From small businesses to huge corporations, everyone wants to know the secret to keeping customers. How do we earn repeat business for years and years to come?

If you take away anything from this fantastic Infographic, from the guys at CustomersThatStick, it is the experience that the customer receives that defines whether they remain loyal to you or if they take their business elsewhere.

A staggering 82 percent have said they stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer experience. To keep your customers happy what are the four elements you should focus on?

– Friendly employees or customer service representative – ensure your employees are engaged

– Personalise the client experience. Let’s start a conversation about the revolution in business that requires engaging customers as individuals, at every level and how we can get there.

– Ability to easily find information or help. Share what you know, now that’s power!

– Good reputation – In my opinion (as always) if you do the above you will gain the reputation

Take a look at the infographic below and open the conversation by dropping a note in the comments.

Sources for the Customer Retention Statistics Above

While the convention on most infographics seems to be generic, non-specific sourcing, we wanted to provide actual sources for the statistics used in the infographic. We attempted to find primary sourcing as much as possible. In cases when we relied on secondary sourcing that did not seem definitive, we notated that fact after the citation.

Why Customers Leave <<TweetThis>>

• 82% of consumers in the U.S. said they stopped doing business… > Citation 
• 73% was a reaction to rude staff… > Citation
• 78% of consumers in the U.S. said they have bailed on a transaction… > Citation
• 68% of consumers leave because they were upset with treatment… > Citation (Note: Primary sourcing could not be found, though this statistic is widely quoted through secondary sources.)

Why Customers Stick <<TweetThis>>

• What parts of the customer experience cause customers to stick… > Citation
• 92% of consumers said they would go back after a negative experience… > Citation
• What happened when an organization responded to a customer’s negative comment… > Citation
• 85% of customers are willing to pay more… > Citation

Retained Customers Mean Money <<TweetThis>>

• The cost of bringing a new customer to the same level of profitability is up to 16x more… > Citation
• 10x more expensive to acquire… > Citation
• 4-6x more expensive to acquire…* > Citation
• 5x more expensive to acquire… > Citation Alan E. Webber, “B2B Customer Experience Priorities In An Economic Downturn: Key Customer Usability Initiatives In A Soft Economy,” Forrester Research, February 19, 2008
• 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor… > Citation
• Increasing retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25%-95%… > Citation
• 2% increase in retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%.. > Citation (From the book, Leading on the Edge of Chaos)
• Loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much… > Citation (Note: Primary sourcing could not be found, though this statistic is widely quoted through secondary sources.)
• Repeat customers spend 67% more… > Citation