Losing key clients is always painful for a business – it sharply reduces income, creates funding problems for projects and teams, or decreases the founders’ profits. When we lost a client with 600 users at the very beginning of the Business Booster Platform project (a SaaS platform for company management), it was very unpleasant. After that, we focused on building a system that prevents the loss of key clients.
In this article, I will share the main tools and rules that we have been using at Business Booster for many years, which have proven effective and work well for retaining key clients.
Why We Lose Clients and What to Do About It
The main reason we lose key clients is our lack of understanding of their needs and expectations. We fail to understand them because we do not engage in active and deep communication. The key to solving this problem is to find out what is truly important to our clients, and this can only be done through direct and systematic communication. Such communication should follow a clear and understandable technology so that the results can be easily systematized and passed on between employees and founders. This is where deep interview technologies come into play.
Deep interviews provide us with the opportunity to deeply immerse ourselves in the client’s world, learning what is important to them, what barriers they face, and how we can help eliminate these barriers. This allows us to identify weaknesses in our business and understand where we are making mistakes. Additionally, from these interviews, we can learn a lot about our competitors, what our clients think about them, and the current trends in the industry.
At Business Booster, we have implemented the practice of regular deep interviews. We plan to conduct several interviews each week, allowing us to maintain constant contact with our key clients and stay informed about their current needs and problems. When we launch a new product, the intensity of such interviews increases – we may conduct several dozen interviews per week. This helps us gather valuable data and adapt more quickly to changes, significantly improving our client retention strategies.
Deep interviews not only help us better understand our clients but also create a foundation for closer and more trusting relationships. We can promptly respond to their needs and offer solutions that truly work, ultimately strengthening their loyalty and reducing the risk of loss.
Which Deep Interview Methodology to Choose
There are different approaches to conducting deep interviews, and one of the most practical and effective is the JTBD (Jobs to Be Done) methodology. This interview technique is based on understanding the job the client hires our product to do. This approach allows us to identify the value key clients receive from our product and how we can maintain and enhance this value.
The JTBD approach works as follows: during the interview, we focus on understanding the specific tasks or “jobs” that the client is trying to accomplish with our product. We find out what problems they are solving, what goals they want to achieve, and why they chose our product for this. The interviewer asks questions that help uncover the deeper motives and context of product use, providing a more complete and accurate understanding of the client’s needs.
For example, instead of the general question “Why did you choose our product?”, the interviewer might ask: “What specific tasks were you trying to solve when you decided to use our product?”. Such questions help clients reveal their expectations and experiences related to the product, which in turn gives us valuable information about what is important to them.
Conducting interviews using the JTBD methodology provides us with several important advantages. First, we gain a deep understanding of the needs of our key clients, allowing us to better adapt the product to their expectations and improve its functionality. We can identify and eliminate barriers faced by clients and strengthen aspects that are particularly valuable to them. This makes our product more useful and attractive, contributing to the retention of key clients.
Additionally, the results of such interviews are highly valuable for attracting new clients similar to our key ones. We can use in our marketing the language and phrases clients use when describing our product and the problems it solves.
Losing a Key Client Over a Trivial Issue
There are sometimes amusing cases; for example, we nearly lost a key client once because one of our employees had a prominent tooth removed. Business Booster is a premium business accelerator for business owners, and clients expect premium service in every aspect, including the appearance of our staff. When the client first saw our specialist with a toothless smile during a Zoom call, they almost declined our services. We discovered this issue through a deep interview with the client, leading us to implement a strict standard that all client-facing staff must maintain a high level of appearance, including their smile.
Identifying Hidden Client Experience Problems with CJM
Business owners and management often do not recognize such issues as product problems, though, for the client, all of this is part of the user experience and the product itself. To identify these hidden issues, we use the Customer Journey Map (CJM) approach. This method allows us to thoroughly study the user experience with our product and company. CJM helps us identify all stages the client goes through, from the first contact with the product to its long-term use. This approach enables us to find and eliminate barriers and problems at each stage, making the client journey smoother and more satisfying.
Implementing Customer Journey Maps
The use of CJM begins with creating a client journey map, where we detail all the steps the client takes, from awareness of the product to its active use and possible repeat purchase. At each stage, we mark key interaction points, such as information search, purchasing process, initial use experience, support, and service. It’s important not only to note these stages but also to understand the client’s emotions and expectations at each one.
The main benefit of CJM is that it helps us visualize the entire client journey and identify where barriers and problems occur. For example, if clients often struggle with registration or product setup, we can focus on improving these aspects to make them simpler and more intuitive. By eliminating barriers, we make the interaction with the product more pleasant and satisfying, which helps retain clients.
Enhancing Positive Moments with CJM
In addition to removing barriers, CJM helps us identify and enhance positive moments in the client journey. For instance, if clients particularly appreciate a quick and efficient support process, we can invest in improving this aspect to make support even more responsive and helpful. We can also use CJM to develop loyalty programs and other initiatives that strengthen positive experiences and increase client commitment.
Using CJM for Deep Interviews
CJM is used not only for analyzing existing experiences but also as a basis for deep interviews. When conducting interviews with clients, we can use CJM to structure our questions. We ask clients about each stage of their journey, finding out what they liked, what caused difficulties, and what improvements they would like to see. This helps us obtain more detailed and accurate information about the client experience, identify hidden problems, and discover opportunities for improvement.
