In almost all the research undertaken on customer loss, the most common reasons found for customers leaving one company and going to another is that people forget.

In short, they see a new advert from another firm, think that the product looks good or at least worthy of further investigation, and then they start buying elsewhere.

The second most common reason given for using an alternative supplier is, “I didn’t know you did it.”  In other words the customer knows you sell x, but doesn’t know you sell y.  So they buy y from elsewhere.

And the third most common reason is that someone somewhere has said something a little amiss, a little short, or a little untoward.  It may not have been intentional – and indeed it might be the customer who was having an off day, but that is still the third most common reason.

So the question arises, how does one overcome such problems?

I believe there are two ways to do this.

First, write to your customers regularly. I stress “write” here, and not phone, because phone calls are interruptive, and it is difficult to develop a rapport with a client when interrupting their work.  Most phone calls like this tend to be of the “Is there anything we can help you with?” type, and generally they don’t work.

Writing can take on two forms in this regard: talking about products and talking about background.  Both are worthwhile and in fact I would always recommend alternating one with the other.

Talking about products can involve talking about innovation, price, special offers and the like.  But it can also be about things you can do with products, and successes that have been noted in using your products.

Talking about background can involve giving hints and support in relation to the industry you are involved in (this email could be seen as an example of that) but can also include a more humorous approach.  Humour is not for everyone, and you need to be happy with the approach, but where it is used it guarantees to make your company stand out from the crowd at once.

The second approach to overcoming the problem of customer drift involves changing the company attitude. If your view is that your customers are loyal and would never go elsewhere, you are not going to put in place programmes to keep the customers with you.

But if you acknowledge that all customers are liable to drift, then you will start looking for ways to deal with this.

I often hear of companies that say, “they must know we sell product Z, because it is in the catalogue”, but this assumes that people love you so much that they will plough through your catalogue to find that product.  My experience is that they won’t – especially if someone else is sending them promotional material relating just to that product.

Customer retention is an art, just as finding new customers is an art.  If you would like to talk about it please do call 01536 399 000 or email me back.

Customer retention is also a fundamental part of the work we do through the Velocity programme (www.velocity.ac) through which you can pay a monthly fee for your marketing, and we will work closely with you looking at every issue raised by your marketing, and putting together and carrying out a programme that meets all your needs.

I do hope you found this quick review interesting – do give me a call if you would like to take things further or if you have a question.

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Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.