The Idea in Brief
- It’s never been more important to keep the customers you already have—it’s much cheaper than acquiring new ones. But elaborate customer research may be beyond this year’s budget.
- Many companies have succeeded at retaining customers by asking them for simple feedback—and then empowering frontline employees to act swiftly on that feedback.
- European manufacturer Grohe, for example, turned around a decline in market share and used its sales force more effectively after implementing a simple feedback loop from the distributors who sold the company’s products.
Cheryl Pasquale, a branch manager at Charles Schwab, starts her workday with this morning ritual: As soon as she arrives at her desk, she fires up her laptop, logs on to Schwab’s intranet, and pulls up the latest customer feedback report for her office. Generated by a brief survey the investment firm e-mails out daily, the report shows the most recent responses from her team’s clients.