customer churn

Stop Customer Churn by Managing Moments of Truth

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Is customer churn draining the energy, profits and brand equity out of your company? If it is then you need to stop the customer customer churnchurn immediately. Committing your company’s resources to acquiring customers only to see them leave during the next buying cycle is a prescription for failure. Stopping churn requires you to examine you relationship with your customers throughout the customer experience.

In any relationship, whether it is a marriage, a frien­dship, or a sales relation­ship, there are phases when problems or conflicts are apt to arise. If such dilem­mas are not confronted and resolved early on, the pre­mature dissolution of a partnership may result. In the case of a customer part­nership, there are phases when the buyer’s expecta­tions of your prod­uct or service are tested. During these times you must prove to your customers that your product or ser­vice is their best alternative. Such confron­tations are called Mo­ments of Truth, and how you handle them will deter­mine the longevi­ty of the rela­tionship.

Moments of Truth are the real acid tests of long-term part­nerships. If your product or service per­f­orms as intend­ed and de­livers the benefits the cus­tomer is seek­ing, ev­ery­one is happy and the rela­tion­ship is se­cure. On the other hand, if the product or service fails to per­form or deliver the expected benefits, the custom­er is unhappy and the rela­tion­ship is in jeopar­dy. This is the starting point for customer churn.

A Moment of Truth can occur at any time, in a vari­ety of situa­tions. However, to best under­stand these mo­ments, it is helpful to focus on the six most common sales situations that constitute Moments of Truth. Because of their frequency and potential impact on the sales relationship you must master the skills demanded by each of these six Mo­ments of Truth:

  1. When you’re making the sale.
  2. When the product is delivered or the service begins.
  3. When you discover a problem.
  4. When the customer complains.
  5. When the competition puts on the pressure.
  6. When you make your regular customer retention contacts.

To ensure that you handle each Moment of Truth successfully you’ll need to develop a specific plan for each one. Having a well developed plan increases your chances of solidifying the customer relationship and in stopping the cause of customer churn.