088: Richard Shapiro, The Endangered Customer

Customer retention and loyalty are critical to the success of your business and maintaining relationships is a key to both. Today’s guest shares 27 years of wisdom to help us create personal connections with customers, no matter how big our organizations grow. Customer retention: Are your customers an endangered species? Richard gives us a brief history of his experience working with successful companies, and how their success is largely attributed to customer retention. Drawing from 27 years of experience, he explains the importance of recognizing customers as people. Knowing their expectations and how they like to do business is not enough. One of the biggest challenges in scaling any business is finding a way to create lasting relationships with customers. If your company were to become huge, could you still interact with your customers as individuals? Richard explains how businesses of any size can create valuable personal relationships with customers. If you’re willing to invest in those relationships through personalized communications, the ROI can be tremendous. Richard says, “There’s never been more competition than there is today.” The need for building relationships with customers is critical. With a strong focus on the idea of repeat business, Richard explains the principles behind his book, The Endangered Customer: 8 Steps to Guarantee Repeat Business.  Based on extensive research, these 8 steps are geared towards giving you the ingredients for connecting with customers on emotional and psychological levels. How do your customers feel after the transaction is over? How will you know? Listen to this episode to learn how to create relationships so strong, your customers won’t imagine leaving you for a more enticing offer. Richard Shapiro, Bestselling author and veteran customer retention strategist Richard R. Shapiro is Founder and President of The Center For Client Retention (TCFCR) and a leading authority in the area of customer satisfaction and loyalty.  For 27 years, Richard has spearheaded the research conducted with thousands of customers from Fortune 100 and 500 companies amassing the ingredients of customer loyalty and what drives repeat business.  His first book was The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business and The Endangered Customer: 8 Steps to Guarantee Repeat Business, will be available February, 2016. Connect with Richard The Center For Client Retention Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Google+ Related Content Richard’s blog, 8 Steps to Guarantee Repeat Business for E-commerce Sites Richard’s bestselling book, The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business Richard’s new book, The Endangered Customer: 8 Steps to Guarantee Repeat Business 360Connext® post, 5 White Glove Tests to Maximize Customer Retention Customers That Stick® post, Faces of Customer Experience: Richard Shapiro Episode 058: Jill Griffin, The Loyalty Maker Sponsor Message: Develop your customer experience mission Do you know how to deliver the superior customer experience you visualize? We can help your team become a force for positive change, starting with a customer-centric mission. The Customer Experience Investigators™ at 360Connext specialize in helping companies across industries and around the globe develop and internalize unique and scalable customer-focused missions. To compete with the other 89% of companies staying afloat by providing better experiences, you need a compass for making astounding changes in the customer experience while breaking down the silos that are holding you back. We offer evaluations, workshops, and roadmaps to keep your wheels firmly planted on the road to a customer-centric future. Join us on our mission to Create Fewer Ruined Days for Customers™ today. Visit us at 360Connext.com.    Take care of yourself and take care of your customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices