Year after year, businesses strive to reach new and growing quota and revenue targets—driving their sales and marketing teams to drum up new clients and secure new revenue streams. Their progress would be limited however, if they solely focused on producing new opportunities. With nearly 65% of a company’s revenue coming from repeat customers, maintaining existing customer accounts and nurturing customer relationships are imperative to reaching those year-end goals. Without the revenue produced by repeat customers, businesses would never have the momentum to reach for those mounting objectives.
With a cost that’s 5-20x less expensive than the alternative and the potential to increase revenue by 25-95% with just a 5% increase, customer retention plays an irreplaceable role in the success of a business. Retaining customers isn’t just about keeping customers, it’s about the opportunity to increase the value of those customers through cross-selling and/or upselling.
Cross-selling is the process of selling an existing customer something that accompanies what they originally purchased.
Upselling is the process of selling an existing customer something that increases the price of what they’ve already purchased—upgrades, add-ons, etc.
Cross-selling and upselling both add value for the business and the customer—increased sales revenue for the business, increased satisfaction for the customer, and increased ROI for everyone. How though, can your business increase its cross-sell and upsell opportunities to realize these benefits?
Invest in Customer Experience
According to one study, the number one reason that businesses are investing in customer experience (CX) is to improve cross-selling and upselling. So, how exactly does great CX improve potential cross-sell and upsell opportunities?
For starters, delivering a consistently great customer experience could prevent you from losing nearly one third of your customers. Research shows that 32% of customers will cease to make purchases from a brand they love after a single bad interaction. That’s nearly one third of your potential cross-sell/upsell opportunities. Subsequently, improving your customer experience and eliminating all instances of bad CX has the potential to increase your cross-sell/upsell opportunities nearly 33%.
Contrary to bad customer experience, great CX is responsible for over two-thirds of customer loyalty—meaning that about 66% of the time, great CX is the reason for a customer’s willingness to repeatedly do business with a brand. Additionally, existing—or loyal—customers are 50% more likely than new customers to try new products from a brand, increasing the potential that they’ll agree to a cross-sell or upsell deal.
Finally, if you’re still not sure how customer experience can impact your cross-sell/upsell opportunities, take it from customers themselves. Research found that 94% of consumers who rated a brand’s CX as very good’ also stated that they were likely to make an additional purchase from that company in the future. Opposed to 72% with ‘Okay CX’ and 20% with ‘Very Poor CX,’ the investment in very good, or great customer experience—although complicated and time consuming—is certainly worth the trouble.
It’s commonly said that 80% of your future profits will come from just 20% off your existing customers. As we’ve demonstrated today, when you invest in customer experience you also invest in a more effective and efficient strategy for reaching your yearly quotas and revenue targets.
Improved CX will lower your cost of acquisition and turn satisfied customers into brand ambassadors making it easier for sales to demonstrate the value your business offers and secure the new clientele necessary to close the gap and achieve your business goals.