# Swell AI Transcript: EP 47.mp3

SPEAKER_00:
 What if you could build a business in the modern world as big or as small as you want without having to compromise the things that were the most important to you in the very beginning? This is the Wealthy Consultant Talks podcast with Taylor Welch and Mike Walker, and they share with you today their learning lessons from stories in their experiences over the past 10 to 15 years and share with you right here, right now. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01:
 What is going on, my friends? Mike Walker here with another episode of the TWC Talks podcast. Excited to connect with you today. Today, I've got a topic that was discussed last week. We had one of our monthly fly-ins. We have our group, The Chamber. It's our top tier client base, exceptional people, amazing rooms to be part of. If you can ever get into the room, let me just tell you, I don't care if I was working with the company, a client or otherwise,  These are absolutely the types of rooms you want to be in that proximity to the, you know, overall collective success that everybody is having in their, you know, individual businesses in their lives in general, they're just exceptional people to be around and when you can.  Get around a group of people like that that are all driven, motivated, moving in their respective directions for their business and life goals and all those things. It really is an opportunity to just draw from that confidence, from the energy, the excitement. All those things are just so powerful when you can plug into that type of energy. It's certainly not something that you can necessarily  You know get from being on a zoom call or some kind of live, you know workshop online or anything like that It's just not the same like getting around people physically elbow to elbow at the tables talking it up. It's just amazing It was really really fun. And um I had the privilege actually of um speaking at this one. It was fantastic And the topic was client services and retention  This was something that I'd been working on for literally several months now. Obviously, you know, here at TWC, my job as client services director is to oversee all the relationships that we have with our clients and the various customer levels that we have in different products, etc.  It's also creating the systems and the organizational strategies that are used in-house to foster the relationships and maintain a level of quality that we want in terms of the products and the value and everything that we try to bring to the table for everybody.  It's a, it's a, both a blend of art and science. We'll put it that way. Right. And so I broke that stuff down. We went real deep into the topic of client services and retention. Now, obviously for the sake of time here, we're not going to go over all of that. It is actually a playbook. That's something that you can purchase from our team. If you're interested in that, obviously reach out. That's, that's for those that are ready to invest into their business at that level.  But I am going to give you some takeaways. I have all my notes, obviously, and so I wanted to share some of those notes with you today that you could immediately apply into your own business. And I find that as soon as you do these types of things, it instantly starts to change the cadence and the culture within the company as to how you  treat your clients and how you foster those relationships, right? So today's title is Retention and Churn, Unlocking the Secrets to Business Immortality. Now, as bold of a title as that may be, business immortality, here's the thing.  You know, so many business people, if you were to ask them, hey, you know, are you customer focused? Do you? How's your client services team and different things, right? How's your customer support? All of them are going to say what? Oh, yeah, we believe in the customer. We're here for them. That's our mission is to provide value and etc, etc, etc. Right.  And I'm 100% confident that that would be true for them, that they do believe that and that that is absolutely their goal and their objectives. However, what's interesting to note is that it doesn't take too long when you do research into some of these things that you find those exact same companies have a churn rate of 20, 30, 40, upwards of 60%, a churn rate of 20 to 60% annually.  And these are the companies that have a self-professed vested interest in the customer relationship. So you can imagine if it's not a focus, if it's not something that you're driven towards and that you're really focused on, what's that doing for you, right? Probably not a whole lot. And there's a lot of businesses out there that are so focused on getting the new client, getting the next client, getting that sale, getting that win, ringing the bell on the next win, right? They're so focused on that.  that they forget the fact that it takes about six times more both in effort and cost to get a new client than it is to keep the one you already have. There's a discrepancy of 6x there. So let me ask you this, what would happen if you never lost another customer again?  What would happen if you put just a little bit more time, attention, and money and resources towards the people that you already have? What would that look like? Now, obviously, the holy grail is that they would all stay all 100%, right? Now, whether that's something that you and I can control, hint, it's not, but  You get the point. There's opportunity there and there's opportunity cost by not necessarily allocating the attention and bandwidth to figuring out what do we do? How do we reduce or mitigate churn? And that was one of the central topics, obviously, of the fly-in here last month.  