.

Roll call!

Marketing? Sales? Customer support? Finance? Retail? Is everyone present? Time to get down to business. In this article, we’ll walk you through how each of your departments can work with one another. Think of it as business astrology

Marketing

Your ideal retention partners are: Customer support and product development.

Customer support
The marketing department can work with customer support to gather customer feedback and insights on what customers are looking for in the product or service. This information can help guide the messaging and campaigns that the marketing department creates. Additionally, customer support can provide insights into common customer issues and concerns that can be addressed in marketing campaigns.

🧪 Product development:
The marketing department can work with the product development team to identify areas where the product or service can be improved to meet customer needs and preferences. By understanding the customer’s pain points and desires, the product development team can make improvements that increase customer satisfaction and retention. The marketing department can also help promote new features or improvements to the product through targeted messaging and campaigns.

Customer Support ‍

Your retention partners-in-crime are, you guessed it, marketing and product development.

 Marketing
The customer support department is on the front lines of customer interactions and can identify pain points and common issues that customers experience. By sharing this feedback with other departments, they can work to improve the customer journey and create a more positive experience for customers.

🧪 Product development
By working together, customer support, marketing, and product development can collaborate on solutions, like customer support tech, to address common pain points and improve the customer journey. 

In-Store Retail ️

For brands with brick-and-mortar locations, your in-store retail team should work with marketing and customer support.

Marketing
Sales associates can gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, and develop targeted sales strategies that are more likely to resonate with customers.

‍ Customer support
Sales representatives can ensure that customers receive timely and effective assistance when they need it, further enhancing the overall customer experience.

Finance

The guardians of brand ROI, you should work with marketing and sales. 

Marketing & Sales
The finance department can work with marketing and sales to develop ROI calculations and cost-benefit analyses for retention initiatives. By quantifying the costs and benefits of retention efforts, businesses can make data-driven decisions about where to allocate resources and which initiatives are likely to have the greatest impact on customer retention.

By working with these teams, finance departments can also gain a better understanding of the specific retention initiatives that are being implemented, and how they align with the overall business strategy.

You are so close to your induction ceremony, we promise! In this third pillar, we just have two more topics to cover: changing internal mindsets and the cost of shifting first mindset. 

Now let’s keep movin’ and groovin’

How to change internal mindsets

We hinted at this earlier, but getting everyone on board to focus more on retention takes a little bit of gusto. Here are a few tips & tricks to make the transition a little smoother:

• Invest in customer support: Make it easy for customers to reach out when they have questions or concerns. Consider offering live chat, email support, and phone support.
• Improve the user experience of the website: Ensure that the website is easy to navigate and that the checkout process is straightforward.
• Offer high-quality products: This will help ensure that customers are happy with their purchases and are more likely to return.
• Implement data analytics tools: Use tools such as Google Analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) software to collect data on customer behavior and preferences.
• Use this data to inform engagement efforts: For example, brands can identify which products or services are most popular among customers and use this information to create targeted marketing campaigns.
• Conduct customer research: Use surveys and focus groups to better understand customer needs and preferences.
• Use this research to inform retention strategy: For example, brands can use customer feedback to improve products or services, and create more targeted marketing campaigns.

And last, but definitely not least, how much is all this going to cost you ?

 The cost of shifting 

Here are the factors you’ll need to consider:

Technology investments: Investing in the right technology can be expensive, but it can also be a critical component of a successful retention strategy. For example, implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system can help businesses to better understand their customers’ needs and preferences, and develop targeted retention initiatives that are more likely to resonate with them.

Staffing: Building and managing a strong retention team can also involve significant costs, including salaries, benefits, and training expenses. However, by investing in knowledgeable and dedicated staff, businesses can more effectively identify and implement retention initiatives that are tailored to their customers’ needs and preferences.

Marketing spend: Retention initiatives often require marketing spend to effectively reach and engage customers. For example, targeted email campaigns or loyalty programs may require investment in design, copywriting, and other marketing-related expenses.

Despite these costs, the potential ROI of a strong retention strategy is significant. By improving customer retention rates, businesses can increase the lifetime value of their customers, reduce churn, and ultimately drive long-term revenue growth.

We’ll see you back here at our regular spot for our final pillar review!