We’ve noticed an interesting pattern cropping up in Q1 of this year. All of a sudden customer retention is looming very high on companies’ radar. As a result, quite a few customer experience leaders now report directly to their CEOs.  This pattern is quite pronounced in services’ firms that are planning public offerings this year. Why?

If you want to convince investors that your company is poised for profitable growth, nothing counts more than customer retention and repeat business.

The good news is that if your job is to identify and fix any problems that are leading to customer defection and/or to lack of repeat business, you have just been given the keys to the proverbial kingdom.

Be careful.

Sometimes “fixing” customer experience problems isn’t as “simple” as doing root cause analysis and process improvements. You definitely need to know what customers’ moments of truth are and address them proactively. But, often, you want to do more than eliminate or mitigate the problem. You want to delight customers at precisely the points at which they’re used to being disappointed.

Here are some great examples to inspire you.

How to Offer a Little Extra to Delight Customers
My Most Recent Favorite Customer Experience Practices
By Ronni T. Marshak, EVP and Senior Consultant, February 20, 2014

(Read the short sample and download the full article in PDF.)