When asked why he robbed banks, the notorious Willie Sutton had an accurate and succinct reply: "because that's where the money is."

Being in a leadership position requires you to help focus the firm on customer satisfaction for much the same reason. "Because that's where the money is." Recent research on the link between customer retention and profitability has pointed out some very compelling reasons for regarding customer retention as a vital strategic issue.

Consider these facts.

• A software firm able to increase customer retention by five percentage points will increase bottom line profits by 35 percent.
• A branch bank that increases customer retention by five percentage points will increase bottom line profits by 85 percent.
• For an industrial distributor, the five percentage point increase in customer retention brings about a 45 percent increase in profits.
• For an insurance brokerage, it's 50 percent.
• And in an advertising agency it's 95 percent.

In short, the long term success and profitability of your firm requires a keen interest in, and measures available on, customer satisfaction and retention. Does this mean other strategic issues such as market growth, cash flow, and succession planning should be ignored? Of course not! But research shows that high levels of customer satisfaction drive customer retention and customer retention drives profitability.

Customer care should not only be of interest to you, it should be of vital importance. If customer care is not the strategic advantage it should be at your firm, here are five actions you can take to give it a proper place in your competitive arsenal.

Put it on the agenda

For most companies, customer care is not an agenda topic. Yet measures of customer care predict future profitability. You probably look at other predictors of profitability. Why not this one?

Our experience in helping firms create the intense customer-focused culture necessary to compete in today's marketplace has been that if customer satisfaction becomes an official agenda item at the top of the house, it becomes an official agenda item elsewhere in the organization.

Perhaps equally importantly, it becomes an unofficial agenda item elsewhere in the organization. People at all levels become obsessed with improving customer satisfaction levels. When that happens the company prospers.

But don't just put customer satisfaction on the agenda, make it one of the top three items. One client of ours had been working on quality for years and it was always on the agenda for top management meetings.

Unfortunately it was never among the top few items. Because it was later in the agenda, service quality often got shortchanged in both focus and allotted time. When it moved it to a top item, they began making great strides. In a seven year period, they could trace millions of dollars of increased yearly profits to improved quality. Ask people what there at the time of the quality transformation what led to the shift and they'll tell you they never really any progress until quality become a top agenda item.

Follow that example. Put customer satisfaction and related measures of customer retention - as one of the top three items on every single meeting agenda.

About the Author

Tom Connellan is a High ROI Keynote speaker regularly used by leading firms such as GE, Neiman Marcus, Dell, FedEx and Marriott to strengthen customer loyalty and leadership practices. When looking for a keynote speaker, Tom probably belongs on your short list of possibilities.