Guest article
Expert opinion
Customer knowledge is power
Oliver Hiner, Director of Operations at Portico, a specialist provider of high-quality and always-tailored guest services, shares how his business is keeping a keen eye on client retention. He says, “In a world that seems to be spinning faster every year, loyalty and retention of customers can fall second fiddle. Often, companies are striving to win that next customer or the bigger account. However, as demonstrated through this guide, holding onto the customers you have is absolutely key. Not investing in your customers in an ever-competitive world will see your competitors stepping in, and losing customers will inevitably only add to new business targets in order to maintain the growth of a business.”
At Portico, we invest time in getting to know what is important to each of our customers. Our senior leadership structure is set up to enable each of our operational managers to spend regular time on each account, building relationships that are trusted and enabling each of our customers to see how valued they are to us. Another question we regularly ask ourselves is, “How are we delivering value to our customers?”. Outside of the black-and-white contract, why would a customer choose to work with us? For me, a big part is about sharing insight and expertise in order to help them make better decisions. In 2023, we launched 'Portico & Friends' as a way of bringing knowledge and debate to our clients so that they can learn from our wider network and our expert industry knowledge.
