Customer Retention - The Biggest Missed Opportunity in Sales

We all know how the saying goes. It costs more to create a new customer than to retain an existing one.

These two quotes drive the point home:

“It costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one.”

- Frederick Reichheld

“The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60–70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5–20%.”

—Marketing Metrics

Yet in a recent survey of travel advisors. 94% said they did not have a future call date booked with past customers.

Most travel advisors are known for their outstanding customer service. In a customer for life cycle divided between attraction, service, and retention, at least 75% of their time is spent servicing their customers. Advisors spend time learning about products, making recommendations, and going the extra mile to ensure clients’ expectations are exceeded.

Customer service is not the wrong focus. It is the imbalance of time spent on servicing, without taking the time to focus on getting past customers to book again.

The risk? Every day, millions of impressions hit the internet vying for your valuable client’s attention.

According to Vicki Freed, SVP Royal Caribbean, their customer research told them that people don’t switch advisors because of the service. It was because of their indifference. Their advisor did not seem to care whether they booked again or not.

When I shared this point during a recent keynote, an advisor approached me later and said, “That really hit home for me. I realized I was making my clients feel like I did not care if they booked again or not.” 

One simple action can change all that. It can be as simple as the next call date booked in the calendar every six months, and following through.

If you want to go the extra mile in retention, create service wow factors such as travel perks, a coffee table magazine, a “Top Travel Trends” White Paper or a small exclusive event for past customers that is not about sales.

Keep it simple, but don’t skip it! If you do nothing else, book a date in the calendar so you are committed to discussing their travel needs again before the hundreds of other ways they can book show up in their inbox.

Retention matters to the health of your business.