I’ve always explained retention to my teams using a football analogy. Now, I’m by no means a football expert, but the logic is simple: Retention is your last line of defense—your goalkeeper.
In any football match, the entire team plays a role in preventing goals from being conceded. It’s not just the goalkeeper’s responsibility. The same applies to customer retention. Every department—product design, marketing, IT, sales, customer service, and even finance—plays a critical role in keeping customers.
By the time a customer reaches the retention team, they’ve already faced pain points. If the "goalkeeper" (your retention team) can’t save it, the customer is gone. This is why retention staff must be:
✔️ Highly skilled active listeners
✔️ Empathetic problem-solvers
✔️ Data-driven decision-makers
What’s fascinating is that customer retention data tells a story—why customers leave, where they face friction, and which areas of the business haven’t considered the customer experience. In my experience leading these functions, I’ve seen gaps in product design, onboarding, aftersales care, and even the smallest customer interactions—all of which impact retention.
If businesses truly want to reduce churn, they must stop seeing retention as a last-minute save and start building a strategy where every department plays its part.
How does your business approach retention? Let’s discuss!
#CustomerRetention #Sales #CustomerExperience #BusinessGrowth #DublinProfessionals
Hi, I’m Caroline McGovern, a seasoned Telecoms Professional with over 20 years of senior operational management experience, specializing in sales, service, and customer retention. Throughout my…
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