Where you go is the result of who you choose to become.

This time of the year is a great time to reflect…

What’s gone well in your business (and life) this year? What or who allowed those things to happen?

What hasn’t gone as planned, and what stopped your momentum?

Where do you want to be next year, and who do you need to become to achieve or handle that? Who does your team need to become?

Whether you’re killing it and have your sights set on the next peak or are still grinding through and wondering how to return to enjoying what you do, now is the time to take stock.

Being “all in” is the key to making anything happen. You are just as capable and deserving as anyone else on this planet of having the things you want in your business and life.

Remember this always: Where you are is the result of who you were. Where you go depends highly on the person you choose to be from this moment forward.

Once you buy into that philosophy, you can change your perspective, thinking, learning, being and actions in a split second.

Here’s the exercise:

Get out a sheet of paper and divide it into 3 columns: CURRENT | GOAL | GAP

Fill in those three things for the following areas of your business & life:

• Revenues
• Profits
• Team
• You as a Leader
• Time
• Family
• Health
• Stretch Goal

Based on your answers to those questions, where do you need to learn, grow, and take action?

Learning is key—if your revenues aren’t where you want them to be, it’s time to invest in yourself or your team so you can learn how to sell more effectively. If it’s profit, you need to learn the things that profitable businesses do and don’t do. If you need to grow as a leader, invest in yourself there. If your time is out of control or your managers aren’t managing effectively, take a management class.

For your life and business to change, you need to change first.

Here are some resources to get you started – they’re fast and easy on the budget too!

Training ActionCOACH Resources

Every successful business knows that retaining customers is just as important - if not more so - than acquiring new ones. Customer retention is the process of keeping existing customers engaged, satisfied and loyal to your brand. When done right, it leads to increased sales, a stronger brand reputation, and lower marketing costs. Many businesses turn to a business coach for expert strategies on how to achieve lasting customer loyalty.

Why Customer Retention Matters

The benefits of strong customer retention go beyond just repeat sales. A loyal customer base brings stability and consistent revenue, even when markets fluctuate or competition intensifies. Prioritizing customer retention is essential because:

• It’s generally five times more cost-effective to retain a customer than to acquire a new one.
• Repeat customers are more likely to purchase and spend more, leading to a higher lifetime value.
• Loyal customers become brand ambassadors, recommending your business to others and helping you gain new clients.

Build Strong Relationships with Your Customers

At the heart of customer retention is building relationships based on trust, transparency, and consistent value. Customers who feel connected to your brand are more likely to remain loyal. This means reaching out to customers with valuable information, updates, and even personal check-ins. This reminds them that they’re valued. Remember customer service is everything. Respond promptly to inquiries and go the extra mile to solve customer problems. You’re your interactions very personalised. Address customers by their names, understand their preferences, and tailor recommendations to their needs.

Working with a business coach can help you refine your communication strategy, ensuring that every interaction with your customers is impactful.

Deliver Consistent Value

Delivering consistent value is essential for keeping customers engaged over time. If customers feel they’re receiving genuine value from your products or services, they’re more likely to return.

Some ways you can deliver value are:

- Regularly Update Offerings: Keep your product or service fresh with improvements and new features that meet evolving customer needs.

- Provide Educational Content: Content such as tutorials, how-tos, or newsletters related to your product can help customers get the most out of their purchase.

- Offer Exclusive Benefits: Reward loyal customers with perks like discounts, early access to new products, or exclusive content.

A business coach can also guide you in identifying and delivering value that resonates with your customers, helping you maintain their interest and loyalty.

Implement a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are powerful tools for customer retention. When customers see a direct benefit from their continued patronage, they’re more likely to stay engaged with your brand. Offering small, achievable rewards that encourage regular interaction with your brand are always great. Make sure the rewards are valuable to your customers, such as discounts, exclusive products, or personalized services. Include tiers or levels in your program to motivate customers to reach higher rewards.

Gather and Act on Customer Feedback

To keep customers coming back, you need to know what they want. Collecting and acting on customer feedback helps you make adjustments that improve their experience with your brand.

Steps for Gathering and Using Customer Feedback:

1. Survey Regularly: Use short, targeted surveys to gather insights on customer satisfaction and preferences.
2. Monitor Social Media: Track customer comments and mentions of your brand online to gauge sentiment.
3. Implement Changes Based on Feedback: Show customers that their feedback matters by making improvements based on their input.

A business coach can assist you in setting up effective feedback systems and interpreting the results to make informed improvements, ensuring that your brand remains aligned with customer needs.

Focus on Customer Service Excellence

Exceptional customer service is the backbone of customer retention. Customers who feel valued and supported are far more likely to remain loyal to your business.

Key Customer Service Tips:

• Train Your Team: Ensure your team is equipped with the skills to handle customer inquiries and complaints professionally and empathetically.
• Be Proactive: Anticipate customer needs and address potential issues before they arise.
• Resolve Issues Quickly: Swift problem-solving shows customers that you prioritize their satisfaction.

Use Data to Personalize the Customer Experience

Personalization is a powerful tool for customer retention. By using customer data, you can tailor experiences, offers, and communications to meet individual preferences. Group customers based on their behaviors, preferences, or purchase history to provide more relevant offers. Using this data, you can then recommend products or services that align with previous purchases. Utilizing tools that send automated, personalized messages to engage customers at different stages of their journey will also make it more personalized.

Keep Customers Engaged Through Content Marketing

Content marketing is a valuable strategy for keeping customers engaged and informed. By providing valuable content, you remind customers of your expertise and keep them connected to your brand.

Some content ideas for customer retention are:

1. Educational Blog Posts: Share tips and insights that help customers get more out of your products or services.
2. Email Newsletters: Keep customers updated on company news, upcoming events, or special promotions.
3. Social Media Engagement: Interact with customers on social media to build a community around your brand.

