Tips To Increase Sales From Existing Customers

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by Megan Tough
For many of us - especially those in service businesses - our existing and previous customers are vital for
three reasons:
1. They have already bought from us, so providing they had a good experience, they might buy from us
again. We also know that getting a new customer is much more expensive than selling to an existing
customer, so by continuing to sell to them, we are really saving ourselves some money.
. They can give us invaluable feedback on how we did. Was our service good enough? Did we delight
them or were we 'just ok'. Did our product meet their expectations? Was it good value for money? And so
on.
3. They continue to save us money because they should be our major source of referrals and new
business. So through them, we get access to new clients who already know about us and have a positive
opinion of what we do.
Most clients I meet are not leveraging their existing customer database, and by not doing so, are losing
out on a cost effective source of potential new business. Many receive referrals - for which they are
grateful - but it's not because they actively sought the referral, or had a strategy in place to ask for it.
Here are 8 ways to maximize the value from your most valuable asset:
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Anyone with half a brain can satisfy a customer. But only when you continually delight customers will they
keep coming back. You should aim to exceed your customers expectations on every interaction that they
have with you. Do this consistently, and you will have a customer for life.
For example, you think your loyal client could benefit from reading a section of your ebook or an article
you've written? Surprise them and make it a gift. Sure, you could say, "I'll give you a fifty percent
discount." Forego the money. Give your client a reason to stick around and spend a thousand dollars
instead.
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"We are entering an era where one size no longer fits all-or even a few. We are entering an era where
one size fits one. It is highly personalized, customer-centric, customer-driven." (From One Size Fits One:
Building Relationships One Customer and One Employee at a Time).
Known variously as customer relationship management (CRM) and one-to-one marketing, personalization
is being practiced by businesses large and small across all sectors of the economy. The message here is
simple: you want to lavish personal attention on customers who are going to reciprocate by being
consistently good purchasers of your product or service.
Give these customers an incentive to share information about themselves that you can use when you
contact them next. The more your customers feel as though you are treating them individually, the more
likely they are to continue their relationship with you.
º

A guarantee is a powerful tool for keeping your customers when they might otherwise go elsewhere. With
a good guarantee, you tell your customers where and how to complain, and that complaining is worth
their time and effort. It also shows that you care. A good guarantee is unconditional, easy to understand,
meaningful, easy to invoke and easy to collect on.

If you don't know what your customer thinks about you, your business, your product and your services,
then you might as well close shop.
People will endorse your business not because they think it looks good, but because they know it is good.
If they have problems with your services, customers are the best source of objective advice on how to
make improvements. So have a process in place where you regularly ask them for feedback. And once
they've given it to you, let them know how you are going to use it. They will begin to feel involved in your
business, and are more likely to send other people your way.
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Loyalty marketing programs are designed to engender loyalty and increase sales from your best
customers. When properly designed and executed flawlessly, loyalty programs provide a vital link
between your business and your customers, improving customer satisfaction and increasing sales. Here
are some commonly used ideas for creating your own loyalty program:
preferable rates for loyal customers

provide bonus product or service if they have bought before
programs that promote multiple purchases (buy 3 and get the 4th free)
Points program - each purchase is worth points. When they amass a certain number of points
they get a reward of some kind
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Keeping in touch with your customers is about maintaining relationships. Customers are most likely to
keep buying from you if you have a strong relationship - if they trust you and your product/service. Your
keep in touch strategy should consider:
the best way to stay in contact (email, telephone, hardcopy newsletter etc)
frequency (monthly, quarterly event-based), and
what to talk about (what your company is doing, industry information, tips and hints, useful
resources etc)
A Keep in Touch program is not the place for a hard sell. Keep it information based, concise and
interesting
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Be very clear about who you want as a referral and why. The quality of referrals you receive depends on
how well your customers understand what you are looking for. The best way to do this is to write it down
for them, or discuss it in some detail - don't assume they already know. At the conclusion of every sale,
ask them if they know of any other people who would be interested in your service.
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Finding a way to thank your customers for referrals lets them know that you value them for their efforts. It
makes them feel recognized, and it reinforces the behavior so they consider referring to you again. A
thank you can be as simple as a hand written card, sent through the mail, to a set of movie tickets, a
voucher, or even just a phone call.
There are so many ways that we can go one step further with the people who already buy from us. Make
this a focus of your marketing efforts and you will soon see the rewards come back in the form of
increased referrals and increased sales.
Megan Tough, MBA, Qualified Coach

Director Complete Potential
www.completepotential.com

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2ustomer Retention Tips for 2ablevision

