People Retention Results in Success.

How do you define retention in business and in your work? Take a moment and ponder this.

Is it keeping your customers coming back, or buying more? It certainly should not be the focus of retention. Then, what is it and why spend any time pondering this?

To me, as a physician, retention matters because it allows more time and a greater opportunity to make a bigger impact in the person’s health. Because, let’s admit it, there is generally no “magic pill”. Wait, what? There is “magic”, but no “magic pill”. Health is a process, or better yet, health is a verb, and something that requires constant engagement and commitment. Does this mean that “time heals”? Yes and no. Commitment to our health and taking proactive steps to improve our own health and dis-ease, does take time. My commitment is that I am an active participant, a coach, and a support to each and every person I work with in my clinical practice (and, in my non-clinical work).

As a physician, this is something I have observed over the years. When I have more time and a longer-opportunity to work with people, the likelihood of success in improving their health increases. Not everyone gets better, I am not suggesting that the only factor in improving health is time. Simply, it takes time to get better, the more time people have to work on their health and the longer they commit to taking practice steps, the greater the likelihood of their success.

Retention is an essential factor in increasing the likelihood of cultivating more success in your client, customer, patient, a group of people, a team, and so on. I view retention as a marker of success, because it often indicates a sense of trust that people have in you and your organization. It is clearly not the sole indicator of success, but to me, an important one. The greater the retention, the more of an opportunity you have to make an impact.

How would you evaluate the success of your client retention? There are a number of ways you may consider in assessing your retention rate. Let’s take a look at the following two:

• • The length of time during which you are working with you client.
  • The number of clients over a specific length of time.

There are other factors and considerations you can explore in evaluating your retention rate. However, having more client retention does not mean more success. Having more successful clients often leads to increased retention, as long as you continue to provide value that keeps your clients growing. Subsequently, this will leads to happier clients.

(Interestingly, it is not uncommon to find companies who are looking to fill the position of a retention specialist, and their job description is often listed as someone who can help “keep their customers happy”. I am not convinced this is ever a sustainable business model. Hm. Food for thought.)

Whether you are a coach, a trainer, a practitioner, or someone who works with people, the idea of gaining more time with people will apply to you. Your ultimate goal in increasing retention is for you to gain more time with your client. Having more time with your client offers you a greater opportunity to help them succeed.