A good customer service expert knows that running a business is more than closing one-time deals. Although, the best company is the one that focuses on building relationships with customers and gaining their trust to equate with great customer lifetime value. In simple words, effective business firms always ensure to stick their customers with themselves for a longer period. A company do so to pay heed to their customer lifecycle management.
Monitoring customer lifecycle enables a business to prepare their strategies, marketing sales and customer service team to convert the leads or one-time buyers into loyal business promoters.
The blog will take you to the definition of CLM, the process of organizing CLM analysis, tools and top lifecycle strategies that can assist in increasing customer retention rates for your management.
What is the customer lifecycle?
The customer lifecycle refers to spreading awareness to prospects of your product. The process encourages the prospects to purchase from the brand and turn into the company’s loyal customers. However, the process consists of five stages: reach, possession, turning, retention, and loyalty.
The Customer lifecycle process outlines the customer’s activity and steps while they grow through the sales funnel and flywheel. It provides the user with a clear review of the customer’s journey and determines which aspect of the business needs improvement.
What is customer lifecycle management?
Customer lifecycle management refers to following the customer lifecycle stages, allocating metrics to every member involved in the process and analyzing the success rates based on the metrics data. Companies perform the customer lifecycle management process to examine the business’s performance when connecting with the customer lifecycle.
Meanwhile, every firm acquires the opportunity to manage and guide the customer journey.
Often customers follow similar steps when they think of selecting a brand to turn into loyal customers. Thus, it is the company’s responsibility to deliver the content their prospects are looking for. Hence, to do so, you have to prove your business’s authenticity, reliability, and transparency.
In short, the customer lifecycle determines the customer’s behavioural pattern. Now let’s dive into the brief discussion of the stages.
Stages of customer lifecycle management
The customer lifecycle consists of five stages, i.e., reach, possession, turning, retention and loyalty.
- Reach– It is the first stage of the customer lifecycle management process in which a customer browses for the product after learning of a problem that needs immediate action. The process is known as a reach because the business looks out for the customers who are getting conscious. The business then places its brand on the customer’s radar through social media marketing. As a result, the customer reaches the respective brand to obtain more information.
- Possession– When a consumer enters your webpage or connects with you through a call, they have joined the possession stage. While you interact with your customer, you have to suggest the best products and services, educate them on their uses and satisfy their needs. After that, you have to answer all questions related to the brand effectively and efficiently. In this way, you have acquired your customer and improved their customer service experiences at your website.
- Turning– The prospect will visit your site after receiving your brand’s information and customer experience. Thanks to your team, you have successfully turned your leads into loyal customers. Now they are not just your purchase but your regular customers.
- Retention– After acquiring the leads and turning them into loyal customers, it is the turn to retain your customers to your brand. It begins with how the customer feels about your brand and ask them for their valuable feedback. Organize customer service surveys. After receiving the customer response, you should work on improving your product and its services. Eventually, you must offer exclusive perks and referral bonuses to retain your customer with your brand.
- Loyalty– In this stage, your customer will turn into an essential asset of your business by making additional purchases. You can ensure their loyalty after looking at their reviews on social media platforms. A customer reaches the last stages only if the previous stages influence them.
Organizing customer lifecycle analysis
One can organize a customer lifecycle analysis by following these steps-
- Analyzing the reach stage
- Analyzing the possession stage
- Examining the turning stage
- Examining the retention stage
- Analysing the loyalty stage
How to manage customer lifecycle management?
A business can manage by following the simple steps mentioned below-
- Identify the target audience.
- Share required information
- Provide self-services resources
- Utilize proactive customer service
- Remove friction from the purchase stage.
- Assist in purchasing decisions
- Personalize customer experience
- Invest in automation
- Ask for customer reviews and encourage referrals.
Bottom line
Customer lifecycle management is a comprehensive process that assists in analyzing customer journeys in a business and improving their experiences. The process starts at the reach stage and ends at the retention stage. Every customer progress throughout the whole process. The CLM allows companies to personalize their customer experience using CLM software such as ConvergeHub with its automated systems. Using CLM software makes the Customer lifecycle management process run faster and easier. So, what are you waiting for?
Customize your programs with CLM to acquire loyal customers who can dominate your business growth and help you generate revenue for the longer run.
