Master the 5 stages of the customer lifecycle so you don't lose your prospects along the way!
Do you know what the customer lifecycle is? By breaking down the customer relationship into its various phases, the customer lifecycle is an essential tool for any company that wants to turn prospects into customers and customers into loyal clients.
Properly mastered, the customer lifecycle is a powerful strategic tool for generating greater value by optimising resources.
Find out what lies behind the definition of the customer lifecycle, its role and the different stages that make it up.
Definition of the customer lifecycle
The customer lifecycle refers to the various stages and events that punctuate a customer's relationship with a company.
Like a conversion tunnel, it shows the stage a customer has reached in their relationship with a company:
- How long have they been a customer?
- Do they buy regularly?
- Are they loyal?
- Are they completely inactive? etc.
Depending on the stage your customers are at, you will be able to adapt your strategy appropriately, optimise their experience and encourage their progress.
☝️ Please note that the customer lifecycle should not be confused with the product lifecycle and the customer journey, which are two different concepts.
The 5 stages of the customer lifecycle
The customer lifecycle consists of 4 phases:
- acquisition ;
- development
- loyalty ;
- attrition ;
- reactivation.
Stage 1: Acquisition
During this phase, the company seeks to attract and convince visitors or prospects who are not yet customers to become customers.
This requires you to get to know and then target your potential customers beforehand, and then to put in major marketing and sales efforts throughout this stage.
💡A few tips for acquiring new customers:
- provide added value to your prospects to help them and gain their trust (for example, creating educational content in B2C or a free call to receive advice in B2B) ;
- Be available and contactable by phone, chat or email to answer any questions and remove any remaining obstacles;
- carry out sales prospecting;
- implement digital marketing initiatives (natural and paid search, social networks, marketing automation, etc.).
Your objective? Getting your prospect to take action with a first purchase!
💡 Tip: why not make these tasks easier by using a CRM?
A few examples:
- The CRM software Efficy enables you to collect, centralise and analyse data on your prospects and customers (characteristics, history, preferences, etc.) in order to launch targeted and relevant marketing actions.
- Intuitive and feature-rich, monday.com CRM makes it easy to manage and optimise every stage of the sales cycle, from prospect acquisition to customer retention. With this solution, you can expand your customer portfolio while strengthening customer loyalty.
- Pipedrive provides a pipeline view to track all your deals and activities in relation to your prospects. Thanks to its automation, reminder and lead generation functions, the tool helps you to avoid missing out on any sales opportunities and to keep your prospects engaged.
- Designed for small businesses and SMEs, Sellsy CRM centralises all the information and interactions with your prospects so that you can address their needs as effectively as possible. Thanks to its pipeline view and tracking and scoring functions, you can optimise your prospecting efforts and speed up your sales cycle.
Stage 2: Development
During this phase, the customer has just made their first purchase. This may seem like the end of the line, but it's actually where it all begins.
If a customer makes their first purchase, it means they have confidence in your company and are interested in what you have to offer.
This is a period when you can multiply the value of your customer by triggering other purchases. You can also calculate the customer lifetime value, an indicator that shows how much profit they generate for the company. The sooner your customer makes further purchases, the sooner they will reach the loyalty stage.
What's more, the better you know your customers, the better you'll be able to make them an offer that meets their needs at the right time.
💡 Tip: in addition to the CRM systems mentioned above, we recommend that you use marketing automation software to trigger marketing actions such as emailing based on your customers' behaviour.
Stage 3: Building loyalty
Your customer has begun to develop an attachment to your brand, your products or your services: they have become loyal customers. To ensure that this phase lasts as long as possible, take care to maintain customer satisfaction.
Because, yes, the longer they remain a customer, the more value they are likely to bring you. This is all the more important when you consider that acquiring a new customer costs up to 5 times more than selling to a customer you've already won over. You've invested a lot of time and money to win them over, so it's well worth the effort to provide high-quality customer care to retain them and make additional, even regular, sales. Focus on the long term.
The idea is to get into a virtuous circle of customer satisfaction, so that the customer remains active and continues to buy your products and services regularly, and to delay the attrition phase as long as possible.
💡Some tips for building customer loyalty:
- make sure you offer a smooth customer journey;
- personalise the customer experience as much as possible;
- offer substantial benefits, particularly via a loyalty or referral programme.
👉 Having a satisfied customer is all very well. But having a customer ambassador attached to your brand is even better! The more you offer an exceptional customer experience, the more your loyal customers will want to talk about you to their friends and family, turning into real ambassadors and easily bringing you new customers.
Stage 4: Attrition
The attrition phase is a period when a customer is lost: they become less and less active and buy less and less, if at all.
The attrition rate is an indicator that allows you to monitor this trend, and should serve as an alarm bell 🚨.
During this period, you can still take action before the customer leaves for the competition for good! You then need to get to work on understanding why your customer is losing interest in your company, so that you can remove the blockages and revive the buying dynamic with concrete action.
Stage 5: Reactivation
The aim of the reactivation phase is to rekindle the interest of customers who have disengaged or not made a purchase for some time. It therefore comes into play after a prolonged period of inactivity or when the customer seems to have left the active lifecycle.
💡 Some advice:
- listen for blockages, problems, difficulties ;
- analyse the reasons for inactivity to adjust your approach;
- use a specific occasion to relaunch (birthday, new product launch, etc.);
- offer personalised, special attention (a promotional code, a free call, etc.).
If, despite your efforts, a customer wants to leave, let them. Don't fall into the trap of exhausting yourself trying to retain them, and save your resources for prospects or customers in the previous phases.
Mastering the customer lifecycle: a major asset
As you can see, you have everything to gain by knowing your customer lifecycle well and taking it into account in your strategy and the implementation of your actions. It's a tool that gives you control and optimisation, two key ingredients for success.