A business coach can work with you to develop a content strategy that keeps customers engaged and consistently brings value, which is essential for long-term retention.

Use Metrics to Measure Customer Retention Success

Measuring customer retention is essential to understand what’s working and where there’s room for improvement. Tracking retention metrics gives you a clear picture of customer loyalty and highlights areas to adjust. Calculate how many customers return over a specific period to gauge loyalty. Measure the total revenue a customer brings in during their relationship with your business. Then, track the percentage of customers who stop engaging with your brand to identify where retention efforts may need improvement.

Ever wonder why you can have the best team on the planet, but your results just aren't there?

When teams do their best work, they can move mountains.  They increase your capacity and earning power dramatically.  They let you pursue opportunities you can't even see today.  Teams are fun.

Except sometimes they aren't. 

So how to you turn your merry band of underperformers into your dream team?  Take care of these common derailers.  There are more gaps that we may need to plug based on your situation, but imagine how awesome it will be for you when these four foundational areas are solid:

Communication.  Every employee survey, whether you have an amazing culture or a rotten one, ranks communication at the top of issues list.  

Sit with this for statement a moment: Communication is the Response You Get.  

Your communication issues aren't "everybody else."  They start with you, the leader. If you don't like how your team is behaving, responding, or performing, something needs to change about the way you are communicating.  Use the attached Team Profile Questionnaire to see where your communication needs some beefing up. 

Leadership.  Becoming a great leader is a lifelong pursuit.  There is no "check the box" that says you're done.  Have an insatiable curiosity around great leaders.  Invest in every resource that you can get your hands on about becoming a great leader.  Hang around leaders that you admire.  Learn from as many different perspectives and cultures as you can.  Great leaders are great lifelong learners.

Investment in Your Vision, Mission, Culture & Direction.  Most people are pretty good about sharing your vision, mission, culture and company direction when people start working for you.  But then what?  So often, the foundation of your business gets lost in day-to-day activities.  Pretty soon people are busy, but not productive.  Trying to do the right thing, but working on "yesterday's project."  Vision, Mission, Culture and Direction are foundational to your business and drive everything.  Put them on your team meeting agendas.  Include them in performance reviews.  The more clear your people are on where you are headed, why, and how they "fit," the better and more productive the role they can play.    

Training.  Too often, well-intentioned bosses give great individual contributors a promotion into management, and suddenly someone who has zero leadership skill or experience is expected to lead. Doesn’t work.  It's damaging to the person, the team, and to your company.

Realize that leaders aren’t born—they're trained. The more you commit to training leaders, the more money you’ll make, and the less time you’ll spend working.  Pro tip: people who see a growth path with you stay on your team a lot longer. Make sure your high potentials know they have a future with you, and train them before you need them to step up.

So...  want to turn the team you have, into the team you know they can be?  Take advantage of Team Profile Questionnaire.  Have your team members take this, see what it tells you, and take action.  We're always here to help if you want to get there faster!

I don't know who to attribute this quote to, but it's really instructive for businesses:  "Excellence is never an accident, it is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution, and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities."  Since Excellence is one of our 15 Points of Culture, we talk about this a lot.  

High intention and sincere effort: You get what you focus your resources and attention on, and if you don't focus (and define) excellence, the activities to get you there will never end up on your calendar or get started on.  

Intelligent direction & skillful execution - if you don't have a strategy (and plan that your team can follow), well, let's just say it's really tough to hit a target that you can't see, and even harder to execute a path that's not defined.  The answer here is easy - get your business, strategic or succession plan done.  Shameless plug - this need not take you 6 months of endless consultant meetings and cost a fortune to do your plan.  You can get a $60k-caliber plan done with us and our Ascend software and program in 2 days for a fraction of the cost - less than $10k.  Email me if you want more info; the next Ascend Planning Days are April 11 and 12th in Madison.

What I hadn't considered as part of "excellence" before is the "vision to see obstacles as opportunities."  Let me share a story on this one...

Prior to founding ActionCOACH in 2007, I had the opportunity to lead a tool company through a turnaround.  The company made levels for the construction industry.  They had amazing products, but were in pretty bad financial shape - had been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for a decade as they tried to break in to the US market (it was a European company).  We were $100,000 per day behind in shipping!  Yikes.  I didn't realize it was that bad when I accepted the job.  

For awhile I was in pity party mode. We sold to Home Depot and True Value Hardware, and Sears & Kmart at the time, and short-shipping by $100k per day was going to get us kicked out of those retailers - fast.  So, what do you do?  The company was bleeding cash, so I couldn't dedicate any any more people to getting product out the door.  

The problem with focusing on the problem, is that your brain can't multi-process - to the extent that you are focused on the challenge, your brain physically cannot see opportunity.  When I finally chose to seek out opportunity and take ownership and responsibility for fixing things, we found that one customer in particular was consuming the majority of my team's time and energy... and, you guessed it - that we lost money on every product that we sold to that client.  So, we exited that relationship - and were at break-even the next morning.  Nine months later we were profitable and double the size, because my team had stopped wasting time with a D client, and had gained the bandwidth to focus on our A & B customers.  

So, what does this mean for you and your company?  Couple of things:

Where are you focusing on the negatives instead of the possibilities?

If you haven't graded your clients A (awesome!), B,(good) C (shaky) and D (dead), do that now.  Either move your C clients to B, or double their pricing so they go away. D's - send them to a competitor.

If you don't have a current business, strategic or succession plan, contact me at susanthomson@actionCOACH.com.  Imagine how much faster your team can run when they have the straight-line to the goal!  And imagine how you'll feel when you can step back because your team knows how to run your business without you having to be there all the time.