You can have the most efficient sales engine in the world, but if your customers don’t stick around, you’re wasting tons of effort.

So many owners think they need more leads, more sales, and a higher close rate (those are all fantastic). But the truth is, retention is one of the most powerful and overlooked drivers of growth.

The smartest companies stack wins with every customer they serve. If you want to create long-term revenue, consistent revenue, and more revenue, focus on the people who already love you. 

Figuring out where you stand

To do this, you need to find your retention rate. You will need a clear picture of where your sales are coming from and whether they're coming back. 

Start by asking:

• What percentage of customers do we retain over 12, 24, or 36 months?

• What is our customer churn rate?

• How does our retention compare to industry benchmarks?

• Are certain customer segments more loyal than others?

• Do retention rates change by product, service line, sales channel, or geography?

This insight will help you double down on your best-fit customers and identify those who may need a different approach to stick around.

If you’re experiencing high churn, you have to find out why. And it’s usually not as simple as “they didn’t need us anymore.” Yes, it will always depend on your industry and your offer, but it’s a cop out to assume that the problem is with your customers and not your company. 

Some common culprits of high churn include:

• Poor onboarding

• Lack of proactive communication

• Customer support gaps

• Misaligned expectations from the sales process

• Your competition is offering better price, service, or product features 

Make sure you’re gathering real-time feedback through surveys, exit interviews, and regular check-ins. 

A great example of customer retention is Starbucks. Love them or hate them, their coffee (not the fancy kind) is only a few bucks, but their average lifetime value is $15,000 per customer.  

Are they really selling 5,000 cups of coffee per customer? No! They offer a place to work along with food, gifts, and other ways to increase the value of each ticket. They have a rewards program and allow you to load up your Starbucks card for online orders so you can get your coffee faster and easier. 

Starbucks did not perfect coffee (in fact, they consistently lost to Dunkin’ Donuts in blind taste tests). They perfected the process of everything else around the coffee: the customer experience.

Building up long-term retention

If you’re trying to meet expectations, you’ve already lost. You need to consistently exceed them. 

If you want to retain customers and turn them into your best sales force, you need to surprise and delight. Here’s how:

• Find out what your customers care about and give them more of that

• Proactively solve problems before they escalate

• Share personalized insights or recommendations to help them get more value

• Celebrate customer milestones (anniversaries, usage achievements, renewals)

• Send handwritten thank-you notes or gifts to show appreciation to top customers

• Make support easy, responsive, and human

Your process doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does have to be intentional. Once you perfect the process of retention, focus on getting them to really love you.

A retained customer is good. A raving fan is 10x better. Your super fans stay longer, buy more, refer other people, and defend you online and offline. 

How do you win super fans? You will need to customize this to your offer and your audience, but a good start would be:

• Building a formal referral program

• Giving them VIP access to features, content, or beta tests

• Offering loyalty incentives for renewals or upsells

• Highlighting their success publicly (case studies, testimonials, social shoutouts)

Your current customers are your easiest growth opportunity. You already have the relationship; now it’s time to deepen it.

If you can turn customer retention into a growth lever, you can earn more repeatable wins, which you can stack with your current base. Rather than chasing down new customers for every sale, you can stack repeat business into your revenue month after month, year after year. 

When it’s time to exit, high retention and strong customer lifetime value increase your valuation. Investors and buyers love sticky revenue.

If you want concrete answers from an expert about how your business is doing, speak with a professional:

👉Book a call with a Growth Advisor