As the customer journey becomes more and more intertwined with social media, marketers are working to focus more on customer retention. The 2017-2018 Garner CMO Spend Survey found that marketers will devote more effort on existing customers and that existing customers will soon be the primary focus for marketers.
But not only will marketers be working to serve their current customers, they will also be looking for the best means to measure ROI.
So what should marketers focus on in 2018? Here are three musts:
- All customer touch points should be owned. Even though marketers are not responsible for all customer touch points, their efforts are affected by all of them. Marketers must not only know all the touch points, but also how the touch points influence customer experience.
- Existing customers should get your best efforts. Yes, you want new customers, but the things that will attract new customers—personalization, consistency with interactions, prompt attention to customer needs, etc.—are also the things that will help to retain existing customers. Work to create loyalty and advocacy from your existing customer base.
- Use metrics that matter. You can’t just depend on metrics that look at your entire customer base. You must look at the behavior of individual customers in order to meet their expectations. By assessing individual interactions at every step along the way, you can gather sufficient data to give you a more complete picture of the entire customer journey.
2018 is the year to focus on your existing customers, who can be your organization’s most credible advocates or your most harmful critics.