Last year we implemented 3 new customer retention strategies that significantly increased our Origin Membership retention.

The success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, whereas the success of selling to an old customer is 5-20% (Cross-Channel Marketing Report). Increasing your customer retention by just 5% can increase your profits from 25-95% (Bain & Company and Harvard Business Review).

When it comes to doing less and achieving more, focusing on customer retention strategies is one of the smartest ways. It’s been a focus of ours since 2017 and it’s really paid off with our membership retention being well above industry averages. 

(Want to find out what’s so great about the Origin Membership that members stay far beyond the average for the industry? Get on the waitlist to hear about it the next time we open the doors. Plus, inside the membership we have a whole lesson on increasing your customer retention. How’s that for meta?)

We knew we wanted to make some upgrades to the Origin Membership as we crossed the threshold of our 4th anniversary and through a combination of listening to our intuition, thinking strategically and getting amazing feedback from our members, we made some serious upgrades that really worked.

Here are the 3 new customer retention strategies that increased our retention by up to 6% from the beginning of the year to the end:

1.     Creating opportunities for live interaction and community building.

Humans are herd creatures. We need one another and are wired for connection. We went from having only 1 live touchpoint for our members a month (a group coaching call) to 7 live touchpoints a month (a group coaching call, a networking call, a hot seat call, a Body First call, a Nervous System Healing call, and a specific call for our Empresses (what we call our members) in AUS/NZ.

Now the Empresses have so many more opportunities to connect with each other live, to connect with our Origin Faculty live, and experience the energy of transmission that really only happens when you’re doing something in real-time with someone else (even if it’s virtual.)

I know that when I show up to do my workouts when they’re live-streamed vs. when they’re On Demand, I feel more connected, more energized, and more held. The same thing is happening with our customers. They love it and we love it!

2.     Bringing in more diversity in our faculty.

 The Origin Membership used to have one teacher who facilitated sessions live (me, Kate Northrup, founder of The Origin Company.) 9 months ago we brought in 3 additional faculty members (TaKisha August, our Head Empress, Tele Darden, our Nervous System Healing expert, and Jessica Miller, our facilitator of our Do Less Down Under calls to join me and our Resident Astrologer, Leslie Tagorda.)

Now that the Empresses have more diverse faculty members to connect with, there’s a greater opportunity to find resonance with the voices featured in the membership. Maybe they really relate to TaKisha’s personal story, the way Tele facilitates, and Jessica’s keen strategic mind. Plus, they’re learning from people who may not share their experience or perspective which opens their minds and hearts and makes them better business owners!

I’ve been studying Regenerative Agriculture to see what it can teach us about building businesses (I’ll be sharing more in the coming months so make sure you’re on the list so you don’t miss out) and one thing is for sure: biodiversity makes all ecosystems stronger, including human ones.

The Origin Membership is an ecosystem and diversity (in the faculty and beyond) has made us stronger and our customers stay longer.

3.     Improving our member experience through upgrading our onboarding process and our Members Area.

Almost 5 years ago when we first launched the Origin Membership, we invested in a custom-built Members Area to make it do whatever we wanted it to and make it look really beautiful. 

In early 2021 we started looking at the Members Area to see how we could make it even better so that our members could find things more easily so that our onboarding process was more thorough and streamlined, and so that it all looked more beautiful.

We combined feedback from our members (we survey them 2x/year as well as solicit feedback year-round and take everything they say to heart) with putting ourselves in the customers’ shoes so that we could make meaningful upgrades such as:

•       Making our Feminine Energy Business Content Library videos completely searchable so our members don’t have to watch an entire lesson and instead are directed to the exact spot in all the videos from the content library that have whatever keyword they’re searching (from copywriting to cyclical planning)
•       Introducing Custom Curated Content Collections based on a simple intake questionnaire so that our members know which content will meet them at their particular stage of business with their particular set of needs
•       Making the whole Members Area look prettier. Beauty is a force for healing and when someone has a better visual experience, their overall experience is significantly enhanced!

The 3 new customer retention strategies we introduced last year (adding more live touchpoints, diversifying our faculty, and improving our Members Area) increased our customer retention by 3% the month we introduced them.

Our customer retention at the end of 2020 was 93% and at the end of 2021 it was 99%! 

At the end of the day, the best customer retention strategies are the ones that are based on truly caring about your customers.

When you care about their experience and care about getting them results, they’ll stick around. Whether you have a membership or not, honing your customer retention strategies will save you time, energy, and money and get your customers a better experience. It’s a win for you and it’s a win for them!

P.S. Soon we’re opening the doors to the Origin Membership only for the people who are on the waitlist. If you want to reclaim your time and energy as a business owner and learn how to do less and achieve more in your business, get on the waitlist for the Origin Membership now.

OVER TO YOU: 

Which one of these customer retention strategies are you going to implement in your business? Let us know in the comments!

Kate Northrup is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, mother, and founder and CEO of The Origin Company, which reaches hundreds of thousands globally. Kate is committed to supporting ambitious women to light up the world without burning themselves out. She’s the author of Do Less, the Do Less Planner System creator, and runs The Origin Membership, which helps business owners grow their business while doing less.