Increase your customers for life

Question:

Will your best customers still be your customers in ten years time?

Answer:

At The Alpha Group we make certain that you calculate the financial benefits to your companies of your ideal lifetime customers and plan how to increase the number of these customers.

So, how does this happen?

Easy, its a six step-process using the power of the peer-to-peer advisory board.

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Firstly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you identify what is your strategic problem.

Good customer service usually results in increased sales and customer loyalty. This, in turn, leads to increased lifetime value customers and high profitability.

What prevents some companies from providing good customer service?

There are three common reasons for this:

1 Companies find it extremely difficult to see your service through your customers’/clients’ eyes.

2 Companies don’t work out the detail of your service offer to customers/clients. The reason for this is because the see your service through your customers’/clients’ eyes.

3 Companies just focus on the individual transaction with a customer/client rather than what that client could be potentially worth to you in the long term. This is what is called lifetime value. For example, car manufacturers in the US know a car owner will spend on average $443,800+ on cars in your lifetime value.

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Secondly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you calculate the lifetime value of your ideal customer to the business.

Focus on an ideal customer/client of your company

1 The average value per purchase by the customer/client

2 The average number of purchases per year

3 Total annual revenue

4 The average annual value of cross-sell purchases by the customer/client

5 The value of service contracts & financing (where appropriate)

6 The number of referrals per year from the customer/client that result in new clients

7 The average value per purchase of each new customer/client

8 The average number of purchases per year of each new customer/client

9 Total annual revenue of referred customers/clients

10 Total annual revenue

11 The number of years the customer/client is retained

12 THE LIFETIME VALUE OF THE CUSTOMER/CLIENT

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Thirdly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you flowchart your customer service process.

Purpose

For you to identify where there are great opportunities to make your customer/client service exceptional.

Step 1: Flowchart your customer service process

Imagine you are a client, jot down below 6 of the key steps in the customer service process from your company.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

On the next page put these steps into columns 1 & 2 of your flowchart.

Step 2: Identify your opportunities to delight your clients and the potential to annoy you

Each of these steps (or points of contact) is an opportunity for you to delight your client to and a risk of providing flawed service. (It’s either a positive or negative experience for your client).

Write these on small post-its and put you into columns 3 & 4 of your flowchart.

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Fourthly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you assess the likely benefits.

Assess the benefits to your company of significantly increasing your opportunities to delight your customers/clients

a. In your customer service process, what are your 3 golden opportunities for you to delight your customers/clients?

3.

b. What 1.

• • • 2. • • • c. What

• • • would be the benefits to you of seizing the opportunities?

The benefits to your company

The benefits to you personally

are the anticipated financial payoffs to your company from b. above?

In higher sales:

In lower costs:

In more lifetime value customers/clients:

Identify the likely benefits to your company of significantly reducing the potential you have to annoy your customers/clients

a. In your customer service process, what are the 3 serious ways for you to annoy your customers/clients? 1

2

3

b. What

1

•

•

•

3

•

•

•

c. What

• • •

would be the benefits to you of overcoming these flaws or problems?

The benefits to your company:

•

The benefits to you personally:

•

are the anticipated financial payoffs to your company from B) above?

In higher sales:

•

In lower costs:

•

In more lifetime value customers/clients:

Lastly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you take massive action.

The profound impact on you and your company of increasing your customers for life is that within 12 months, you will significantly increase the % of annual sales from your lifetime customers, leading to more profit and increased value multiplier.