Running head: CUSTOMER RETENTION 1
Customer Retention
David Ferguson
Ohio Business College
CUSTOMER RETENTION 2
Customer Retention
Customer retention is, from a personal standpoint, the most important aspect of sales in
Marketing. There is a policy that I stand behind that that is the 80/20 principle, which states, 80%
of your sales comes from 20% of your customers. The 20% is what I would like to focus on, with
the focus of retail being the central target. Customers are lacking that personalized shopping
experience at physical stores, if the 80/20 principle is to remain intact than there needs to be a
change. Customers are fleeing from in-store sales and shopping online for its convenience and an
individual experience while shopping (“In–Store Lacks Personalized Shopping Experience,”
2015). That shopping experience and individuality can be brought back to in-store retail and
here’s how focusing on building trust, understanding buyers, and improving communication
skills.
Trust can be defined by buyers with such terms as openness, dependability, candor,
honesty, confidentiality, security, reliability, fairness, and predictability (Ingram, 2013). Talking
on what each of the terms means to the buyer is quite important, because this is trust. So, if sale’s
team members are taught on each one and every one of these buyers would be more prone to go
to stores instead of going to places like Amazon. Not that there is anything wrong with Amazon
or online markets like it, but I ask this: how could a computer make customer interaction better
than a human?
Let’s break down each definition as defined by customers. Openness means to a customer
that the salesperson is completely free from secrets; that the salesperson is exposed to general
view or knowledge (Ingram, 2013). For example if the store doesn’t have what the customer
needs, the salesperson will not hesitate to offer suggestions that may lead the customer to another
store. Dependability is just reliability in the sense that the customer wants to count on the
CUSTOMER RETENTION 3
salesperson, like not hiding in the back on your cellphone, simply be there when the customer
needs you. Candor is the honesty of the spoken word, this: means that what the salesperson has is
backed by fact (Ingram, 2013). Candor may be difficult for a new salesperson, but that is where
research comes in handy, if you don’t know enough about a product to make the sale, call
someone over who can and, “watch and learn.” As some people would say. Fairness and
straightforward conduct, defines honesty (Ingram, 2013). To the customer the salesperson having
the integrity to be honest with them can make or break a sale, that is however my honest opinion.
These are the aspects of trust that focus on generality, but there are more that focus on the
building trust aspect.
Trust is extremely important, and the terms that focus on building that trust are as
followed. First, being confidentiality which is the state of being entrusted with information from
