Marketers spend a lot of time talking about how to acquire new customers and, perhaps, not enough time talking about keeping them. However, as the economy continues to struggle companies are starting to really value the business they do have, and are looking for ways to maintain relationships. You have a sales force that is working the phones and pounding the pavement trying to find new business, so they probably aren’t spending enough time on maintaining relationships.
Recently I read an article about the most hated companies in America. There were few surprises, banks, airlines, and utilities. But when you read why they are so hated, there is one common theme, communication. The companies on this list seemingly all do a bad job of communicating with their customers. The travel and banking industries are highly competitive, so it’s not too surprising that most of their resources go to customer acquisition. The utilities, well, what can you say about them? Their customer service is usually pretty bad, but I just think people resent having to pay so much for bad television and overpriced phone plans.
As a side note, you may want to read the list of the best-liked companies. To no one’s surprise, we Americans like food and cars!
So how can you maintain a relationship with your customer base while keeping your sales force focused on new business?
In the b-to-c world social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter work well. You can create fun content, apps and things for your customers to share. Subway is a good example of a company that does this well. They are constantly having contests that require you to signup online and share content with your friends. Their Facebook page is well designed and promotes their brand. They have 7.9 million “likes” and over 250,000 people have “checked-in” at one of their stores.
For b-to-b companies, engaging your customers is a bit more difficult. Marketers have to deal with strict company policies on accepting prizes and sharing company information, so social networking doesn’t work quite as well. Furthermore, many large companies restrict access to these sites in the office.
Direct mail is a highly effective way of communicating with your customer base. Automotive companies have used high-impact direct mail to send their dealer networks information about new car accessories and services. Recently, a large insurance provider sent a highly effective campaign to insurance agents who used to carry their product, but no longer do. The integrated campaign included a high-impact direct mail piece that drove people to a landing page. The site included tons of resources for the agents including information on how their business could benefit from carrying this insurance company’s products. Another insurance company used a similar campaign to help their agents learn how to market their businesses. The response was overwhelming and it helped solidify the relationship between the agents and the insurance company.
I was recently talking to my brother-in-law that owns a small restaurant in upstate New York. He was showing me a nice box of fine foods that one of his food purveyors’ recently sent him. It was an elegant looking box that simply said “we appreciate your business”. The box itself was probably pricy to print, and the products were all sold by the company, so it was as much a sales effort as it was a customer retention effort. But just in talking with my brother-in-law I know for sure that it was worth its weight in gold. He felt appreciated by the company, and there is no lack of food purveyors in his area.
My guess is you do business with at least one of the companies on the least-liked list. How do you feel as a customer of that company? Is it the same way your customers feel about your company?
