This document discusses strategies for increasing customer loyalty and retention. It emphasizes the importance of making customers feel valued through personal attention to their needs and feedback. Specific recommendations include regularly checking in with customers, addressing complaints respectfully, finding ways to surprise and delight customers with unexpected gestures, and strengthening relationships to prevent losses to competitors. The overall message is that customers will remain loyal when they feel a company genuinely cares about providing an exceptional experience.
2. Vice President of Marketing
PagePath Technologies, Inc.
866-770-7569
JKern@PagePath.com
JOE KERN
3. These days it doesn’t
take much for a
customer to start
looking elsewhere.
Now is the time to reach
out and start solidifying
relationships with
clients.
4. Build a level of
comfort so strong
that customers will
NEVER
consider
leaving
you
5. Stop the exodus
• The #1 reason buyers bail
• Find out what your customers really think
• Stop losing accounts to competition
6. When bad things happen
• Why your customers leave
• How to spot a toxic customer
• Handling customer complaints
7. Shore up the walls
• Build reputation and credibility
• Create an exceptional customer experience
• Unexpected Gestures
8. Stop the exodus
The #1 reason buyers bail
Do you know
the main reason
people stop
doing business
with print
suppliers?
9. Stop the exodus
The #1 reason buyers bail
Studies show that
68% of customers
leave simply because
they feel they are
being treated
indifferently.
10. Stop the exodus
The #1 reason buyers bail
• Retention isn’t just
about preventing
bad experiences
• Retention is about
creating positives
11. Stop the exodus
The #1 reason buyers bail
• Understand their business
• Care about their bottom line
• Pay attention
• Believe the relationship is more important than
an order or two
How to create the positive:
12. Find out what your customers
really think
Meet face to face
with your clients
quarterly
13. Find out what your customers
really think
Send them a short
questionnaire
first. Give them
time to prepare.
14. Find out what your customers
really think
• Are your phone calls (or e-mails) returned
quickly enough?
• Are questions answered to your
satisfaction, the first time?
• Are there any expectations that we haven't
met?
• Would you recommend us to a friend,
colleague, or business associate?
15. Find out what your customers
really think
• We want to provide you with the best
service you've ever had. Are we currently
providing that?
• Is there one thing you feel that we do
especially well?
• What else could we be doing to solve your
problems or meet your needs?
16. Stop losing accounts to
competition
As the economy struggles
along, many sellers are focused
on hunting for new business -
which often translates into
taking advantage of
competitors who have made
mistakes or become
complacent.
17. Stop losing accounts to
competition
Protecting current accounts from competitors - and
building stronger relationships with them - is critically
important. Here are three strategic moves you can
make to keep your best customers:
18. Stop losing accounts to
competition
• Free up resources
• Analyze current accounts
• Know who are the best
customers
• Objective is to decide
which accounts get most
attention
19. Stop losing accounts to
competition
• Free up resources
• What's the revenue versus
cost?
• Where are the best growth
opportunities?
• Which "at-risk" customers
can result in more sales?
20. Stop losing accounts to
competition
• Strengthen your
relationships
• Provide high-quality support
and extra-effort service.
• Stay "in the loop" on new
initiatives
• Expand your network of
contacts in the client
organization
21. Stop losing accounts to
competition
• Build a solid track
record
• Hit these 4 targets
consistently
• (1) price
• (2) specifications
• (3) delivery
• (4) availability
22. When bad things happen
• Why your customers leave
• How to spot a toxic customer
• Handling customer complaints
23. Why your customers leave
The most dangerous assumption a
salesperson can make is to act as if a
customer is satisfied
24. Why your customers leave
A survey entitled, "Why customers quit"
revealed the following:
• 3% simply move
• 6% develop other relationships
• 9% leave for competitive reasons
• 14% are dissatisfied with the product or service
• 68% leave because of an attitude of indifference
toward the customer by the owner, salesperson or
other employee.
25. Why your customers leave
The survey also found:
• The average business spends six times as much to
attract new customers as to keep old ones.
• Seven of 10 complaining customers will do
business with you again if you resolve the
complaint in their favor. Resolve it on the spot
and 95% will do business with you again.
• A satisfied complainer will tell five people about
the problem and how well you resolved it.
26. Why your customers leave
The survey also found:
• A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to
10 people about the problem.
• It takes 12 positive service incidents to make up
for one negative incident.
27. Why your customers leave
You'll keep more
customers if you
really understand
where their heads
are at, and why
they might want to
switch.
28. How to spot a toxic customer
There are ways to
get the advance
warning, when you
ask the right kind
of questions up
front.
Wouldn’t life be simpler if we got key clues
before taking on toxic customers?
