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The competition makes customers have many options to buy product and/or services. Many SMEs do not realize that there is a need not to lose their customers. This article aims to analyse practices of attraction and retention of customers as the strategy for improving the performance of SMEs. To understand the attraction and retention of clients practice, it is important to go through the perception of the factors contributing to attraction and customer retention. To do this, the researcher preferred to use a qualitative approach to understand how the practices of attraction and retention can improve performance in SMEs. To ensure credibility and validity of the research, it was necessary to make the theoretical triangulation, methodology and data sources. The research applied literature review, documentary and semi-structured interview technique as data generation, and content analysis as a method of data processing. It considered attraction practices and customer retention as the following: right customers with right value proposition, positive relationship through acquisition, incorporate customer advocacy into day to day service and develop relationship to increase stickiness.

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Albertina Celeste Inácio Ribáuè Mozambican by nationality was born in Angoche, Nampula Province. She has a PhD in Business Administration and Management from the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU), Master in Business Administration and Management and an Honours degree in Economics and Management from the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM).

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