By Michelle Amodio
TMCnet Associate Editor
Nothing says thank you to loyal customers like sending them a bill that is almost twice the amount of what you normally charge
them. I bet customers love it, in fact, especially when the holidays also bring an unsurpassed amount of credit card balances.
Cablevision certainly wished me a Happy Holidays this year. Among the spread of cards of good wishes and happy tidings, there
was my standard bill, addressed to me in the same envelope as usual. I read the cards from cousin Gary, cousin Dan, Aunt Gladys
and baby Regina (who looked mighty cute in her Mrs. Claus outfit) and then my bill from Cablevision. The thoughts of sugarplums,
joy and peace were quickly dissolved by the sheer shock of what Cablevision had inadvertently charged me. Surely, it was a
mistake. There was no way that my bill should have been over a hundred dollars more than usual, right? I mean, I¶ve been good to
Cablevision. My bills had been paid on time every month. Clearly, some deviant elf had gotten lost on his way to the North Pole,
broke into my house and charged thirteen on-demand adult movies to my account. That must be it.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West,
October 4-6, 1 . Los Angeles, CA.

I called Cablevision to explain my theory about the elf and the adult movies, but the customer service representative quickly pointed
out that I was given a promotional rate and that my new bill reflected a partial month charge for a brand new rate combined with an
entire month of said new rate. However, what the representative forgot to mention was the exact new rate for which I was being
charged. So I asked the representative what exactly this new rate for my subscription to voice, video and data would be and what I
was told literally had me falling off the chair. It was a significant difference from what I had already been paying ± almost double.
So I asked, then, why was I given a promotional rate for just one year? It hardly made sense to me that a company who had
obviously had my trust and loyalty for a substantial amount of time would do such an odious thing like change my rates on the fly
with no advance notice. I was then told that it was explained to me a year ago that the rates I had been receiving were, in fact,
promotional and that there would be a time ± and I quote the representative exactly, here - when all good things would come to an
end.
Correct me if I am wrong, but if you are clever enough to capture a new customer by offering a ³good thing,´ then why should it ever
have to come to an end? Does customer retention not mean anything to Cablevision?
I explained to the representative that I was not told of this promotional rate and if it was in any of my bills, it was not blatantly
obvious. I culled through my previous statements looking for the fine print below my balances. Something along the lines of ³the
current charges are a promotional rate and will end on 11// 6.´ But this was no where to be found. I was not aware of my rates
changing and I wasn¶t expecting a brand new, overly priced bill just in time for the holidays.
Customers are at the mercy of cable companies and the sad part is, many of these cable are the sole provider for certain areas, so
if you live in say, the North Pole and the provider of the North Pole for voice, video and data is none other than Cablevision, your
options of selecting a provider are pretty much non-existent. In this era of ³always on, always connected´ customers don¶t really
have a choice to go without communication services, especially if they have a job that requires after-hours access. Perhaps cable
companies are aware of this fact and expect their customers to just deal with it, suck it up and pay their expired promotional rates.
The fact of the matter is, it¶s a supply-demand world and when the need of a communications provider is in demand, the service
providers have the final say on their prices.
So, in a nutshell, I am pretty much stuck in a situation that I cannot change. I don¶t have the option to go to a competitor offering a
better price because, as unfortunate as this is, my area does not have another provider for me to run to. And no matter how much
hemming and hawing I did on the phone, the new rate was the new rate and there was no way I was able to change this. Shame on
you, Cablevision. Is this how you repay me for being a loyal customer? Because I think it¶s pretty nasty that my neighbor down the
street just signed up for your services (that I initially thought were pretty nifty, and told my neighbor so) and he gets a better rate
because he¶s new? He hasn¶t even proven himself yet as a customer and somehow, you¶re going to treat him better than me?
Thank you Cablevision, I really appreciate that.
Because of this quite awful experience, I am reminded of what so many of my colleagues have been reporting on all of this time ±
customer service, customer retention, customer churn and how all of these components can affect customer loyalty. We¶re not just
writing these columns for our sacred health. There is a lesson to be learned in these columns and maybe it¶s time to review some of
these customer service practices.
Let¶s take a look at some of the best advice published throughout the years on TMCnet and 2 tomer Interaction Sol tion
magazine that Cablevision has obviously overlooked.
1) Customer Churn: Do You Measure?
Rosanne D¶Ausilio, a call center training consultant and contributor to TMCnet writes in her article from January 6 that a 5%
increae in loyalty can lead to 25-85% increae in profitability. What does this mean? Keeping your rates low so that your good
customers have a reason to stay.
Cablevision, it¶s better to keep your current customers a well a win new ones, because if you find yourself in a vicious cycle of
constantly losing and constantly gaining, you¶re only maintaining your business, not necessarily growing it. What¶s the point of
having a business if you can¶t generate revenue? Or better yet, if you can¶t keep your customers?
) Broken Link In The Customer Service Chain
Tracey Schelmetic puts it so eloquently in her August 6 article that I¶ll just repeat it here: it i a piece of mall b t vital information
that i either not provided or i provided incorrectly to the c tomer«and yo r long-term happy relationhip with that c tomer i
damaged in nanoecond.
Because Cablevision neglected to remind me or inform me in advance that the price for their services was about to change, my faith
in them was pretty much ruined. Perhaps, Cablevision, you shouldn¶t rely so much on the fine print, but rather thoroughly explain
when services are about to change in any way, shape or form and yes, that does include change in price for services.
3) Want Loyal Customers? Don't Stop at Satisfaction

