| How Much is Failing To Communicate Regularly With
Your Existing Customers Costing You?
If you are an established business, how much time, resources and
energy do you spend on marketing to:
- new prospects in your total market? .......%
- marketing to ideal prospects who are not yet customers?
......%
- to existing customers?......%
StreetSmart Marketers have numbers that look like: 10% of their
time and energy to the total market, 30% to ideal prospects and
60% to their existing customers.
If your numbers aren't in these approximate ratios what is this
costing you, in lost customers and in lost business that your current
customers could be giving you?
Only if you are a new business might you be justified in spending
less time with existing customers and more time on new prospects,
but be careful to ensure you never ever neglect your existing customers
even from day one.
The most expensive thing for any business is acquiring new customers.
We know that it costs anywhere between 6 and 10 times as much to
acquire a new customer, as it does to keep an old one. StreetSmart
Marketers know that the number one reason for customer defection
is not poor service or product quality, but because customers feel
unappreciated or worse still taken for granted. They avoid this
by regularly staying in touch and communicating with their customers.
They make it a point to call or contact their clients a minimum
of at least once every 6 weeks.
Your customer database is one of your most valuable assets, depending
on the size and age of your firm, it has cost thousands or even
millions to create it. So StreetSmart Marketers make sure they make
the necessary investments in protecting this vital asset. They make
sure they have enough information so they can make their communications
personal. So, for example, instead of sending out Christmas Cards
with just their signature where they get lost in the clutter, they
might send birthday cards with a personal greeting, or send a Thanksgiving
card with a mention of something about the individual's family or
they might even send an Easter Egg with a personal wish. These things
cost very little and they can make them stand out from the crowd!
In today's market you must differentiate or slowly die. StreetSmart
Marketers know the choice is theirs.
|