You may not be able to see them yet, but there are some pretty cool changes happening here at The Curb, which will make the blog even prettier for you to look at. I’m taking a break from pretending I know how to code to share with you this story.
Last decade, in December, I drove the jolly green giant (my car) to the jewelry store to pick up the engagement ring I’d picked out for my fiance. After they did a cool magic trick and made my hard earned money disappear, they proceeded to put the shiny ring in an awkwardly large, but very nice jewelry box. They then put the box in an elegant looking bag, that came with a free cleaning kit (it sure as heck better be free) and a catalog.
The catalog. Oh, the catalog.
You may be wondering what was in this catalog, and I’ll tell you.
In that catalog, were engagement rings.
What the (insert your favorite word)?!?
Never mind the fact that the rings in the catalog made my recent purchase look like a ring you’d get from a dispenser at the grocery store in comparison. I just bought an engagement ring, and you give me more to look at?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the marriage process is pretty widely known here in America (especially by umm, jewelry stores). You buy the engagement ring, then, months later, you buy wedding bands for the bride and groom. I may be giving jewelry stores more credit than they deserve, but you would think they would realize it’s way easier for them to sell wedding bands to folks who already shopped at your store and had a positive experience than it is to sell jewelry to some random person.
(Begin Marketing Lesson) Let this example show you how simple it can be to retain customers and encourage repeat purchases. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper to keep someone coming back for more than it is to convince someone to buy your product for the first time.
Some questions for you to ponder: What are some ways that companies can retain customers or encourage these repeat purchases? Have you seen any great examples (or horrible ones)? And finally, what favorite word did you choose to insert above?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Great story and lesson, Jackie. Sometimes the best marketing is using common sense. good example: rei's member refund
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, David! I was almost hesitant to post it thinking it may be too obvious of a point, but I do think a lot of companies focus too much on bringing in the new customers.
i agree. haven't companies learned that taking care of their existing customers will bring the new customers? anyway. keep up the good work. I always enjoy stopping by.
Great thoughts again Jackie, I think there are companies which only believe on customer retention and the referrals which they get from them, The best example I can give you is of a sweet shop near my home town which has a brilliant product which we call “Sonpapdi” here plus they serve you like you are a king because the price they take is just for the sweet not for the service, no wonder they are the top sellers without a single advertisement anywhere.
Hey Akash good to see ya back around The Curb
Thanks for dropping a comment and giving a great example. If you take care of your customers, you can definitely get away with charging a premium every now and then. Have a good one!
Wow, funny. Maybe they were hoping you'd be in the market for another engagement ring sometime soon.
It's definitely easier to get someone who had a positive customer experience to come back for a second purchase than it is to entice a new customer to switch to your product/brand. Unfortunately many companies put too big of a focus on luring new business in. Make your current customers happy and you may have yourself life-long brand advocates. Neglect or ignore them and you're going to spend a ton of money constantly trying to replace them.
I recently wrote a similar post about customer satisfaction and used Sephora's customer service as an example. They made a bad situation that was no fault of their own better for me, thus making me feel appreciated as a customer. You can bet I'm going to continue purchasing from them in the future, and they're clearly getting some good word of mouth out of it, too.
Simple but good reminder, Jackie.
Strange how companies think, Jackie, huh?
Now, imagine for a second that this jeweler is socially-inclined. They have a white label Foursquare brand. They ask you at the time of sale if you have a smartphone; you say Yes. They then point you to the part on their receipt that shows their Foursquare URL/username. You get home and add as a friend.
Now, in the coming months, you go shopping, socialize, go out – all the usual consumer stuff. You check in where you go. This pops up on the jeweler's radar, and they're building a social profile of your consumer preferences. Guess what? They have a cross marketing deal with the wedding dress shop. You're in the wedding dress shop when you get a ping from the jeweler: “Hey Jackie, hope you and your fiancee are still loving our rings. We see you're getting closer to the Big Day and we want to make it easy for you. If you drop by our store after you're finished at the wedding shop, we'll look at some great wedding rings tied to your dress design, size them, reserve them AND offer you buy one, get the other half price.”
You can start to see just how customer retention and loyalty would work…
It was like they were asking me to please be a customer whenever I get a divorce and need another engagement ring. Thanks for the well wishes, right?
It is frustrating when business will only try to fix something when it's “their fault” (and let's be honest, to them, it never is their fault). As your example shows, if you can go out of your way to fix a problem, then you sure as heck are going to leave there with an experience you'll want to share. Great example and thanks for commenting, Abby!
Woah woah woah, Danny, now let's not get carried away
In all seriousness though you just outlined a perfect example of how social tools can fit into a small business's customer follow-up strategy. Since I geek out about social stuff like that, the simple fact that they asked me to friend them on Foursquare would probably sell me on buying most of my future purchases from their store, but the rest would make sure I'd go out and tell my friends.
Thanks for commenting and providing a great, in depth example.
Okay sir, I shall “curb” my enthusiasm (yes, lame attempt at blog pun)
Agreed though – how about not assuming what and when your customer will want something, but actually ask and use their personalities as your business touchpoints?
Haha, hey I'm all for some cheesy puns!
I find that one of the most effective methods for encouraging customer retention at my company has been to make Quality Assurance Calls post-sale. We have multiple product categories, so a follow-up call gives us the opportunity to
1) make sure the customers' interactions with our employees is/was positive and train, praise or manage our team responsively.
2) show the customer that we care about the level of service we provide…we don't just take the money and run.
3) make sure that they know about our other products and services.
It's easy for me to get excited about Danny's ideas but I think it's important to remember that sometimes you can KISS (keep it simple, stupid) and still get results.
Ohh…I don't think I should tell you the word I inserted above…;)
Sounds like you picked a pretty good word to insert above!
You're right, a lot of times a simple solution is all you need to do to get results (like putting a catalog for wedding bands in the bag or, in your case, making a simple phone call). Do you notice a lot of repeat customers as a result of these follow-up calls? I guess when I think of someone giving me a follow-up call, I usually want to hang up
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Beth!
Yeah, the catalog is what got me thinking about it:)
We hear enough “Oh! I really meant to call you guys! Joe McGuire just did such a good job on our fireplace service…” to make it worth it. That, and “oh, you guys do appliances, too? You know, I have a dishwasher that's on it's last leg…”
We have kept it so simple with the calls, too. I've told my team that the priorities are to communicate atta boys, tie up any loose ends, do what you've got to do to make a (reasonable) customer happy and make sure they know about our other products/services. Not much time there to wish for a hang-up, honestly. We get a lot of voicemails, too. We leave a message so they know we care and a direct line number to call back if they need something resolved.
Thanks for writing a post worth commenting on, Jackie!
Yeah, the catalog is what got me thinking about it:)
We hear enough “Oh! I really meant to call you guys! Joe McGuire just did such a good job on our fireplace service…” to make it worth it. That, and “oh, you guys do appliances, too? You know, I have a dishwasher that's on it's last leg…”
We have kept it so simple with the calls, too. I've told my team that the priorities are to communicate atta boys, tie up any loose ends, do what you've got to do to make a (reasonable) customer happy and make sure they know about our other products/services. Not much time there to wish for a hang-up, honestly. We get a lot of voicemails, too. We leave a message so they know we care and a direct line number to call back if they need something resolved.
Thanks for writing a post worth commenting on, Jackie!
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