Don't Forget: Your Customers Change.

A recent survey conducted by SRD Group brought home a simple truth about customers – your customers change during the course of their relationship with your organisation.
 
The survey was designed to gauge overall customer satisfaction at different phases during a (typically) three-year contract cycle and we were surprised by the degree to which customers change - they trade in one set of hot-buttons for another – and then another – during the course of their relationship.
 
The lesson from this client applies across the board of course – but our results highlighted the dramatic degree to which the rules can radically change when you first seek to win, to serve and then renew customer contracts.
 
For our client the results produced a clear set of action points.

 

1. The things that are important for a new client when they assess suppliers are likely to change after they sign up. For example price may be critical, but after the contract is signed price becomes immaterial – and timely service delivery leaps up the leader board. Your customer service people need to recognise this kind of transition – and after being in sales mode they need to switch to full service mode.
   
2. As a contract cycle enters its final phase, clients turn their radar on full. They’re evaluating the overall experience – and this is precisely when an established relationship may have become a little jaded and run-of-the-mill. In other words your customer relationship management needs to deliver an elevated experience – or what we call pre-renewal mode.

The lesson from our research is pretty simple – but it is a reminder that we often classify customers in terms of size or loyalty – but we seldom look at the life stage of the relationship. What a great opportunity to lift the game 

Duncan Stuart - Research Partner SRD Group