Did you know that it's five to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one? 

On top of that, improving customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%. 

If you ask me, these are numbers that I certainly wouldn't ignore. 

Unfortunately, far too many companies focus almost exclusively on net new sales and customer service remains just there as a given. 

I see this with my agency partners at HubSpot all the time. 

Of course, money in is important. You need that to keep the business running but if you want to scale an agency, sales and services need to be on the same level. Keeping your customers happy is priority number one too because that's how you ensure you have a sustainable revenue flow coming in all the time. You renew your agency-client retainers year after year because you continue to provide value.

So how do you do keep your customer happy?  

With a simple framework that I call the three pillars of customer delight. 

Today I'm going to tell you a story about customer experience and how customer experience can make or break your brand. 

Last week on Wednesday, I was getting excited to fly over to Frankfurt to speak at a HubSpot User Group event organised by one of my partner agencies. I was supposed to present about Inbound PR so of course I couldn't wait!

I woke up early in the morning to start packing for this quick trip and catch my flight at 12.30pm. 

I make myself a cup of coffee, turn on the laptop to check my emails quickly and as I always proactively do, I went to Dublin Airport's website to see whether my flight would have any delays just so that I am aware of changes, if at all any. 

I saw something else, though. 

I am going to tell you a story today. A story about the absolute worst shopping and customer service experience EVER with Littlewoods Ireland (I feel terrible about giving them an inbound link now but I need you to see it and never ever shop there!)

So two Saturdays ago (17 July) I am running around Dublin to find a fascinator. Yep, a fascinator, because I am going to the Galway races this Friday. I am very specific with what I need as to colours, size etc. Unfortunately, I cannot find anything in the shops in town so what do I do? Well, I go shopping online! And I find Littlewoords Ireland. They actually do have something that fits what I need! So I order it. I go through an incredibly long process of creating an account. Regardless, I'm content because I've found a fascinator to fit with my outfit! 

Turns out I am never going to get that fascinator.

If you work in an agency, I'm sure you've seen people prepare for new business pitches or you've even either been part of one or run one yourself. Maybe even multiple ones. 

That's often the result of an RFP or a Request For Proposal that companies and their marketing people put through when in search of a new agency. 

You'll see a lot of arguments online about this traditional approach to choosing a new agency that has been going on for over 50-60 years and still seems to be the norm although it's hugely outdated. Some argue that this process is a complete waste of time as it's " too slow for a marketing world that functions at the speed of light".

My favourite detractor of RFPs is Blair Enns and all agency best practices he preaches in his book Win Without Pitching. Alone the name of the book explains the need to move away from RFPs and that it is indeed possible to do so. 

But it's one thing for the agency to change its model of how it wins new business, it's another on the client side. Because it's the clients requesting those RFPs and it's the agencies and other marketing professionals who need to re-educate and teach those clients how much more economic and efficient it could be to develop a better way of finding a new agency than with RFPs. 

Thanks to Kareem Mostafa from TribeTactics for this fantastic guest post! 

I wish I had Brian Solis's new book when we were running our startup, because it echoed a lot of learning that showed a drastic increase in our revenue - if only we knew it earlier, and it is:

People stopped buying products a long time ago. They now buy experiences.

In this piece, I will walk you through four touch points you can optimize for a delightful experience that will effortlessly generate positive word of mouth for your brand. 

Respecting Their Experience

Our first startup was in the restaurant marketing space. We helped restaurants increase revenue and brand awareness on their off-nights without running any discounts. Before we succeeded, we had to go through some restaurant soul-searching, namely interviewing people who dine out often to ask them what their motivation was behind dining out.

One of our most direct questions was "What is the number one reason you choose to dine out?" I thought this was just one of those "placeholder" questions we had to put when we, of course, knew that the reason was the great food that they would get in restaurants.

Turns out food came in second.