The Marketing Blender

Missing the Low Hanging Fruit in Customer Loyalty

I recently leased a new Saturn Aura, and yesterday it was due for its first oil change. I had never before leased a car and have never owned a Saturn before this one. So this was the first time I'd ever been in for service at my local Saturn dealer.

The experience was decidely mediocre.

In a classic case of missing the low hanging fruit when it comes to generating customer loyalty, I was processed much like someone at the deli counter in the grocery store. The folks working behind the service counter didn't seem too interested in me being there, and I actually can't recall them saying much more than a word or two to me the entire time I was there.

What a missed opportunity. Here I was, a freshly minted customer still enjoying driving around in my new car. And when I show up for my first service experience at the dealership that sold me the car (and could sell me others in the future), the experience is brutally ordinary.

Here's what I propose. When a new customer brings their car in for service for the first time at a dealership, a message pops up on the screen for the service rep that reads as follows:

“The person standing in front of you is a new customer. The next 5 minutes are critical to giving them a reason to come back here for service again and again, and maybe buy their next car here. Right now, their relationship with us is entirely in your hands. Make a difference to this customer in the next 5 minutes.”

Evidently, they didn't have that little pop-up at Saturn.

Selling More to your Existing Customers

One of the golden rules of marketing is that increasing sales among existing customers is more profitable and more likely to be successful than pitching to the mass market.

But you have to know your customer first, and know how much they might be willing to buy. Otherwise you risk making them a lousy offer.

Case in point - last April I went online and bought two tickets to a Jays game. This was probably the first time I'd ever ordered baseball tickets online for a game.

   

About a week after the game, I received a call from a friendly Blue Jays telephone sales rep, who left me a voice mail about a special offer. Evidently they had my name from the original credit card purchase and were prospecting their list, like any good marketer would.

I was intrigued. I wondered if I would be able to get a discount on a future game, or possibly better seats for the same price. It was early in the season after all, and there will still plenty of unsold tickets for those April and May games.

Here's the offer I got when I called back – buy tickets for 10 additional games and get a small discount on the face value of the tickets.

Were they serious?

There was so much wrong with this offer:

• As a one time customer, was I really going to commit to 10 additional games at two tickets per game? They were asking me to go from spending $100 to spending $1,000. That's a massive jump.

• The discount was very modest and the offer was available on their website – I'd hardly call it an “offer”, and it certainly wasn't exclusive.

• There was no alternate offer available. Once the rep knew I wasn't going to commit to 10 games, there should have been an alternate 2 or 3 game offer available. Instead they went with an all or nothing offer – either the guy buys 10 times what he originally bought, or he buys nothing.

Your existing customers are more likely to be interested in buying more of whatever it is you are selling. But getting them to buy more is like climbing a ladder. It is next to impossible to do unless you take one step at a time.

When making offers to your existing customers (especially new ones), consider what the next logical step would be in their relationships with you, and make them a good offer to take that step.

I would have gladly taken the next step and committed to one more Jays game, maybe 2 in response to a good offer.

Not 10.