How customer retention strategies create the ultimate competitive advantage

It’s not a secret loyal customers are good for an organization or brand.  With 51% of B2B customers citing they will avoid vendors after a bad customer experience, it’s easy to understand why many executives want to focus on their customer loyalty strategy.  But what’s interesting to me is how few companies employ a focused customer retention strategy that truly acknowledges, takes care of and leverages those best customers in a way that measurably accelerates market share and recurring revenue while mitigating competitive risk and reducing sales and marketing costs.
Customer Retention vs Customer Acquisition
At most companies, customer retention strategies play second fiddle to a jacked-up lead generation budget and a full sales team that has lots of support and attention from company leadership.  Meanwhile, the centerpiece of their customer retention marketing strategy consists of a newsletter, maybe some training articles posted to the blog, and an 800-number if customers have