Are you really special to your customers?

Are you special?

We all like to believe that we are special.  I can guarantee that I am special to my Mom, but that is not going to help to convince customers to remain loyal to my business (unless they talk to my Mom).

Last month, the McKinsey Quarterly released a report about changing consumer behavior.  Of the consumers that they surveyed, 18% traded down in their categories, and the majority of those who traded down did not find any difference between the lower-priced brands and the brands they had traditionally used.  Over 75% of consumers who traded down were going to stay there, very happily.

While this study is focused specifically on packaged goods, the implications for retail and B2B businesses is significant.  If customers are trading down to lower priced products, services and providers and not finding a meaningful difference, we have a problem!

The problem is that the differences that we all believe as marketers that our customers value, turn out not to be so important to them, as they are to us.  We are suffering from “marketing myopia,” as the famous Ted Levitt article once claimed.  We have magnified small differences or differences that our customers do not find very different, and our customers have figured it out.

So if you are in a business that is facing substantial Best Customer attrition (as so many are, these days), here are four No Excuses Marketing approaches to addressing the issues without “breaking the bank” or waiting until the spring thaw (which in Minnesota may take a long time!):

• Get a web survey out to your Best Customers, and fast! Ask those key customers about your differences and how important they are.  Make them rank differences between you and your competitors, including the competitors you don’t like to mention (e.g. Wal-Mart).
• Develop a list of low-priced service benefits you can offer to Best Customers, quickly. Remember, these do not have to be rolled out quickly, just piloted quickly, to help you get on top of the issues.
• Don’t forget the face-to-face. Do some interviews with Best Customers in person and over the phone, and hear the real truth.  I have recommended weekly calls to Best Customers before, and find them to be more and more valuable in separating the truth from the hype, especially our own.
• Measure the value of retention. Identify the lost of Best Customers and measure the financial impact to help create a sense of urgency around this initiative.

As in any relationship, you have to adapt to changing expectations on the part of your partner.  This is as true in customer relationships as in the relationships in our homes.

That is, except for Mom.

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Tagged as: Best Customer, best customer experience, bestcustomer, Consumer behaviour, customer centric, customer data, Customer Management, Customer marketing, Customer retention, Customer service, customercentric, Database marketing, McKinsey & Company, Retail experience, Theodore Levitt