Myth #7: Marketing Is Easier With A Clean Slate
Ever feel like some companies would prefer to get rid of all those darn customers? How often do you walk out of a store or office feeling like you’ve been bothering the people who work there, just by trying to do business with them? When was the last time you hung up the telephone and wondered why you’d even taken the time to explain your situation to the “customer service” person on the other end-since all they seem able to do is parrot back the company line rather than offer any real help?
Sometimes it just feels like customers are an inconvenience for businesses. Once they’ve sold the product or service, many companies no longer have an interest in taking the time to cultivate the relationship or even bother to support the products already purchased. Some companies seem to even go out of their way to make it as difficult as possible for you to interact with them post purchase-making you pay support charges to even talk to customer service or offering only non-toll free long distance phone numbers with limited hours and extremely long wait queues.
You’ve probably heard that it’s much less effort and expense to market to your existing customers. That’s true. But don’t just market new offerings to the same installed base — make sure you show them what you’re willing to do to go out of the way to take care of them because they are your customers. Imagine how you can differentiate yourself by becoming the kind of business that welcomes the opportunity to interact with and help customers. Then, after you do this, be sure to tell the world not only is taking care of customers properly the right way to keep your existing customers, telling people about it is the right way to attract new prospects and turn them into loyal customers too.
Make your attention to and concern for customers a competitive differentiator.
