Customer Relationships: how do you keep customers?
Customer Relationships describe how you interact with each customer segment throughout the relationship lifecycle, from acquisition through retention and growth.
Customer Relationships: how do you keep customers?
The Customer Relationships block describes the types of relationships a company establishes with specific Customer Segments. Relationships may range from personal to automated, from transactional to long-term partnerships.
Getting this block right is the difference between customers who leave after one purchase and customers who stay, spend more and refer others. Most businesses focus obsessively on acquisition and underinvest here. That is a costly mistake.
Six types of customer relationships
Personal assistance Based on human interaction. A customer talks to a real person before, during or after purchase. Common in professional services, banking and luxury goods.
Dedicated personal assistance A specific person is assigned to a customer. Key account management in B2B. Private banking. High-value, high-touch.
Self-service The company provides no direct relationship. Customers help themselves. Supermarkets. ATMs. Most e-commerce.
Automated services More sophisticated than self-service. Software recognises individual customers and personalises the experience. A recommendation engine. Automated onboarding sequences.
Communities User communities allow customers to help each other. Reduces support costs, builds loyalty and generates product feedback. Often underestimated as a relationship type.
Co-creation Customers help create value. User-generated content. Customer-developed features.
Relationship goals
Most companies put almost everything into acquisition. Getting new customers feels urgent. But the model that grows sustainably invests equally in keeping existing customers and expanding what they spend.
Your existing customers already trust you. That is not a small thing. Retention and account growth are cheaper than acquisition, and they build a compounding base rather than a leaky one.
We think upselling gets the least attention and deserves the most. If the only thing you do with a happy customer is invoice them, you are leaving a lot on the table.
Matching relationships to segments
A SaaS company might offer self-service onboarding for solo users and dedicated account management for enterprise clients.
The relationship type should match what the segment values and what the business can sustainably deliver. Promising high-touch to everyone is a trap.
Questions to explore with clients
- How do you currently acquire new customers, and what does that process look like?
- What do you do to make customers stay beyond the first purchase?
- How do customers contact you when they have a problem, and how do you handle it?
- Which customer segment is most valuable to retain? How do you treat them differently?
- What does the ideal long-term relationship with your best customer look like?
- Are there relationship types you are not currently offering that your customers would value?