Whites Of Their Eyes

Old-fashioned ideas revisited for best customer loyalty

A businessman who owns three restaurants sat down recently and hand-wrote a postcard to everyone on his customer list, inviting them to join his rewards programme. He had a 20% sign-up rate from that mailing alone, according to customer retention expert Michael Kaselnak.

By contrast, during the previous six months, the same restaurateur has sent out two other postcard-based mailings that were printed (rather than hand-written) and had seen a response rate of only 5%. mkaselnak This article is copyright 2007 TheWiseMarketer.com).

The rare personal touch
According to Kaselnak, receiving a genuinely hand-written note is such an unusual, novel, or even exciting event for today’s consumer that it completely eclipses all other marketing messages it happens to be competing with when it arrives.

Kaselnak told The Wise Marketer: “There is no magic pill for attracting and retaining clients. It takes work, and it’s a job that many businesses today still fail to invest in. Nobody spends time writing personalised handwritten notes or making personal phone calls – it takes too long. Most say it’s quicker, easier, and cheaper to just send an email. But when you’re trying to create loyalty and increase customer retention, easier is not always better.”

The extra mile
The things that catch Kaselnak’s eye about any service provider is not the easy things they do – the hygiene factors like good service and reliable products or services – but the things they do that he perceives as “going the extra mile”: Going out of their way to do something extra for him.

Kaselnak’s favorite example of the conversion of an at-risk customer who was likely to defect into a loyal advocate comes from his own experience: “After successive price increases and poor service from my local cable service, I had come to detest them. I would have sworn my prejudice was so ingrained it would be impossible for them to overcome. Yet, I melted with just one personal gesture on their part. My cable box died, and the company sent someone over two days later and replaced the box. So far so good, but the next day I got a handwritten note from the cable repairman, thanking me for being a customer.”

Six notes to change minds
As a result, Kaselnak suggests that any retailer, customer account manager, or business owner can help turn customers into advocates by writing notes, start with six loyalty-winners:

1.  Always have a stack of Thank You notes ready on your desk
Write at least one a day for anything or anyone that takes your fancy. Just get it written and in the mail. Even if they’re not a client (yet) – you would be surprised how writing a thank you note can sometimes work its way back to you in very strange and positive ways.

2.  To promote your latest idea, send some personal invitations
Send out a handful of notes asking people to lunch or breakfast to run an idea by them. Ten of these a month is a good number to start with.

3.  Birthday and holiday cards
Don’t send a pre-printed one, or a card with just a signature. Most people will ignore them (at best) or even take them as an impersonal slap in the face (at worst). Take the time to write a brief message, and then sign it personally. Press hard with the pen so they can see it’s hand-written – you’d be amazed how many people actually check the back of the paper or card.

4.  Attach a note to an article of interest
Nothing makes a person feel more important than when you send an article to them about an interest of theirs with a personal note attached. People like to work with other people that take an interest, and do extra little things like this.

5.  Send a “haven’t seen you in a while” note
Sending a note to check in with someone can result in business you never dreamed of. A lot of people have problems to solve, and the company offering the solution that presents itself at the right time is often the most likely to get the business.

6.  Send something to make people smile
A joke, a funny news story, or personal anecdote can change your whole relationship to that of a friend rather than just being a supplier or an acquaintance – and that’s a much stronger foundation for lasting loyalty. But one word of warning: don’t send too many – and don’t send your clients religious-themed notes, as business and religion seldom mix well.

Writing a note is one of the simplest, easiest and most cost-effective ways to build loyalty and retain your most important clients – even if it’s only your top 500 clients segmented from the whole database. The handwritten note is arguably the most under-used marketing tool in business today.

Source: http://www.thewisemarketer.com

Handwritten thank you notes tell people you have style and grace. You can simplify the thank you process by using this step-by-step method:

1. Always have a box of thank you cards open and ready in your desk drawer
2. Always have stamps on hand
3. Come up with a list of reasons to thank people: A client’s CPA for speaking with you, a closed sale, a prospect meeting with you, a general thinking of you thanks for your continued trust, a thank you for a referral…etc.
4. Commit to writing just 3 cards everyday, first thing in the morning. NO EXCEPTIONS! If you don’t write them first thing you will put it off until tomorrow.  It doesn’t matter to who or why, just do it!

After just one year you will have written over 750 personal thank you cards.  If you don’t think that will generate a ton of business for you, you had better have another idea to replace it.  This does work.  If only 1/2 of 1% generate a sale, that is still 3 or 4 sales a year.  Not bad for such a small marketing system.

So many advisers are constantly looking for new leads when what they should be chasing is the holy grail of all leads, referrals! However, I know how hard it is to ask for referrals. That actually works in your favor as the best referrals are those that you don’t ask for.

How do you get referrals when you don’t ask for them? Easy (in theory), make your clients advocates. Have you ever seen a movie or gone to a restaurant that you then started to tell everybody about regardless of whether they asked for your opinion or not? Create a client that excited about you and you have created advertising that cannot be bought.

How do you go about creating a client like that? Experience. No, not your experience or expertise in the industry but by giving them an experience they cannot forget. Paddy Lund, an Australian dentist. He works 21 hours a week and earns $400000 (Aus.) per year. He does this while not spending a dime on his marketing. Instead, he puts it all into the experience his clients have with him every single time they go to see him.

What does your office look like? What kind of amenities do you have? Several types of tea and lattees or cold coffee?

I hear so often, “I’m not in the coffee business. I’m in the investment advice business.”

Sorry guys, in order to survive and prosper in the environment in which we live today, you are in the experience business. Not customer service. Not investment advice. Clients expect those things. You need to provide an experience that your prospects and clients do not expect. Only then will you get clients that are so excited about you that they recommend you unsolicited.

Which professionals are worth approaching and which are not? That at first seems like a difficult question but it is really quite simple. Approach the professionals that currently work with your clients.

Give the your clients accountant a call during their down season (May-September). Let them know that you are <client’s name here> financial advisor and that you wanted to introduce yourself and let the accountant know that if they needed any help with your client’s investment information that you would be glad to lend a hand.

How many broker’s take the time to do this with their accountants? Very few and it can really pay dividends when done regularly and properly.