In today’s digital economy, based on subscriptions, “as-a-service” experiences, and increasingly fluid relationships between brands and consumers, customer loyalty is the true metric that determines a company’s growth.
Mark Roberge, Harvard professor and former Chief Revenue Officer at HubSpot, explains it clearly: today, it’s just as easy for a customer to abandon a product as it is to start using it. For this reason, churn (churn) and retention (the ability to retain customers over time) have become central elements of any business strategy.
Stable growth or fragile growth?
Roberge suggests a different approach than what many companies are used to.
Instead of chasing rapid revenue growth at all costs, it’s better to first aim for solid retention:
• Objective: 100% revenue retention.
• More moderate, but stable growth.
• Easier scalability over the long term.
The reasoning is simple: if the customer base is solid, scaling becomes natural. Conversely, trying to grow rapidly while losing customers is like filling a leaky bucket.
How to create real value for customers
According to Roberge, selling should not be seen as an act of generating revenue, but as creating value for the customer, of which revenue is merely a consequence.
This shift in perspective requires three fundamental actions:
1. Understand what really matters to the customer: analyze the needs, expectations, and experiences that lead them to remain loyal.
2. Measure leading indicators: it’s not enough to know that a customer has left; we need to identify early signs that allow us to predict it.
3. Identify the “Aha moment“: the point at which a customer clearly perceives the value of a product or service (for example, the first 2,000 messages sent in Slack or using 5 key HubSpot features within 60 days).
The importance of continuous feedback
Another key concept highlighted by Roberge is the need to constantly listen to the voice of the customer.
Some concrete examples:
• Daily meetings to review sales discovery calls, to understand how customers react.
• Salespeople as product managers, able to report immediate feedback and influence product improvements.
• Compensation also tied to customer satisfaction, not just closed sales.
The message is clear: the speed at which a company learns is proportional to the speed with which it listens to and integrates customer feedback.
From concept to practice: the role of Kiosk Emoticon
All this brings us to a crucial point: how can we collect this feedback quickly, continuously, and reliably?
This is where Kiosk Emoticon comes in, the platform designed to give customers a voice in real time:
• Instant surveys that can be activated on totems, touch displays, or QR codes.
• Advanced statistics to identify trends and leading indicators.
• Immediate feedback to understand if you’re truly offering value.
• Data-driven decisions to make immediate course corrections and improve retention.
With a tool like this, you don’t have to wait months to understand if customers are losing interest: you can find out immediately, the moment they’re experiencing the experience.
Conclusion
Roberg’s lesson is simple yet powerful: true growth comes from retention, not from frenetically acquiring new customers.
And retention comes from attentive listening and continuous analysis of feedback.
With solutions like Kiosk Emoticon, any company can transform the “voice of the customer” into a competitive advantage:
• less churn
• more satisfied customers
• stronger and more sustainable growth.
Because, ultimately, the future of business isn’t about “selling more,” but about retaining more.
