Existing Customers are the life blood of any business. They obvious value the products and services because they are a customer and return for repeat business.
Existing Customers help to cover costs and keep the business running.
If they are so important why do so many companies abuse existing customers?
Abuse is a strong word but there’s masses of history to confirm the situation. Financial Institutions and Mobile Comms Companies have already been hauled over the coals for only offering the best deals to new customers.
Of course, all businesses need to attract new customers and must spend time and marketing budget on bringing them into the fold but not at the expense of existing customers.
Customer Attrition is something all business must be aware of. There are masses of statistics on attrition but I remember talking to the owner of a small publishing house.
He was concerned at the decline of his tradition paper-based clients. In reply to my question about his priorities in recent months he answered:
“All of my effort has been focussed on digital media. We are starting to win customers in this field and it looks a promising market for us.”
I asked if he thought his traditional customer base had been ignored during this time. I think we all know the answer to this!
His reply was to say that “my customers have been loyal for years, so I assumed that would continue.”
His customers were loyal but once ignored they will move their business. Indifference is the single biggest factor in making us change suppliers.
I recently received a renewal notice for a home insurance policy.
The premium had increased by a staggering 15%. I called the company and asked them to justify the increase. Half was due to a tax introduced by our Government on insurance policies, so there was little my insurer could do about that but that still left 7.5%. This is massively higher than our current inflation rates.
At least the guy on the other end of the phone was honest. He said they “tried to recover extra profit from existing customers.”
When I pushed slightly by suggesting I could find a new insurer he immediately offered to remove this increase. So I left happy in the knowledge that I had saved some money but disgruntled that I had had to make the call.
I now have a year to shop around as a new customer for a better deal.
As we get rolling into 2016 please take time to make sure that your existing customer base is well taken care of.