July 20188 IN MY V EWIlove having conversations with colleagues, past and present; friends from other industries talking about the challenges in growing their business, how to acquire customers, keeping their existing customers and the topic of disruption. The industry vertical silos have been broken down, particularly when comparing your ability to give customers an experience that is relevant, meaningful and personalized. When thinking of the "how" in the future, the focus should be on the "now" and the gold mine we all currently sit on..... I recently spoke at a Customer Experience conference with more than 200 practitioners in the room. I opened my section with a question "How many in the room have had a meaningful conversation with one of their existing customers in the last.... 1 Year, then 6 Months, then 3 Months." By the time I got to 3 months we were down to 3 people. I was shocked to see how far away our CX leaders were from their existing customers.Taking a step back, whilst all organizations have their unique pressures, obstacles and opportunities to grow and grow fast both on a tactical and strategically sustainable nature, let's look at what assets you have now and explore future opportunities now! For me, the recipe for sustainable growth comes down to two simple ingredients: attract new customers, and retain the ones you have for life. More importantly, the existing ones you have are your most significant source of growth.RETAINING YOUR GOLD Two examples come to mind--how data in the financial services organizations are losing anywhere up to USD 50 million per year in customer attrition. On the retail side, getting customers to buy one more time has shown to increase revenue by as much as USD 10m per year in a small to medium density market. Almost every organization I have ever interacted with has information about me (as their customer), other customers that they serve, and yet the ability to keep them seems to be lost and in many instances, too late and they have moved on. According to various reports including one by Bain & Co., the cost of acquiring a new customer is approximately 6-7 times more expensive than retaining your existing customers, however when we look at our spending, allocation of resources and time--where is it going? And how much of it is invested into retaining that pot of gold in our midst. Think about it for a minute. You have customer information, purchase history, some contact information etc. and before we start thinking THE FUTURE IS NOW: EXPLORING THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEBY TROY BARNES, CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER, PIZZA HUT Troy Barnes
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