Retaining Customers in Rapidly Growing Environments : A Study on Customer Retention in High Growth Firms

Abstract: Customer retention is crucial for a firms long term success and its application and dynamics are particularly interesting in the context of high growth firms. High growth firms are commonly characterised by having limited resources and operating in constant change in structure and routines which can affect the way the firms are able to work with customer retention. This research aims to investigate how high growth firms perceive customer retention. This research also aims to identify major difficulties high growth firms have working with customer retention as well as what strategies are used to counteract those difficulties. In order to investigate this topic, a qualitative study based on data from semi-structured interviews with seven high growth firms was conducted. My finding suggest that high growth firms has a great prioritising on customer retention. The findings also identified that limited resources and changing structure and routines is a challenge for high growth firms working with customer retention. This research identified key strategies high growth firms use to work with customer retention, being a quality customer service, customer focused culture, and relationship bonds.