I've been in business for a long time...
Way over 20 years in fact, of working hard to drive massive value to my customers and clients. Part of my mission to provide that value is to always look for ways to improve my products through personal development. I feel like if I'm getting better, a by product of that growth will trickle down to what I'm offering for sale. The better I'm doing professionally, the better my company will do...
One of the ways I do that is through constant learning! Reading books, training manuals, continuing education...And something I've heard repeated over the years is that it's easier to 'sell' to a customer you've already sold to, rather than trying to attract new customers. It makes sense, if someone has put trust into my business and purchased a product (and they are happy with what they purchased) it's easier to 'sell' something to them agin.
And to create that customer loyalty, what I have done over the years is to reward repeat purchases with heavy discounts. Heck, we've even had a loyalty card where customers could accumulate points with their purchases and exchange it for products / gifts. The idea is always...Let my customers know, I appreciate them, every chance I get.
So I had to laugh when I saw this come into my post office box this week...
A little back story to explain why this piece of mail is hilarious to me.
So I've been a customer of Sirius XM radio for over 15 years now. Generally, every month for all those years I've paid my membership fees and enjoyed their service. I'm a fan of satellite radio and have been a 'loyal' customer for years.
A few months ago, they decided to increase my membership fees without warning and when I saw the big jump in monthly costs I immediately gave them a call.
You'd think, after 15 plus years of being a paying customer, they'd do everything in their power to keep me as a client. But to no avail. They said the best we can do is this, and gave me an awful deal that didn't come close to what I had been paying. Safe to say, I cancelled my subscription.
So of course....A few months after no longer getting my fees, they send out this 'please come back offer' which is much lower than I was paying before. And I just had to laugh....
They knew this offer would be sent at a later date, so why not just offer it to me before I ended my subscription in the first place? This makes no sense to me at all, but once again highlighted to me how important it is...To remind your CURRENT paying subscribers, how valuable they are!
To me, this is silly marketing and customer retention because it would have been much easier to just offer this deal to me when I first brought up the price increase. Why wait for a few months and throw this in my face? Will I take the offer? I don't know lol TO be honest, I feel like I am just a number to this company and they had no intention of honoring the 15 plus years of being a paying customer months ago, but now they do???
Again, the lesson for me is loud and clear. As I'm in business and offering my products and services to others, how can I show my current customers that I appreciate them NOW...Not just when they disappear and I'm looking to recoup some fees every month!
It's so true that it's harder to attract new customers than sell to our current customers. But I would say, it's even harder to sell 'old customers' once they feel like they are no longer appreciated. Make sure they know, they are appreciated!!
Lol! I get too many of these SiriusXM offers on a regular basis not long after I let the subscription expire.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
It's amazing they don't do more for current subscribers lol
!CTP
That is crazy. When I worked with subscriptions in the past the company would do something similar. I know of guy who told the customers to cancel and then come back for a better deal 😂
!PIZZA
It's funny because that's how you do it...Just cancel and come back, you'll get a better deal lol
!CTP
@dkidfit, sorry! You need more to stake more $PIZZA to use this command.
The minimum requirement is 20.0 PIZZA staked.
More $PIZZA is available from Hive-Engine or Tribaldex
I have learned something today, to be consistent in business you have to find a way to make your customers happy and appreciate them
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
It's a great habit to get into. Just letting people know they are appreciated!
!CTP
I'm glad that you learn the lesson and sharing with us. Its helpful for entrepreneurs who should know how to treat their customers and we should give reasons to customers that they get back to us again and again. Thanks for sharing.
Always need to treat customers with the utmost respect. It's just good business!
!CTP
Indeed 🥰
Customers are taken for granted all too often and saying thankyou every now and then goes along way to having loyal customers. Same thing happened with my armed security company as they were almost 3 x the going rate and have no chance of getting me back. If you just keep upping the fees what do people expect as loyalty only goes so far.
Taken for granted is the truth. Companies forget what drives their profits. It's not the CEO lolol
!CTP
I have seen this a lot and it reminds me of the internet plans. They charge you cheap for like the first year or two then they upgrade the fees. Then when you switch, they will send you a good offer that is valid for a year or two later on. It's dumb.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
It's insane. It's like telling customers you dont value them at all. Very strange.
!CTP
I recently checked the CBC documentary on how canadians are being charged more by the telecom due to geolimitations and limited telco companies. And how they are kind of making it harder for the consumers. I think more players the better as they say in the business world, it helps the customers. Living the issues on the consumer side all my life I realized that it's something we can't do.
Maybe AI is going to save us from most of these issues.
Yeah it's weird. We should be striving to help our customers and make their lives easier. Instead, companies seem to nickel and dime them
!CTP
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @jongolson ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Congratulations @jongolson! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 450000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
My cable/internet company is always offering me some sort of deal for my internet, I usually turn it down because the one time I feel for it, it came back to haunt me. the deal was a higher speed at a reduced price (less then what I was paying) for 12 months. When the deal was over my bill was supposed to go back to my normal rice & my speed back where it was before the deal. That did happen but a couple of months later, my bill suddenly had an increase. The bad thing about it is that I live in a very small town & there are no options, the company holds rights to the service in the area & somehow year after year, they still hold it. So if you live here, you're kinda stuck with paying what they want. Even the AT&T services in the area go through them. It suckks!
!CTP
!PIZZA
I gifted $PIZZA slices here:
@successchar(1/15) tipped @jongolson (x1)
Join us in Discord!
Yes! Love this!
When I'm working with my clients, we come up with a customer experience comm plan. Why? Same reason you mentioned - most of the time, they have been communicating when:
We come up with weird American holiday (like houseplant day) mailers, hand-written thank you notes (without asking for anything), all kinds of things to let their customers know they are appreciated. SMBs get into sales mode and forget about the rest of the customer journey. They need to remember to...
Awesome post!