Customer retention team mindset not only results from discipline and process. Customer retention team mindset also trains everyone’s brain to become proactive and anticipatory of “What’s Next?”
“What’s Next?” includes pondering implications for you, your team, your organization, your clients and your industry.
Catalyzing customer retention team mindset especially is important in the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) ecosystem. The pace and cadence of IIoT interconnectivity does not accommodate complacency. The relentless onslaught of IIoT tech advances waits for no one to play catch up.
Consider that “What’s Next?” may occur in the length of time it takes you to read this post.
As a result, developing customer team retention mindset keeps teams focused on the additive, long-term value created by each short-term accomplishment. This mindset also makes everyone curious about trends and advances impacting product, platform, service and customer lifecycles.
After all, customers want to make sure your team has their backs over the long haul. Creating that type of customer experience, and sustaining it, increases customer loyalty and, consequently, customer retention.
It’s a big idea.
There are three keys to starting to develop customer team retention mindset.
The first key to developing customer retention team mindset is self-awareness. Consider the number of distractions that eat into everyone’s work day. Ponder the veritable data tsunami which characterizes the IIoT ecosystem. There is a lot of “noise.” Sometimes, just getting through the daily “To-Do” activities consumes a team’s time and attention. As a result, we are myopic. Teams can lose focus about the bigger picture: how their efforts contribute to the value chain over the lifecycle of customers.
At the end of each day, evaluate how everyone’s deliverables contribute to organizational value creation and customer retention.
The second key to developing customer team retention mindset is becoming more disciplined. Do team members superficially complete work to get it off a To-Do list? Alternatively, are contributions “meaty” and full of the breadth and depth that adds value to overall quality of input-throughput-output? The big picture collective goal is creating credible customer experience each time teams interact with clients.
Continuously identify team-based key customer experience touchpoints which contribute to customer retention during a project.
The third key to developing customer retention mindset is paying attention to habits, skills and even colleagues contributing to the overall processes for creating relevant and valuable business, technical and engineered outcomes. Remarkable teams create remarkable outcomes for clients. Those remarkable outcomes catalyze extraordinary IIoT customer experiences contributing to customer success and customer retention.
Take nothing for granted when developing IIoT customer retention team mindset.
So the next time a team delivers on a job or a project, pay attention to the mindset, discipline, people and processes which make that particular team stellar.
Great IIoT teams never take these dynamics for granted. They conscientiously understand why they bring out the best in every other team member. In addition, they continuously ponder “What’s Next?” on behalf of their own professional development as well as their customers’ long-term well being.
The great IIoT teams appreciate what it takes to become go-to resources for their clients and retained members invited to sit at their customers’ tables.
Identify the best teams you ever worked on. What impact did these teams have on customer loyalty and customer retention?
How can you bring that customer retention team mindset to your IIoT team today? How might your efforts enhance team contributions to your organization’s value chain and customer retention strategy?
Babette Ten Haken is a catalyst. She writes, speaks, consults and coaches about how cross-functional team collaboration revolutionizes the industrial Internet of Things value chain for customer loyalty, customer success and customer retention. She connects the dots between leadership, human capital / HR strategy and developing a data-driven, team-based workforce committed to creating enduring business outcomes. Babette’s playbook of technical / non-technical collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. Visit the Free Resources section of her website for more tools.
Image sourve: 123rf.com
Leave a Reply