Stop Begging Me
Isn’t it both strange and wonderful how, when something grabs your attention, you start seeing instances of it all over the place? This happens to me all the time, where suddenly a whole new world opens up because I have become aware of it (this phenomenon is courtesy of the Reticular Activating System, the area of the brain that makes you notice red cars everywhere you go if you have decided your next car should be red).
The most recent instance of this has me pondering the use of”Customer Retention” programs that are now ubiquitous, or seem to be. I started thinking about customer retention while reading a post on customer service on Jim’s Marketing Blog , and then was provided another instance through an email provided by a friend:
I have had my own instances of “Customer Retention”, and what I have experienced, in general, is not what I would consider genuine customer retention policies. The ones I am referring to wait until the relationship is almost over and they range from the last ditch effort…”please, we are begging you not to go! We will give you so many discounts to stay your head will spin! That’s not enough, well here are a few more…Still insist on going, well let me tell you that you will be sorry because (insert competing Cable, Satellite, Phone, Utility, etc company’s name here) are not giving you the full story and further they are misleading you about how much better they will treat you, no, really!”…To the veiled threat of loss should you not continue on in the way we would like you to, as depicted in the above email.
I know I am stating the obvious here, but isn’t it easier and less costly to maintain a healthy, happy current client base so that the effort to attract new customers is to grow your base and not replace it? Why threaten loss or calamity, or subject customers who have had it with you to the long, drawn out begging?
Wouldn’t it be easier to use your best charms and tools to keep your current clients happy, making them evangelists for you? Now, most often customer retention is spoken of in terms of marketing, or CRM, or database management. But, I have been thinking that a process we help clients employ called Communities of Practice (CoP) may in fact be a better way to client loyalty and retention. CoP’s can be used to move brainstorm thinking into knowledge transfer actions - want your front line to become stars at dealing with clients….ask them how they would do it, how they would like to be treated, how they would treat their mother…and, make them a CoP charged with taking those ideas and bringing them into action. And, it will probably do a few good things for your organizations culture at the same time!
Over the next couple of weeks I will post a series of our thought leadership on CoP’s - and I would love to hear your thoughts and stories about formal and informal Communities of Practice.
Note: my apologies for the time gap between this and the last post. I have bent a cardinal rule of blogging and have not posted regularly. More importantly, I broke one of our cardinal rules…ongoing engagement and dialogue. Life got busy, and “yada yada”. No excuse, I promise we will be more diligent in sharing our thoughts and continued dialogue through this venue.
Cheers,
Keli