Applying CJM at Business Booster
At Business Booster, we actively use CJM to analyze and improve the client journey. By understanding where our clients encounter difficulties and what brings them the most joy, we can work more precisely and effectively on product and service improvements. This not only helps retain key clients but also makes our product more attractive to new users, creating a positive experience and increasing overall satisfaction.
Identifying Key Clients with ABCD Segmentation
To accurately know who our key clients are and their characteristics, we use the ABCD segmentation approach at Business Booster. Segmentation allows us to determine which clients derive the most value from our product and divide them into four categories: A, B, C, and D.
– Segment A includes clients who find our product extremely necessary. They purchase a lot and willingly, the buying process takes minimal time, and they do not require constant attention – they simply pay and use.
– Segment B consists of clients who need the product but sometimes have objections or find something lacking. They pay more or less regularly, the sales cycle is relatively short, and the average check is above average.
– Segment C includes those who need a solution but our product doesn’t particularly help them. Their sales cycle is huge, the average check is small, they easily drop off, and they require a lot of attention from sales and support.
– Segment D represents people who mostly write to support what is wrong with our product, take up a lot of salespeople’s time, but never buy.
According to the Pareto principle, segments A and B bring in 80% of revenue, while C and D account for 20%. However, C and D segments attract more attention and force us to work on their problems, distracting from key clients.
Using ABCD segmentation helps us focus on the most valuable clients and better allocate resources and efforts to improve the product and support for those who are truly key clients of our business.
Quick Assessment of Key Client Satisfaction
Deep interviews are an excellent and irreplaceable tool for understanding clients, but they require significant time investment since they involve individual communication with each client. One interview usually takes from 45 to 90 minutes. These are targeted contacts that gradually form a bigger picture of what our clients think, feel, and want. To make generalized conclusions, it’s necessary to conduct 20 to 100 interviews, process the data, identify common patterns, and segment all clients into groups. This can take several months of intensive work for a small business owner or key marketers.
To have a quick monitoring system and keep a pulse on key clients, we at Business Booster also use simpler quantitative methods to assess the perceived quality of our product and interaction experience with our company – these are the NPS and CSI indices.
NPS (Net Promoter Score)
Let’s start with NPS. We measure NPS across the entire client base and separately track this index for key clients. The methodology works as follows: clients are asked one question – “How likely are you to recommend our product to your friends or colleagues?” – and they respond on a scale from 0 to 10. Respondents who answer 9 or 10 are considered promoters, 7-8 are neutrals, and 0-6 are critics. The NPS index is calculated as the difference between the percentage of promoters and the percentage of critics.
When implementing NPS in your company, pay attention to the correct translation – it is the Recommendation Index, not the Client Loyalty Index, as it is often incorrectly translated. Loyalty (willingness to continue buying) and the desire to recommend (possibly without buying anymore) are, of course, related but not the same thing. NPS is an overall quantitative monitoring of promoters, those who want to recommend our product. For the Business Booster accelerator, the NPS for 2024 is 82, which is very high in the market. For comparison, according to data from https://www.comparably.com/, Apple’s NPS is 48, Sony’s is 37, and Samsung’s is 16.
CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index)
Additionally, at Business Booster, we use the CSI index to track satisfaction with specific courses and functional modules within products. The CSI methodology works as follows: clients are asked to evaluate various product or service aspects, usually on a scale from 1 to 5. These ratings are then aggregated to obtain an overall satisfaction index.
Measuring CSI makes sense separately from NPS as they focus on different aspects of the client experience. NPS measures clients’ willingness to recommend the product, which indicates overall satisfaction, whereas CSI evaluates specific elements of the product or service in more detail. This allows us to understand better which parts of our offering need improvement and to focus on what is important for key clients.
Loyalty Programs and Gamification
For client retention, loyalty programs and gamification also work well. Gamification adds an element of play to the interaction with the product, making it more engaging and motivating clients to reuse it. At Business Booster, each client accumulates virtual currency – Business Booster Coin (BBCoin), which can be exchanged for premium products. This not only rewards clients for their loyalty but also creates additional incentives to continue using our services. For example, clients can exchange accumulated BBCoins for access to exclusive courses that cannot be purchased with money, making the points accumulation process more meaningful and motivating.
Special privileges for regular clients are also an effective retention tool. For key clients, we provide benefits such as retaining legacy rates that are no longer available to new clients. This creates a sense of exclusivity and value, as clients feel their status and contribution to the company are recognized and rewarded.
Moreover, we organize special events exclusively for our key clients. These events may include webinars with experts, closed training sessions, or even live meetings where clients can interact directly with the Business Booster team and each other. This strengthens relationships and allows clients to feel part of a community.
Another important advantage is priority access to new product versions. Key clients get the opportunity to be the first to try new features and capabilities, which makes them feel unique and important to the company. This also allows us to receive valuable feedback from our most loyal clients, helping in further product improvement.
These strategies help us retain clients by increasing their satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately contributing to the sustainable growth and success of Business Booster.
