Sometimes the smartest move isn’t to add...

We all know the math. It costs less to keep a customer than to find a new one. Every CX leader can quote that line in their sleep. Yet time after time, companies spend their energy... and budgets... chasing new customers while ignoring the ones they already have.

I saw this firsthand recently. A product I’ve used for years... one that’s been part of my weekly CX Passport workflow... decided to roll out a bunch of new "premium" features. I didn’t ask for them. I didn’t need them. But I got them... along with a price that tripled overnight.

So I left.

That company spent money developing something new, trying to attract new customers, and in doing so, lost a perfectly happy existing one. It’s almost poetic in its irony.

That experience was top of mind during my conversation with Daniel Granja Baltazar in this week’s CX Passport. Daniel put it plainly:

“It’s always less expensive... more affordable to keep existing customers than to acquire new ones... yet too many companies get stuck making assumptions about the numbers. You should just talk to them.”

Daniel is so right. So many companies think retention means tossing in a few new features or sending a loyalty discount email. But retention isn’t about more. It’s about better. Better listening. Better understanding. Better alignment with what customers actually value.

Think about that company that lost me. Somewhere in a meeting room, someone probably said, “We need to innovate.” Someone else said, “Customers want more value.” Then came the roadmap, the release, the price increase. Nobody paused to ask, “Do our customers even want this?”

They assumed. They built. They announced. They lost me.

That’s what Daniel means when he says we make assumptions about the numbers. We see usage trends and convince ourselves we understand the why. But we rarely pick up the phone or send a real message to ask, “How’s this working for you?”

The data might tell you who is leaving... but only the customer can tell you why.

And honestly, this doesn’t take a massive research project. It takes curiosity. A few phone calls. A handful of open questions. Listening not to defend or sell... but to understand.

When Daniel says “you should just talk to them,” he’s not dismissing analytics. He’s inviting balance. Use the data to find the story... then talk to the people to understand the story.

Retention doesn’t live in a dashboard. It lives in the moment a customer feels heard.

So the next time your team brainstorms “how to grow,” maybe the answer isn’t adding more. Maybe it’s removing friction. Simplifying a process. Fixing the small pain points your customers quietly tolerate... until they don’t.

Because keeping customers isn’t about surprise and delight. It’s about respect and attention. And as Daniel reminded us... that kind of loyalty costs a lot less than chasing the next shiny new thing.