By the way, if you ever do want to attend one of the fly-ins, you can go to wealthyconsultant.com forward slash events. They're not always open to the public, but there are every once in a while, I think once or twice a quarter, we'll open one up and you can come in, join us there. You don't have to be a client, you just purchase your ticket in and you can get access to the types of topics and groups and everything that I've mentioned here.  Alright, so let's dive into I just want to give you a few actionable tips here as we get going. And then you can go about your day and plug these into your business. Alright, so the first concept is that business is changing, period. It just is okay. So as we've adopted the internet, and as we move faster and faster into all things connected, right, the internet of things,  It just simply means that the access that we all have collectively to each other and all the other businesses combined, it's just faster. Everything's happening faster and the level of detail and ability to tap into information on demand whenever you want.  is, it's just so readily available. And so that changes the dynamic, it didn't used to be that way. And so here's a, here's a point, a central theme here. It's not B to B, you've heard this right, business to business, and it's not B to C, business to customer, it's just not, it's actually H to H, human to human. And that doesn't matter if you're a, you know,  a thousand person strong organization, or you're a brand facing company where it's all about a particular logo or brand, right? It's not like a guru or some central figure, some famous person that is the brand. It doesn't matter. It's all human run. It's human to human. And the business of business is relationships. And so if we can just unplug from the concept of B2B or I'm B2C, so that doesn't work for me, or it's B2B and this is how it works.  Not anymore. It's H2H. And so you really do need to just think, here's the cool thing. It's actually easier, guys. It's actually easier if you stop being transactional B2B or, you know, strategic with your B2C game plan. If you just focus on being real and a human and connective, it's amazing how far you can get with people. And again, the business of business is relationships. People love to buy from people they know, like and trust.  And if you can position yourself with authority, and with a strong, you know, report with your audience, they're going to want to stick around. Plain and simple. All right. Now with the business changing so much the business environment changing, it's really important to understand that a sale is not finished until this the customer actually receives a result.  Let me say that again, a sale is not finished until the customer receives a result. We have to get them to the end zone. Remember, they're not buying your product or service for the sake of going through a course or for getting a new widget. That's not what they want. What they're wanting is their performance or the end result that that thing should present to them.  Right. They're buying the end result that the thing that they're trying to get into their business or into their life or away from their business or away from their life. Right. They're trying to buy that end result. And so we need to get them there. In a traditional business, the customer relationship ends with the purchase.  But in a subscription business, the customer relationship begins with the purchase, right? So, I'm sorry, let me say this one more time. I want to clarify. A customer relationship ends with the purchase, meaning that I go to the store, I pick something off the shelf, I give them my money, they wave at me, thank you, sir, have a great day, and that's it. And that's the end of the relationship. I gave them money, they gave me something, and then I go away and that's where it stops.  But in today's environment, and especially in subscription businesses, but for any business, the customer relationship actually begins with the purchase.  I go in whether it be brick and mortar store or I contract somebody for their services or consulting or whatnot. I go in and I give them money. Now is when the relationship begins. See, so the concept here guys is not just churn and burn, get another customer, get another customer, get another customer. It's let's get a customer and let's keep a customer. What could we do? What could we offer? What could we say? What could we do to help them achieve their end result?  in a better way, faster, easier, whatever it may be, right? And if we can continue to deliver value, those clients are gonna keep coming back. And those return clients are a heck of a lot cheaper to get than it is to, like I said earlier, go and attract a new one out of the cold market six times by reports and whatnot that you can go out and find for yourself. All right, so the concept here is keeping clients versus getting clients, right? That was kind of a central talking point as well.  Now in doing that, keeping clients though, how do you do that, right? Because we're all doing our best. We're all trying to deliver. And you know, for the most part, I would say that we all do a pretty good job, right? You're confident about what you deliver. You're confident about how you produce those results for your clients. But some go away.  