Fractional Head of Retention

Senior leadership for your CRM, loyalty and repeat customers, without the full-time hire. I'll own your retention strategy, lead the work and make sure it actually gets done, so customers come back and lifetime value grows.

If retention matters to your business but nobody owns it, this is for you.

Whether you call it retention, CRM, loyalty or lifecycle, it's the same job: getting customers to come back, stay longer and spend more. And in most businesses, nobody senior owns it.

You know repeat customers are where the profit is. You may even know where they're dropping off.

But there's no one senior to lead it.

The founder is stretched. The marketing lead is covering everything. The agency or freelancer runs the sends, but nobody is thinking about retention in terms of revenue, margin and lifetime value.

So it gets done in bursts. A new workflow here, a discount there. Never a programme that builds on itself.

What's missing isn't effort. It's ownership.

That usually means a first retention hire. But a full-time Head of Retention is a big commitment for a business your size, and a junior hire won't have the experience to set the direction.

That's where I come in. I become your retention lead for a fraction of the cost: setting the strategy, designing the programmes, keeping the work on track and showing your leadership team what it's delivering.

“Having support during a difficult sales period, help with forward planning to take pressure off me, technical help like finding different aps to help achieve what we needed, handholding (!) with the live events as these were great and I wouldn't have forced myself to do them without you.

I think the value I got out of it was wonderful for the price. And I also liked the fact that you gave me lots to do (even if I didn't have time for it all), because I think it is better to give too many ideas than to give too few.”

- Founder of @FancifulDoll

A leadership role, with a hands-on edge

Everything is built around your goals, your margins and what your team can realistically deliver. No generic playbooks.

➡️ I lead the thinking. I set the retention strategy, design the programmes (journeys, loyalty, referral, the moments that make customers feel looked after) and decide what gets tested and when.

➡️ Your team or agency does the day-to-day. They build and send. I brief them, review the work and make sure it goes live to the standard we've agreed.

➡️ I explain the why, not just the what. So your team gets more capable as we go, rather than more dependent on me.

➡️ I turn the numbers into decisions. I'll show you and your leadership team what retention is delivering, in revenue rather than open rates, so it gets the investment it deserves.

RESULTS

RESULTS

A few examples of what this kind of thinking has delivered, from independent brands to some of the UK's largest loyalty programmes.

Every business is different. These are examples of past work, shared to show how I think and what's possible, not a promise of the same numbers. Your Roadmap and 90-day plan is built on your own data, so the opportunities it finds will be specific to you.

Signature framework:

Built on my 4Rs of Customer Retention

Everything we do together is built on the 4Rs. It's the framework I developed from what I've seen work, from loyalty programmes with millions of members to independent brands building retention from scratch.

The idea behind it is simple. Retention isn't one thing. It's four stages, and customers can drop out at any of them.

Return.

Getting a first-time customer to come back for a second order. For many businesses, this is where they lose the most customers.

Rhythm.

Turning repeat buying into a habit, so customers keep coming back without being chased.

Refer.

Turning happy customers into a source of new ones.

Reward.

Giving loyal customers a reason to stay, and making sure that loyalty is earned, not bought with discounts.

Your 90-day plan focuses on the stage that's costing you most. Get that working, and every other stage becomes easier to build on.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

The Service

REPEAT REVENUE ROADMAP

I start by finding where your customers are dropping off and what each leak is worth. The result is your 90-day plan, with one clear priority: the stage of the 4Rs costing you most.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

A monthly planning session with you and your team. Together, we agree the focus, milestones and how we'll measure success, then turn the plan into sprints, deliverables and owners.

A simple retention scorecard covering repeat rate, time to reorder, returning-customer revenue and lifetime value, with a short weekly update on what's moved. Ready to share with your leadership team.

KPI TRACKING

Each week, your team can send one piece of work for feedback, such as an email, a landing page or a campaign brief. I'll come back with clear, practical notes, so it goes out stronger.

WEEKLY REVIEWS

LEADING THE BUILD

I design what your customers experience: the emails, the loyalty and referral ideas, the moments that bring them back. Then I brief your team or agency and keep them on track.

Q+A SUPPORT

I don't want unanswered questions holding you back. You and your team can send questions by voice note or email, and I'll reply within 48 hours, Monday to Friday.

How it works

Why fractional?

You need someone senior to own retention. Here's how the options compare:

Full-time Head of Retention
Agency
Cost
A senior salary, plus recruitment, onboarding and employer costs
Monthly retainer, often priced on sends or hours
Seniority
Senior, if you can find and afford them
Varies, often juniors doing the work
Time to start
Months of hiring
Weeks
Focus
Your business only
Spread across many clients
What they're judged on
Whatever the role is set up to measure
Campaigns delivered
Term
Employment contract
Often a fixed term
Swipe to compare →

Full-time Head of Retention

Cost
A senior salary, plus recruitment, onboarding and employer costs
Seniority
Senior, if you can find and afford them
Time to start
Months of hiring
Focus
Your business only
Judged on
Whatever the role is set up to measure
Term
Employment contract

Agency

Cost
Monthly retainer, often priced on sends or hours
Seniority
Varies, often juniors doing the work
Time to start
Weeks
Focus
Spread across many clients
Judged on
Campaigns delivered
Term
Often a fixed term

‘I just wanted to say thank you so much for the wonderful insights in the business audit report. I'm still going through them all and actioning them, but it has all galvanised activity and it feels like I have a clear path forward. I'll definitely reach out with more questions around some of the aspects, but for now I'm just focusing on the marketing and website.’

- Founder, Coeur et Maman

Investment and next steps

4x monthly payments of £1,497, or USD$1997.

Month one covers your Repeat Revenue Roadmap and setting up with your team. Months two to four are spent delivering your 90-day plan.

I plan the work in 90 days because retention changes take a quarter to show up properly in the numbers. You're billed monthly, and if it isn't working for you, you can stop before your next payment.

That's senior retention leadership for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

I only work with four businesses at a time, so places are very limited. If I'm fully booked, I'll let you know when a place opens.

If you're ready to stop losing customers after their first order, and turn retention into a revenue channel you can plan around:

  • "Without Vicki - her patience, accuracy, extensive knowledge, being available and willing to help and all round can and will do attitude, it wouldn't have come together. I'm forever in your debt. And looking forward to working together again, and again.. thanks so much"

    – Rosey, Founder of WeareNativ

Apply Now

Please tell me a bit about your brand and we can go from there

Hi, I'm Vicki.

I've spent 20+ years in retail and digital marketing, from leading brand activity in one of the UK's largest loyalty schemes to building retention from the ground up for independent brands. I've also run businesses of my own, so I know what it's like when every spend and every hour counts.

I think in revenue and margin, not just sends. Strategic enough to set the direction, hands-on enough to make sure it goes live, and clear enough for the team to work from.

And I care about the part most retention work skips: the moments that make customers feel looked after, because that's what makes them stay.

Let's grow your business from the customers you already have.

FAQs

  • "Vicki was all I had hoped for and even better! Had a great call with her which was very efficient and focused on my needs. Her follow up notes were amazing. I would recommend"

    - Camila, Founder of Lewina Swimwear