Friday, February 24, 2006
Coddle Your Biggest Customers, With Others’ Goodies
I was an avid customer of a restaurant and two stores (I’ll leave
unnamed) in my small town of Sausalito.
Brought friends.
Enjoyed what I bought.
Told others.
Gradually that warm feeling has faded away. One reason is that, unlike Suzy's Hallmark in Sugar Land, Texas, they did nothing special for their biggest customers. Read J.C. Patrick’s story on December 1st in Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s excellent blog, http://www.churchofthecustomer.com Church of the Customer.
To my continuing surprise, very few business owners recognize the value of rewarding their most lucrative customers. Better yet, Suzie could have reduced the cost of providing her reward - and been introduced to other big spending, prospective customers by businesses they already know and like.
Here’s how. Throughout the year, she could have asked her customers, “What are two or three of your other favorite nearby businesses?”
Then she could approach the owner of one of the businesses most frequently-mentioned to suggest they create comparably-valued gift packages for each other’s top customers.
Suzy could give her “Top Ten Percent” (biggest spenders) a special “thank you” gift card that they can take to her partnering business to receive their gift bag of free goodies. That business reciprocates, sending the cream of their customer crop to Suzy’s shop to pick up their gift bag of her products and get introduced to her business.
Now that’s smart partnering (http://sayitbetter.com/grandstore/SP_1.html).
Over time Suzy and her partner might recruit two or three other businesses so they can offer more gifts to their biggest customers (provided by partners), promote that benefit to encourage more spending – and reduce their cost of acquiring and keep customers while increasing their profits.
unnamed) in my small town of Sausalito.
Brought friends.
Enjoyed what I bought.
Told others.
Gradually that warm feeling has faded away. One reason is that, unlike Suzy's Hallmark in Sugar Land, Texas, they did nothing special for their biggest customers. Read J.C. Patrick’s story on December 1st in Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s excellent blog, http://www.churchofthecustomer.com Church of the Customer.
To my continuing surprise, very few business owners recognize the value of rewarding their most lucrative customers. Better yet, Suzie could have reduced the cost of providing her reward - and been introduced to other big spending, prospective customers by businesses they already know and like.
Here’s how. Throughout the year, she could have asked her customers, “What are two or three of your other favorite nearby businesses?”
Then she could approach the owner of one of the businesses most frequently-mentioned to suggest they create comparably-valued gift packages for each other’s top customers.
Suzy could give her “Top Ten Percent” (biggest spenders) a special “thank you” gift card that they can take to her partnering business to receive their gift bag of free goodies. That business reciprocates, sending the cream of their customer crop to Suzy’s shop to pick up their gift bag of her products and get introduced to her business.
Now that’s smart partnering (http://sayitbetter.com/grandstore/SP_1.html).
Over time Suzy and her partner might recruit two or three other businesses so they can offer more gifts to their biggest customers (provided by partners), promote that benefit to encourage more spending – and reduce their cost of acquiring and keep customers while increasing their profits.