And here's the thing, guys, is that retention is not something that you and I can necessarily do. Obviously, there are levers we can pull, there are certain things we can deploy into the business, and there's certainly a whole lot of value that we can bring to the table, right? But ultimately,  The customer has the end decision. It's their call, whether they stay or not. And here's the really interesting part, guys, is that you can deliver 100%. You can knock it out of the park. You can do a phenomenal job at getting them to where they want to be. However, they could still walk. Now, why is that? You did everything you're supposed to, and yet they still walked.  It just is what it is, guys. Churn is just a real thing, no matter what. And it doesn't matter how good you are, how great your product is, eventually time just moves, right? And over time, it's hard to maintain that same level of novelty, the same level of newness that might've existed when they first got started with you. And so it's really, really important to understand that clients stay with you,  because of the future vision of what it could be, not because of the value that you brought to them in the past. Another one worth kind of like soaking in there. People will stick with you for the vision that you bring and the opportunity that they see by sticking around, not by the value that you already delivered to them. Hey, you did a good job. Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. But that does not mean I'm going to stick around.  Okay, so it's about continually developing value, what can I offer them that's going to give them the ability to see that I'm the way forward for them, I have the answers, I have the solution, we have the way that's going to make their life or their objectives easier to reach, right?  So it really does need to be about how they feel. You need to anticipate how the customer feels, you know, as deep into the data and the KPIs and the client health metrics and all the things that we have available to us these days. At the end of the day, it's really about the customer's emotions.  and how they feel about it. So as an example of that, someone gets excited, they're ready, they end up onboarding with you. Well, naturally, excitement will be high, but what immediately happens after that initial transaction, especially for larger ticket transactions?  Buyer's remorse, hesitancy, doubt, uncertainty, right? Immediately. And that's if you're doing a good job, right? That's just the human nature. Like, oh man, this was a big commitment. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone. I'm not sure how this is gonna work, right? All these questions are gonna start flooding your clients' minds as they onboard with you. So it's imperative that you anticipate for that and you come up with systems and methodologies, SOPs, standard operating procedures,  for you and your team to communicate effectively, especially in the onboarding phases. The silence that happens between the purchase and the next step is definitely loud.  It is so loud. You have to make sure that there's not large gaps of time where there's not communication between you and your newest customer. You need to hold them by the hand and they need to feel confident that they know exactly where to go, exactly what to do next, and just baby step them through it and make sure that they feel protected, safe, and that you have their back. And that just because the transaction is now complete does not mean that you're off to the races somewhere else, right?  It's all about getting them to the end result. The sale is not the finish line. It's only the beginning. Now let's talk on two more points and we'll jet. It's got to be a company-wide culture too. One thing that's very important to note, especially if you have any form of a reoccurring business model or a subscription-based model or something where people are paying you on retainer month after month after month, right? You have to understand the fact that  client services, support, any element, any conversation that they're gonna have from the time they become a customer all the way through the customer journey, every single interaction that they have with you, your support team, whoever it may be, those are all pre-sales interactions. Now, what do I mean by that pre-sales interactions? Well, think about it.  If their subscription is gonna come due in 30 days from now, any action that you and I have with them, any conversation, anything that we offer or provide for them in those next 30 days is essentially team them up to make the decision, do I wanna continue working with this company 30 days from now? So it doesn't matter if you're a support team member, if you're tech support, if you're just answering the reply email to a support ticket, it doesn't matter. That is actually a sales function.  