After acquiring customers, the focus shifts to the [[keep customers]] phase, which is centered on retaining these customers and minimizing [[churn]]. It's a critical phase because retaining existing customers is generally much less expensive than acquiring new ones. Startups often initially focus heavily on the [[get customers]] phase but must transition to proactively keeping customers to build a sustainable business.   Keep customers' strategies involve actively engaging them and providing ongoing value to prevent them from leaving. Common tactics, applicable to both [[physical channels|physical]] and [[digital channels]], include [[loyalty program|loyalty programs]] that reward repeat business (like airline miles or points systems), product updates, newsletters providing useful information, contests, and community-building efforts. The goal is to maintain a connection and make the customer feel valued, reducing their likelihood of switching to a competitor.   A key metric related to keeping customers is churn or customer attrition – the rate at which customers stop doing business with a company over a given period. Even a seemingly small monthly churn rate can have a significant long-term impact. For instance, reducing churn from 5% to 1% per month can drastically increase the average customer lifespan and the total revenue generated from that customer. Therefore, investing in [[keep customers]] activities directly impacts the overall profitability and [[customer lifetime value (LTV)]]. Next: [[Increasing Lifetime Value]] Back to: [[How Will You Gain and Keep Customers?]]