Although advertisers say that the majority of their sales come from their current customers, only 55.4% say that their companies have departments that focus their attention on customer retention, according to the survey developed by Loyalty 360 and SAS. And in these loyalty programs, traditional channels such as surveys and call centers are still used to listen and respond to customers.
The opinions of the clients are the main engine of income of the companies: 44.6% of the respondents affirm that at least 60% of their new sales are generated through their current clients and close to 72% hold that at less 20% of their new sales come from those customers.
Among approximately half of the companies with formal customer retention programs, almost two thirds put their efforts in the life cycle of one (53.6%) or in the voice-of-clients program (10.7%) .
On the other hand, two thirds (43%) start their programs with the initial contact, 21% start immediately after the sale and 18% start with the loyalty marketing work between three and six months after the sale.
Companies use a wide variety of communication channels to interact with their clients, but attention is mainly provided through surveys (21%) and call centers (19%). Only 15 of the brands pay attention to their customers through communities present in social media and 7% via blogs.
Lastly, companies also use a variety of metrics to measure the success of retention campaigns, including satisfaction and loyalty metrics (26%), retention and attrition rates and revenue (17%).