Now that doesn't mean that we're pitching them like a sale, but you get my point. It's supporting the process, it's supporting the decision that they're making subconsciously and then very consciously as their due date comes due, right, for renewal. They're going to think,  is do I want to continue this relationship? Do I want to continue investing into it? And that means that every interaction we have at every level of your company is a pre-sales, you know, interaction. So it's imperative that you have a company-wide culture. It's a philosophy that needs to pervade every element of your company. And I would encourage you, ask every single one of your employees, what does client services mean to you?  and see what comes back. I think you'll be surprised because a lot of them might not necessarily know. They don't necessarily understand that their email or reply to that support ticket is actually very much tied to the relationship of that client and therefore the bottom line of your company. So I would just encourage you to have that conversation with your team at every level in every department and ask them, what does client services mean to them? And see what comes back.  Now this is really, really important and why churn is such a difficult thing to overcome guys is the fact that the customer has limitless options. Now, like I said before, at a touch of a button, 24 seven doesn't matter what day of the week, what day of the year, what time doesn't matter at a touch of a button. I am being exposed to a bunch of your other competitors. Our ultimate competitors are not, you know, Acme company, this or whatever your, you know,  direct competitor is, that's not actually your main competitor. Your main competitor is Google, it's Facebook, it's YouTube, it's the mainstream media, right? It's all the attention that's being driven towards and trying to, they're trying to attract the attention of your client. It's very hard to maintain the focus of a client when they're being bombarded by so much other information, inputs, data, et cetera, right?  So it's really critical that you create an environment where they have a sense of loyalty. And ultimately, guys, that is what retention is. It's loyalty, because they have limitless options. I don't care how great your services, how awesome, you know, your product may be. Ultimately, there's probably somebody out there that can get them  Pretty close if you're absolutely the number one Irreplaceable top peak pinnacle person to do it fantastic high five love that and I hope that's true But I would venture to guess that across the world anywhere because I can get access to anything now due to the internet, right? There's probably another solution out there. That's very very close. That is very competitively matched to whatever it is that we're doing and  And so we need to realize that, that your client sticking around is going to be largely tied to their feeling of loyalty. And that loyalty is about connection. It's about feeling that you and the client have an actual relationship. And to maintain that just requires open, honest, friendly, supportive customers. And that goes back to the top of what I was saying earlier, human to human.  Just be human to human. They're not, you know, just a transaction. They're a friend, right? So another good thing to consider is how often can you routinely communicate on a personal level with your customers? Just on a personal level.  Now, that doesn't mean that we're on the phone just chit-chatting about nothing and everything, you know, for hours on end, but it would go to serve us to figure out how can we just communicate like we would a normal human, like just a person, hey man, how you doing? I'm doing good, good, you know, and talk about the weather, talk about the kids, talk about the game last night, whatever it is, but just these little interactions, again, this type of thing is,  massively supportive of developing a retention culture in your company, because people stick around if they feel heard, if they feel loved, if they feel cared for. And if obviously at the end, at the end of the day, we're actually getting them results, right? So all this hinges on them getting the end result that they're seeking in the first place.  Alright, so as we wrap up, guys, I want to encourage you to, you know, really focus on your client services, figure out how can we develop a client facing experience that makes them feel cared for that makes them see the vision for to stick around and want to continue with us.  invest in this and you will absolutely see a reduction in churn. Reduction in churn is a massive lift to the bottom line. It costs so much more to go get new clients. Let's figure out how to keep the ones we already got. Once you've done that, once you've developed a unique experience for your client base, turn that into  a marketing piece for yourself. Turn that into a unique service proposition that you can deliver into the marketplace through messaging and through positioning and distinguish yourself amongst the noise. You can't necessarily just fight on price or on features or widgets or bells and whistles, but you can absolutely distinguish yourself in the marketplace with a phenomenal client experience.  So it's worth investing in. I know it'll help you on the bottom line, put in the time, effort and energy to do it. And it will absolutely help you increase your retention in the marketplace. All right, guys, have a great one. Looking forward to working with you. Be sure to reach out. Go to wealthyconsultant.com for slash events. If you'd like to join us in person, I hope that you do one day. We have a phenomenal time. It's always good. The food is good. The drinks are fun. The people are great. It's a great environment to be in. So I encourage you to do it.  and I know you won't be disappointed when you come and join us at one of these events. All right guys, we'll see you at one of those and we'll see you on the next episode. Take care.