Survival strategy in times of crisis requires active listening and solving customer problems, as well as ensuring their excellent purchasing and user experience.

Crisis situations have forced companies to reevaluate their plans and priorities. Planned investments intended for growth (hiring, advertising) are being pushed aside. We are forced into a fight for survival, in which we must prioritize business elements that will help us survive – we must focus on existing customers and, above all, ensure we lose as few of them as possible.

Shifting from Growth Strategy to Customer Retention Strategy

In times of crisis, it makes sense to reduce expenses for expansion and focus on retaining existing customers for a simple reason – because it is easier and, above all, cheaper to sell to them than to new customers. As Phillip Kotler said, it is 5 to 7 times easier to sell to existing customers than to new ones. Existing customers also spend an average of 67% more than new customers. The fact that during a crisis, buyers become more conservative, spend less, and primarily spend with companies they know and with whom they have good purchasing experiences works in your favor. If you manage to retain their trust, you will very likely be able to retain their purchases.

Now is Not the Time to Lose Customers Due to Your Own Fault

The fact is that all companies lose customers, some more, some less. The question is, do you know how many customers you are losing, why they left, and what you will do to prevent further attrition due to these problems. Ask yourself how well you know your customers. How much do you communicate with them? Is the communication two-way? We are not talking about advertising messages, mass emails, and press releases here. How much do you actually talk to them because you want to find out what you can do to increase your customers' satisfaction? Who among your employees do your customers talk to? Who is responsible for solving your customers' problems and desires? Customers leave companies all the time. Do you know why? Have you done everything you could to retain that customer? Customer attrition is always painful, but in times of crisis, it can be critical for the very survival of the company. A portion of customers leave because they were not satisfied with you. This is a problem and, at the same time, an opportunity to eliminate the cause of dissatisfaction and thereby prevent further customer attrition.

Listening to Customers is the Most Effective Customer Retention Strategy in Times of Crisis

Actively listening to customers tells you in real-time how satisfied your customers are with your products, services, and employees. Systematically measuring satisfaction is a key tool for understanding the steps you need to take if you want to retain customers in the long term. The core of an active satisfaction management strategy is customer feedback. This tells you what you need to do if you want to ensure long-term customer satisfaction. Collecting feedback makes sense only if you consider the following:

1. The Right Time to Gather Information

Every customer interaction with a company is an opportunity to gather feedback that can benefit you. For example, an insurance company can collect feedback when a customer contacts an insurance agent, during the conclusion of an insurance policy, upon policy renewal, when filing a claim, and in the event of the policyholder switching to a competitor. Each of these company-customer touchpoints is different, involves different employees, and different reasons for a potential customer leaving.

2. The Right Questions

Different customer interactions with a company require different sets of questions to check customer satisfaction. The purpose of collecting this feedback is to identify potential reasons for customers leaving at all customer touchpoints.

3. Active Response

Collecting feedback is meaningless if you don't use it. If a customer has a negative experience in your store, they tell you, and you don't react… Listening to customers only makes sense if the company is committed to solving the problems that customers highlight. This means you must have a person responsible for managing satisfaction and problem-solving processes. For instance, a customer who complains about a negative experience in a store (e.g., an unfriendly salesperson) can receive an (e)mail with a discount coupon and an apology.

Strategy for Times of Crisis

The era of plenty is over (at least for now). Companies will be forced into optimization; we will have to do more with fewer resources; the growth strategy is giving way to the fight for survival. Those companies that choose an active customer retention strategy will have a greater chance of success. We retain customers most easily by listening to them and actively solving their problems and desires, thereby ensuring an excellent purchasing and user experience for our customers.