Client Retention is Everybody's Job

by Reuben Estrada

CEOs, this is a no-brainer.  Yet so often, so very often, in business I find myself working with a client that is having a hard time with the concept of creating “Customers for Life.”  You know the sales people are out there selling, but they simply don’t see it as their job to follow up on their past customers.  The people in your Customer Service Department deliver the product or the service, but they don’t see it as their job to talk about future sales or purchases with that customer.  The receptionist, who is answering the phone and doing well at it, just doesn’t see it as her job to ask that additional one or two questions:  How are we taking care of you? Do you know about the other products that we have to offer?  Your Production Department is doing their job by putting out product so the Service Department can serve the customer, but for some unknown reason there seems to be a big disconnection between production and the end user, your customer. In the most successful organizations I’ve seen, the customer is it!   Everyone in the company knows without a doubt that Customer Service is everybody’s job.

Here’s a tip:  Ask this question of every employee, in every position, and in every department:  How do you specifically, in your job, impact Customer Service?  More importantly, how do you feed our culture of creating “Customer’s For Life”?  If they don’t have a great answer, develop a training program and systems to make sure they understand and begin to live this culture.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

www.estradastrategies.