Customer loyalty…does your company take it for granted?
Everyone will say they don’t but in the end, most do. I am surprised how many
times I hear executives say they are just trying to “get customers” or “make
sales”. At the core, this is sacrificing long-term gains for short-term
revenue. Countless times I have experienced sales and marketing professionals
who are solely focused on growing the base with little to no thought of the
existing clientele.
- The best marketing is marketing you do not have to pay for – customer promoters.
- The best sales are the ones that happen organically – retention customers.
Is true, long-term customer loyalty a reality? Absolutely.
Here are some guiding ideas to achieve such sales and marketing bliss:
When your customer is leaving is not the time to offer them “a deal”
You are calling someone because you are fed up with support,
service, a product, whatever and you are quickly transferred to a “Customer
Service Specialist” – which is business speak of Disaster Recovery Team. They
are sorry, empathetic, and apologetic to the point you feel like you are watching
a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. In then end, they make you “the offer” to keep
you as a customer. Really?!? Where was the offer when I was your customer for
5+ years? Why did I not proactively get the offer? Making such and offer is
basically bribery by definition and insults the intelligence of your customer.
Call them – contact them – make sure everything is ok before they get to the
point of cancelling. Make them the offer out of the blue simply because you
appreciate their business – not to save your bottom line when they are leaving.
I have seen a lot of “Hail Mary’s” in football. They seldom ever work.
Customer satisfaction should not cost extra
One of my favorites…has this happened to you? You are trying
to solve an issue and the representative says they can absolutely help you…but
it will cost you $x.xx more. It is the post sale up-sale. In Vegas they call it
a “string bet” and you will be taken out back and have your knees broken. If it
is a service the customer did not buy then yes – the customer should pay for
it. However,if something that went wrong or it's a service the
customer did pay for – then fix it…at no charge. Remember you are not trying to
get quick cash; you are trying to get customer loyalty. If the error was not
the customers you should never charge them for YOUR mistake, design flaw, poor
construction, etc. The best customer loyalty story starts and ends with, “I had
and issue and they fixed it free of charge”.
Random act of kindness > futile act of desperation
This is essentially a summary of the above two rules. The
morale is simple; do not wait until there is a problem before you reach out to
your customer. Loyalty is tended like a garden. It needs to be watered, weeded,
fertilized, and cared for. Pouring ten gallons of water on a brown/black plant
will not bring it back. The same is true for your customers.
Customer Pre-Nups – ALWAYS a bad idea.
Prenuptial Agreements are now commonplace in Hollywood. To
me a Prenuptial Agreement is a document that publically states I want money
when (not if) our relationship falls apart. Imagine meeting someone at a coffee
shop. You hit it off and they ask you out on a date – then immediately they
shove a prenup in your face. “This is to ensure that I get some of your money
should you ever become unhappy with me and want to leave.” As a person – you
would never agree to that (full disclosure – if it is Kate Beckensale…then I
would). In business, you do that all the time. Do you have a cell phone
contract? Cable TV contract? Various other service contracts with a penalty
clause? If you want to garner customer loyalty, love your customers unconditionally,
and if you are unable to keep them happy, you need to let them go. I know that
is very Love Guru Pitka – but it is the truth. Never force a customer into a
prenup – they will reward you with their loyalty and business for years to
come.
Follow the Golden Rule
Very simple – you learned this in kindergarten. Treat a
customer like you want to be treated. You will be amazed at how much customer
loyalty will flow your way.
In summary, when the business intelligence guys show up with
their three dimensional Excel pivot tables showing that you can make an
incremental 3% by doing any of the above…smile, give them a cookie, and ask
them go back and calculate how many customers you need to lose versus that 3%
before any of the above becomes a very bad idea. At the end of the day, we all
know how Customer Loyalty needs / should / must work. We just need to have the
courage to actually do it.
