As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, customer retention continues to be one of the most important, yet misunderstood, areas of customer strategy. Of all the things that C-level execs need to know about retention, this is the most important: Any strategy you undertake to keep customers must be done under the heading of creating value for your enterprise and your customers.
One of the best examples of applying this reality is happening in the wireless telecom business. Here's an industry where it can easily cost more than $300 to acquire a new retail customer, and perhaps $60,000 or more to secure a new enterprise customer. As a result, many mobile firms have placed a great deal of emphasis on customer retention. Of course, retention is only one of the variables that figure in the overall value that customers create, but in mobile telecom, it is certainly one of the most important.
