So, You Landed a Customer—Now What?

Congratulations on landing a new customer! Whether you have a product-driven business, a service-driven business, or a Web-based business providing either (or both), understanding how to retain, maximize, and amplify the value you get from a customer, and thus the revenue you get from a customer allows you to spend more time farming (getting additional revenue from the same customers) rather than hunting (spending time finding new customers).

An old adage says it’s less expensive to retain an existing customer than to find a new one, and even in the age of the Internet, it couldn’t be more true. Why spend your time and marketing dollars hunting new customers when it’s much more cost effective to maximize the ones you already have? Keep ‘em coming back.

Step 1: Be absolutely fanatical about their first few touches with your company. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and this goes doubly for a customer who has decided to give you some of their hard-earned money. If you run a salon, when a customer comes in, delight them by offering bottled water and fresh fruit. If you run a Web business, ask the CEO to personally call each new customer, thanking them for their business. Let the customer know you are absolutely there to make sure you deliver your best to them.

The real secret to this is: most companies don’t try. They treat their customers like a disposable commodity. You will be ahead of most of your competitors by making sure you deliver the most awesome experience. Step 2: Pay attention! One of the great things about having an attentive customer experience and robust contact management software to capture the information is that when the CEO calls a customer for a friendly chat, the customer is likely to volunteer all kinds of great information that can aid in your retention efforts: “Hi Mr. Smith, this is Tirrell Payton from Egg Marketing. How are you?” “I’m doing well, thanks.” “Good to hear. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but do you have a couple minutes to chat?” “Sure... I was just coming back from taking my daughter to dance camp.” “Great! The reason I’m calling is because you recently bought a widget online and I wanted to call you and personally thank you for your order and to let you know if you need anything at all or if you have any issues with your order, you can feel free to call me personally and I will make sure it gets fixed. My personal cell number is 619-555-5555.” “Oh wow, I don’t think I will need to call you but it’s nice to know I can call the boss if I have any trouble. Most companies wouldn’t do that. ” “That’s right sir, Egg Marketing is ruthlessly committed to your happiness.” I already know the customer’s name, address, city, state, zip, telephone number, and email address. So what did I find out during that call? - His family takes priority in his life. - He stays home during the day, so he may be an entrepreneur. - He has a young daughter who is of “dance camp” age (between the ages of six and 13, most likely). When you become heavily engaged in the customer happiness game, these insights pop up all over the place. You could never discover these insights with a nameless, faceless outsourced customer service process. These are the actions that start to form the “virtuous cycle,” whereby customers love your product, love your company, and tell people about it, which gets you more customers who love you and who tell people that...you get the idea. These data points become potential customer touch points. Each contact with the customer provides an opportunity to learn more about them and provide better service. Step 3: Surprise and delight your customers. The companies with the most fanatical supporters are the companies that make it a habit to surprise and delight their customers. This will take your company from “just another widget seller” to “oh my goodness, these guys are awesome!” This comes down to anticipating a customer need rather than reacting to it. Here are some examples:

• When you buy something on the Web, customer returns can cause pain in an otherwise smooth process. Zappos has free shipping and free returns. Usually, when you order from the site and choose 3 day shipping, you get it the next day. Surprise! Delight! Even though Zappos doesn’t sell shoes at the lowest price, guess where I go when I need shoes?
• As an attorney, if you practice employment law, and you notice your state has made changes to employment regulations, make it a priority to proactively call clients who have worked with you in the past and offer a discount on updating employee handbooks. This costs less than prospecting for new customers and helps to reinforce the virtuous cycle—and improve your bottom line.

Landing a customer opens a wonderful opportunity to build a rewarding customer relationship that pays dividends for a long time. Make sure every customer experience flowers into a wonderful one, make sure you pay attention to the nuances of customer behavior, and make sure you take every opportunity to surprise and delight your customers. Retention makes dollars and sense!

Tirrell Payton is a marketer and technologist with more than 15 years of experience in the digital world. He is a former executive at Accenture, a global technology and consulting firm, where he helped companies transition from "industrial speed" to "web speed." Prior to Accenture, he worked in the digital media division of Yahoo. Tirrell combines marketing sense with technology savvy with an unwavering eye on the bottom line. He is a regular contributor to ChamberofCommerce.com, Small Business Trends, and DIYMarketing as well as his own website, SEOTirrell. Follow him on Twitter @SEOTirrell.