There are many fine high tech solutions a firm can buy to induce loyalty and retention on behalf of their customers. In addition to all the new "swizzy" solutions available out there, a firm can also adopt additional marketing strategies that may not cost so much at the end of the day.

So, hereunder are my Top Ten Tips of Customer Retention:

1. Make Nice-Nice: All the frequent happiness miles in the world don't mean a thing when a customer has to wrestle with a surly representative, salesperson or support staffer. If a firm can't hire enough naturally nice people, then maybe it should try behavior modification tactics by offering incentives every time an employee is nice to somebody.

2. Your Call Is Important To Us... Not: After you hear that phrase whilst on hold about fifteen times, you start to realize how unimportant you really are, and possibly think about what other options you might have as a customer. If a company can't respect your time, how can they expect you to respect them?

3. Touch Your Customers With Value and No Other Agenda: Sometimes it pays to establish an impression with clients/customers that you were thinking of them and not necessarily looking to sell them something. I sometime forward an email or article with the simple subject header "saw this - thought of you."

4. Turn Money Away: I've done this a few times recently, and it's extraordinary how effective it is in deepening a relationship. Some advertisers wanted to run certain ads that I didn't think would work, so I refused the business. The effect was that the advertiser proactively looked for other ways to do business with me, knowing I wasn't in it for the short money.

5. Listen: It seems too obvious to even mention, right? Some of my longest running clients stay with me because I'm listening to what they say, sometimes not saying much back, other than to confirm I heard what I think I heard, and then act accordingly, sooner or later. I say things like "I hear you."

6. Ask Questions: Aside from listening to what's on your client's mind, ask them about their business, concerns, and expectations near and long term. Aside from the human interest angle, this helps you know what makes them tick and how you can better serve them long term.

7. No Whitewashing: I've always found clients much prefer I speak my mind rather than say what they want to hear. The ring of authenticity typically resonates in others when you speak it.

8. Under-promise and Over-deliver: This is tough sometimes, since businesses often over-hype during the sales pitch in order to get the business in the first place. Back when I was answering RFPs, I made a point of saying I wasn't going to over-promise anything, and that it was quite likely other proposals would "seem" to deliver more, but might well fall short in the end. Even now I over-deliver, which makes it likely clients will come back for more.

9. Estimate Switching Costs: How much would it cost for your customers or clients to switch from you to your competition? If there are no costs, that's bad. You might want to offer value-adds that your competitors don't offer. Those value-adds, or lack of them, will be part of the switching costs that defecting clients will need to calculate.

10. The Good Old 80/20 Rule: It's the age-old saying - 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customer base. If this is true for you, consider cutting loose those customers who are not so profitable, and spending the resulting time saved with those who are.

11. Bonus Tip: Love what you do. If you don't, no matter if you're a CEO or in tech support, it'll show, and your own career trajectory will suffer a severe reality check at some point. LC