I recently read a white paper on the 7 Steps of Effective Customer Lifecycle Communication by Right On Interactive (www.rightoninteractive.com)
While I already understood the concepts behind the customer lifecycle, I hadn’t read any updated research on the subject since graduate school. I expected that as I read the white paper, I would ascertain some new ideas on managing the customer lifecycle that may lead to a new or evolved perspective on the subject.
What I learned was that the philosophy behind the customer lifecycle hasn’t changed much in the past several years. So I really didn’t need to reevaluate my viewpoint. However, it did result in a reevaluation of our marketing strategies to ensure that they are still appropriately focused on the customer lifecycle. I discovered that our programs are sound, but that there are stages within the customer lifecycle that may require a little more attention.
The goal with any customer lifecycle program is to move customers (or prospects) along the stages within the lifecycle (which can be defined by you). The further along the lifecycle you can move prospects or customers, the more likely you are to convert or retain them respectively.
The basic stages to an acquisition lifecycle are:
1. Initiate – Identify prospect
2. Develop – Engage prospect
3. Convert – Customer makes purchase
The basic stages for a retention lifecycle are:
1. Adopt – Customer consumes product
2. Value – Customer gains value from product
3. Advocate – Customer begins promoting product
According to Right On Interactive, there are seven steps to consider when launching your own customer lifecycle communications program, with number 1 being the most important in my book:
1. Define the stages of your own customer lifecycle
2. Select the highest priority stage to migrate to the customer lifecycle communications methodology.
3. Develop a baseline measure of the churn rate within this stage. Analyze the key touch points that best identify a constituent’s propensity to engage in a deeper relationship.
4. Develop the customer lifecycle communications plan for this stage
5. Determine how to allocate your resources to support the customer lifecycle communications strategy and automation roadmap.
6. Automate the customer lifecycle communications process. It’s okay to ‘think big; start small.’
7. Measure the outcomes against your customer lifecycle baseline and analyze improvement opportunities.
In closing, just remember this: it’s easier to acquire customers than it is to retain them, but it costs less to retain customers than it does to acquire them.
