Strategies: Make customer retention priority No. 1

— -- In this economy, when small-business owners ask me what to do to survive, I always advise, "Whatever you do, make sure you do whatever you can to keep your current customers."

Customer retention is absolutely critical. That's why I'm embarrassed to admit that I just lost a major customer. And for the dumbest reason: We just failed to stay in touch with them regularly.

Now keep in mind that this is a customer — a good-size university — who loves our books. For years, they've sung our praises. On my list of satisfied customers, they were right there at the top of the list. It wasn't until we noticed — took way too long to notice — that we hadn't been getting orders that I picked up the phone to find out what happened. Another company (with an inferior product, I might add petutantly) had pursued them — "they really wanted our business," my contact told me.

Can we get them back? Yes, possibly. But it's going to take work. And we'll have lost a lot of money at a time when every dollar counts. And it was completely unnecessary. Don't let this happen to you!

Whether you call it customer retention, account management, relationship management, or just staying in touch, developing a strategy so that you don't lose the customers or clients you have is vital to the success of any business — especially now.

First, remember it's more expensive to acquire a customer than to retain a customer one. And your past customers are the ones who are most likely to be future purchasers. They've already shown they want and like your products or services and are willing to pay.

This economy makes customer retention strategies even more important because customer loyalty is weakened. Whether you sell b-to-b (business to business) or b-to-c (business to consumer), your customers are going over their budgets carefully; they're looking for alternatives. And with the pace of technological change and more ways to communicate (blogs, Twitter, Facebook), they're even more likely to be more exposed to your competitors.