We all know the statistics: it costs many times more to win a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. One bad customer interaction requires about 12 positive ones to make up for it. Customers today are ready to defect to competitors for the smallest faults. Each and every mistake a company mistakes is broadcast on social media dozens of times.

No company likes to lose customers. This is why many organizations keep “customer retention specialists” whose job it is to try and persuade defecting customers to change their minds. But by the time a customer has decided to defect, it’s usually too late. Shouldn’t every contact center employee be a retention specialist? And shouldn’t these efforts start before there’s a problem and not afterwards? According to Aspect’s (News - Alert) Kelly Campbell, blogging for WintheCustomer, these scary statistics about customer loss and loyalty today exemplify a key point: never underestimate the value of customer retention.

“Engage, inform and assist your current customers in the best way possible to show them that they are valued and to keep your best customers right where they are – by your company’s side,” wrote Campbell.

This means turning every opportunity possible into a retention opportunity, perhaps with carefully crafted outbound outreach that offers real value to the customer, follow-ups after a purchase that have no other purpose but to see how the customer is managing, and discounts on purchases for complementary purchases or accessories.

According to Campbell, it’s critical to do a little homework and discover how customers may wish to be engaged. The key to creating a successful proactive customer care campaign is to first truly know your target audience’s preferences and needs.

“One way that businesses can utilize contact centers to achieve this feat is by using testing, research and data collection to learn the means of communications that their customers prefer,” wrote Campbell. “By using tools to anticipate customers’ needs, and then contacting them the way they want (through email, text messages, social media etc.), in a time and method that is convenient for them, they will be more receptive and you will ultimately increase customer satisfaction and will save money in the long-run.”

In fact, social media may be an excellent way to reach out to customers proactively without seeming too pushy. It also brings a multimedia aspect to the mix: posting a “how-to” video, for instance, for a customer that just made a complex process. Whatever methods of outreach for retention you choose, make sure those methods are dictated by the customer, not the marketing department.