In the February issue of 2 tomer Interaction Sol tion magazine, Todd Beck of AchieveGlobal offers some wonderful insight
when it comes to customer relationship management.
Consider this, Cablevision: Beck writes that it cot an average of five time more to win a new c tomer than it doe to retain an
exiting one. While I understand the value of capturing new customers to build a better business, the statistics show that it actually
costs less to keep the customers you have. So, if you¶re in this to make money, perhaps Cablevision needs to look inwards to their
current subscriber base and see how their offerings and rates will keep them subscribing for years to come.
Beck also writes that leader m t commit to delivering the type of c tomer ervice that exceed expectation and inpire
c tomer to contin e doing b ine with the organization. I highly doubt that charging your loyal customers more after having
acquired their trust diligently follows this valuable piece of advice. Perhaps this should be Cablevision¶s mantra.
4) Customer Loyalty: An Unscientific Experiment
What Tracey Schelmetic wrote in certainly pertains to what happened to me now in 6. Schelmetic makes an interesting
distinction between an insurance company (in this case, Geico) and cable companies. The difference? Customers actually have a
choice when it comes to switching insurance providers. With cable companies, the options are limited. Schelmetic writes cable
c tomer are more or le t ck in the groove of a monopoly, en ring c tomer loyalty thro gh defa lt. Is that how companies
want to be revered? Loyalty because there is no other option? It¶s like marrying Mr. Wrong because every other Mr. Right is already
taken. I doubt your customers are willing to settle, so why are you not giving them more options?
So, Cablevision, the lesson to be learned from this editorial is before yo can fix yo r c tomer relationhip, yo ho ld know
where yo c rrently tand.
) 8 Steps For: Taking Customer Loyalty To The Next Level
As the last bullet point of this piece, I present to you Nadji Tehrani¶s Publisher¶s Outlook from the August 4 issue of 2 tomer
Interaction Sol tion magazine. Why? Because it has some good information in regards to customer loyalty and if you¶ve read the
article this far, then clearly the thesis statement here is, well, customer loyalty. Tehrani states that customer loyalty is essential to
every business because without it, there is no business. Tehrani has some principals that will certainly help you, Cablevision, in
ensuring that you are, in fact, retaining your loyal customers: keep in touch, build the relationship, nurture the relationship and
manage customers¶ expectations.
But, for the sake of this piece, one point stands out (in my humble opinion) among the rest: R

If you¶re willing to offer a competitive rate that sets you a part from the competition, don¶t go ahead and change your rates because
you¶ve already won the hearts of your customers. That¶s not a practice that will keep them happy, paying customers. Listen to what
they¶re saying. Reward your customers for sticking it out, even with some of your outages, latency and connectivity issues. Say
thanks for paying the bills on time. And above all, save them some pennies.
For those of us already subscribing, give us a reason to stay and yes, that means keeping our rates that we initially signed up for.

6 Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

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To make sense of market intelligence and data - start by accepting that the main purpose of market
intelligence is to guide resource allocation to maximize sales.
Visit the Small Business Guide to Market Research for information on how to conduct research on your
customers and your competition and use market data in your sales and marketing plan.
Get more small business marketing here.
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Tips To Increase Sales From Existing Customers

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preferable rates for loyal customers

Megan Tough, MBA, Qualified Coach

customer

ct with integrity:

ºre-empt your customers:

ncourage customer for buying more .*%-%./

0hare the forecast with buyer .*%(%

2. Develop a ³save´ strategy.

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6. Make your company easy to find.&

2ustomer Retention Tips for 2ablevision

1) Customer Churn: Do You Measure?

) Broken Link In The Customer Service Chain

3) Want Loyal Customers? Don't Stop at Satisfaction

4) Customer Loyalty: An Unscientific Experiment

) 8 Steps For: Taking Customer Loyalty To The Next Level

& ½ " '

Get more small business marketing here.

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Tips To Increase Sales From Existing Customers

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preferable rates for loyal customers

Megan Tough, MBA, Qualified Coach

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1) Customer Churn: Do You Measure?

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4) Customer Loyalty: An Unscientific Experiment

) 8 Steps For: Taking Customer Loyalty To The Next Level

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