29. How to spot a toxic customer
Here are some
questions you can
ask a prospect or
customer to find out
whether you are
dealing with an evil
villain
30. How to spot a toxic customer
1. Tell me about why you are
considering a new printer?
2. How would your other
suppliers/vendors describe your
company as a customer?
3. What are the most frequent
requests you make of your
current printer that frustrate
you?
31. How to spot a toxic customer
Consider the answers
carefully, and remember
that toxic customers can
drain away profit
margins and steal time
you could use to get
better customers.
32. Handling customer complaints
Research shows customers who have never
had a complaint are not as loyal as customers
who have had a problem that was
successfully resolved
36. Shore up the walls
• Build reputation and credibility
• Create an exceptional customer experience
• Unexpected Gestures
37. Build reputation and credibility
One of the keys to
maintaining a
thriving printing
and marketing
business is a steady
customer base.
38. Build reputation and credibility
A successful
company typically
sees 80% of its
business come from
20% of its
customers
39. Build reputation and credibility
Here are
4 Steps
to building
a credible
reputation with
your clients
40. Build reputation and credibility
Focus on serving
• Unbreakable customer loyalty can
develop.
• Satisfied buyers remain loyal
• Satisfied buyers tell others about their
first class treatment.
• Nothing builds a reputation faster and
more effectively than word of mouth.
41. Build reputation and credibility
Specialize
• Concentrating your efforts in a single
niche allows you to maximize your
expertise, credibility, and reputation.
• Customers today have big challenges,
and they want proven solutions from
experts, not generalists.
42. Build reputation and credibility
Become unique
• A unique identity can be accomplished in
many ways. Everything from brand
awareness, trademark clothing, follow-up
techniques, and personal marketing
methods can help you appear unique in
your buyers' eyes.
43. Build reputation and credibility
Market your personal reputation
• Corporate reputation matters, your personal
reputation matters more.
• People buy from people.
• There are countless ways to get yourself known,
including e-mail promotions, newsletters,
association involvement, public speaking, and
writing articles.
• These creative strategies help form your
reputation as someone customers know and
trust.
44. Create an exceptional
customer experience
What makes some people
willing to pay $5 for a
cup of coffee when they
can get one across the
street for 85 cents?
45. Create an exceptional
customer experience
Passionate customer
loyalty isn't just about
features, benefits and
price. It's about the
customer's experience.
46. Create an exceptional
customer experience
Research has identified
Five Key Principles that
you can use to create
exceptional experiences
for your own customers.
47. Create an exceptional
customer experience
Reduce uncertainty
Consistency soothes
the soul.
Inconsistency creates
anxiety, even when
service is otherwise
pretty good.
48. Create an exceptional
customer experience
Be real, be clear
Be upfront about your
objectives. Loyalty is
built on trust, and we
trust one another
when we see that
motives are genuine.
49. Create an exceptional
customer experience
Share the passion
Exceptional
companies rightly
focus on the buyer's
personal experience.
They want each
customer to feel
they're the most
important person in
the world.
50. Create an exceptional
customer experience
Engage their curiosity
The compulsion to
learn is hard-wired
into our DNA. When
you can create
"teachable moments,"
you strike a deep
chord.
51. Create an exceptional
customer experience
Find a unique appeal
Look for something
unique that calls
attention to the
customer's experience,
identifies it as unusual
and leaves a positive
emotional afterglow.
52. Unexpected Gestures
Only your
imagination limits the
ways you can surprise
your customers by
giving them more
than they expect.
But when was the last time you sat down and thought,
"What unexpected gesture could I make today that
would really cement the bond I have with my
customers and prospects?"
53. Unexpected Gestures
Here's a collection of real
examples where
companies took low-cost
measures to make sure no
customer would find them
"indifferent.“ Perhaps
they'll inspire you to find
ways to show your
customers you care
54. Unexpected Gestures
Lots of hospitals give new mothers flowers or
a basket of goodies when they check out with
the baby. But a hospital in Florida came up
with twist on that idea. It sends flowers one
month after the mother gets home. Just at the
point where reality has set in, a bouquet of
flowers really brightens up an otherwise
trying day.
55. Unexpected Gestures
A restaurant owner learned from his staff that
over-40 patrons often had trouble reading the
menu. Seems they forgot their glasses. Today,
every waiter carries a cheap pair of magnified
reading glasses. Patrons are delighted beyond
words when, after squinting to read blurred
type in dim light, they can read the menu
perfectly with a set of borrowed glasses.
56. Unexpected Gestures
A business supply and check imprinting
company reached out to a community
devastated by tornados and offered to
replace, for free, any product that was
destroyed in the storms that they supplied to
their customers. They also extend the offer
for up to 6 months since businesses impacted
may not have their office supplies on their
mind initially.
