In this Mucker Growth session, Julius Lai from ArtShare discusses customer retention, which is often overlooked but essential for startups facing growth challenges. The following content will provide practical recaps from the webinar, including a diagnostic tool and real-world examples, making it useful for a broad audience.
Customer retention is often considered a complex puzzle, but it can become more manageable when one comprehends the wealth of customer data available. Retention is not as mysterious as we may think, and it can be solved by using insights gained from existing customers. Contrary to the conventional belief that acquiring new customers is always more straightforward than retaining existing ones, the focus should be on the top 20 percent of customers while not neglecting the remaining 80 percent. Math plays a significant role here, as retention is a crucial factor in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), serving as both a bottom-of-the-funnel KPI and a multi-year metric. The analogy of reversing gravity highlights the enduring impact of retention on sustained business growth compared to the short-term impact of acquisition. The solution to effectively reversing gravity is to retain your customers.
Scaling this Diagnostic
The key to customer retention is to keep your customer base intact and understand your top customers to retain them. Here are some basic questions to help understand your customers:
- I have customer-level data: profile, engagement, transactions
- I can ID my #1 customer
- I know this customer’s revenue this year
- I know what I’m willing to invest to retain this customer
- I know how to retain this customer and what actions to take
- I have operationalized those actions to retain this customer
Businesses need to mature through stages and focus on customer segmentation, KPI precision, and long-term planning that suits their specific stage of development. Drawing from experiences in industries like movies and video games, personalized, one-to-one retention strategies are necessary, rather than a broad approach. The payoff for such meticulous work becomes evident as businesses gain the ability to secure 80% of their Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and Lifetime Value (LTV) by deeply understanding and retaining their top 20% of customers. This not only fortifies the existing customer base, but also informs and enhances acquisition strategies, allowing businesses to attract customers who mirror their premium segment. To drive the highest return on investment and fuel growth, selectively overinvesting in the top-performing customer segment is a strategic approach that highlights the value of this method.
To retain customers, focus on what aligns with your business goals and engages your customers. Consider why customers initially engage and tailor actions to rekindle that connection.
What actions can my company take next?
It is acknowledged that different companies are at different stages of maturity, and therefore, require tailored strategies. For early-stage companies, the focus should be on data initiation, which includes learning, building knowledge, and laying the foundation. As companies move into intermediate stages, they should institutionalize insights through performance metrics and align employee goals. At the pinnacle of maturity, the emphasis should be on operationalization, which involves integrating insights for customer-facing actions with a real revenue impact.
Marriott and Expedia have different customer demographics, requiring different retention strategies. The example demonstrates how Marriott leveraged transaction patterns to extract valuable insights and predictions about customer diversity. The message is clear: start with the end goal, work backward, leverage data, and focus on impactful insights, regardless of your business stage.
For middle-stage companies, integration into measurement frameworks and cohort-based strategies are recommended to ensure higher-quality data and more efficient business outcomes. Finally, for mature companies, the emphasis should be on one-to-one customer retention, urging a personalized approach to over-generalized strategies for optimal scalability.
Case Study: AMC & Marriott International
AMC Theaters and Marriott International have developed effective customer retention strategies. In Call of Duty, early detection mechanisms to categorize players based on their skill level led to a 20% reduction in churn. Marriott recognized valuable customers and personalized recognition proved more effective than free room nights. AMC Theaters extended the lifespan of customer data and aligned departments for growth. The key takeaway is that customer knowledge is crucial for effective growth and enhancing the overall experience.
To create a successful customer retention strategy, begin by collecting transactional data and prioritizing it over demographic information. This data will form the foundation for key performance indicators (KPIs) and other important business metrics. It's crucial to ensure that this data is seamlessly integrated into workflows and that measurable goals are set to turn insights into actionable strategies. To achieve success, it's important to operationalize and scale these approaches, making them into a growth engine rather than just theoretical concepts. One effective way to do this is to embrace the philosophy of “starting from the end and working backward," which is similar to finding product-market fit and brings focus and clarity to customer retention efforts.
Thanks to Julius Lai for sharing this information.
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