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Firstly, lets understand what is customer stickiness?

Customer stickiness is describing the tendency to grow repeat business. Stickiness determines the likeliness of a customer “sticking” to your brand / company / product / services, and offers more opportunities to grow the business.

Customer stickiness demonstrates perceived product / service value. While the quality of the product, service, pricing, transactional convenience directly contributes to customer stickiness, improving the customer experience, relationship and emotional connect, indirectly contribute to enhance the stickiness.  Customer stickiness does impact the longevity of a customer relationship. 

Why is customer stickiness of essential?

Predominantly there are 3 main reasons-

1. Sustained business growth

Increased customer stickiness directly correlates with higher sales and revenue margins. Customers tend to feel more satisfied with their purchases and are more willing to return for repeat purchases, if they sense elated customer experience & hence customer stickiness.

It offers opportunities to cross sell & up sell, and increase customer lifetime value. It adds and longevity of your business. Building stickiness is a recipe for growth; a sure-shot formula to create a sustainable revenue model.

 2.     Increased customer referrals

Sticky customers who trust your products and services are more likely to refer your business to other people. Sticky customers are more likely to leave positive reviews and ratings. Valuing stickiness factor, also helps turn leads into buyers, convert customers into repeat buyers, and transform them into their vocal brand advocates.

 3.     Cost Savings

Acquiring a new customer is difficult & costlier, than strengthening the bonds with the existing customer.  According to a Bain and Co. research, it’s six to seven times cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one.  According to the Harvard Business Review, it can be anywhere from 5x to 25x more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. In surveys, 82% of companies agreed that retention is far cheaper than acquisition.

 Now, will look at one of the EASIEST ways to ensure customer stickiness

 I was a regular customer to the same salon, for almost a year. Services there were quite economically priced, and it was nearer to my house & convenient. On my turn, I used to explain my preferred style of haircut, to hair-dresser Barun. And he used to get on to the job. Once done, I paid him and moved on. Next visit, the process would repeat. I again had to explain to him my preferred style (even though it used to be the same style), and then he used to get on to the job. This saga continued.

                One particular day, Barun’s saloon was closed. I went in search of an alternative. A few kms far, I found another one. The hair-dresser there greeted me, and said – “Hi, I am Roshan. Pls be seated, and he will attend to me in a few mins”. I said OK. Upon my turn, I explained to him my preferred style. He listened to it calmly. And then repeated it just to confirm if he had understood it right. Oh wow, that was impressive. I was wondering if Roshan was part of any leadership trainings, or was part of corporate industry before or just honed exceptional active listening skills. While he was on to his job, he opened up a few threads on current topics, and we started conversations. In some time, he was done, and his engrossing conversations, made it feel very quick. I paid him and left from there. Roshan was slightly expensive though.

               A few days later, I visited the Roshan’s saloon again, to check if I would get a consistent experience. And as expected, on my visit Roshan greeted me with a smile. I waited for my turn and I hopped onto the chair. Before I could start explaining my preferred style (as I used to do it regularly in Barun’s saloon), Roshan said – “Same style as last time?”.

              I was stunned. I visited here just once, and almost a month ago, and he still remembers the style! Wow, amazing! The feel-good factor was already injected. However, I didn’t want my haircut to go crazily wrong, and I ending up with a bald head. So, I asked him to repeat what style would he do. And to my amazement, he remembered exactly what I had said to him, a month ago. Literally, I felt saved from dreadful, horrific moments of giving instructions like a parrot, every other time. It was such a great moment of fulfilment. Deep inside, I was already convinced and made up my mind that At least for a good few years, I would definitely stick with Roshan.              

               Roshan’s Active listening skills, and noting customer priority preferences, turned me into a sticky customer. Even though he was slightly more expensive than regular saloons, I wouldn’t mind sticking to Roshan’s services, because he is compassionate of customers’ preferences. And that’s exactly what ensures customer stickiness.               

I experimented the same, with my clients, and it has worked wonders.

Sometime back, we had client workshops for 3 days, at my office. During a coffee break, we went to the cafeteria, and my client Steve, ordered a flat-white coffee, with 2 sachets of brown sugar. I took a mental note of it. Next time, when we went for coffee, I asked Steve – “Steve, Same as last time? A flat-white with 2 sachets of brown sugar?”. He was dumbstruck and nodded a yes. I could sense an Aha moment in this face.

The first step towards emotional connection was laid strong. Since then, whenever he comes with me for a coffee, he knows what will he get by default. Noting customer preferences, is a direct hint that you are inclined & interested towards building a long-lasting relationship. Of course, it must be backed by a strong product / service quality as well.

I & Steve, now work very closely and we together are putting growth plans. Once we have a strong emotional connection with the other person, any sort of debates seems friendly.  Not necessarily all the discussions turn into favourable wins, but the discussions definitely are much more open and supportive.

Roshan’s trick of remembering the customer preferences worked for me. 

This tip doesn’t just limit to eateries but extends far more into business as well. For each of the customers / important stakeholders I meet, I make a mental note of their preferred catchup style (could be formal in a meeting room OR could be at a coffee table), communication style (a detailed email with all data points versus a 3-4 liner summary and action points), their preferred way of deck style (many slides with details OR just just 2 slider and rest all details in attachments), preferred cuisine (Indian /Chinese/Mexican etc),  their priorities, their likes & dislikes, etc. And at every catchup, I ensure they get a consistent experience, moulded in their preferred way.

 Trust me, that has helped a great way. The other person feels at ease when his / her basic preferences are already taken into consideration. So, what rolls up next is a pure-play meaty discussion, and quick decisions, instead of beating around the bush.

              Pls NOTE – This gesture acts as an icing on the cake, and not the cake itself. The product / services has to be genuinely good and engaging. And on top of that, this kind of gesture will help to make sure the customer is not lured away by your competitor.

Takeaway point –

Active listening is very important. And in the process, try to remember the customers’ key preferences, and repeat them next time. Reiterate your understanding. That gives a lot of confidence to the customer and makes them feel comfortable to return.

And don’t forget to use the magic sentence – “Same as last time?”