Knowing the customer
MARKETING practitioners consider repeat business an important measure of corporate success, as it demonstrates “stickiness” with the customer. A good retention program to keep customers from leaving is seen as more cost-effective than trying to win new ones. This is why customer complaints are taken very seriously, if they manage to reach the intended manager, and not shredded at the first stop.
The concept of business development is no longer limited to winning new clients every time. It now includes efforts to deepen existing client relationships by offering more value to the same customer. Pitching incessantly for new business is seen as a costly strategy that sucks in precious executive talent.
In the pursuit of repeat business from existing customers, the front liners are trained to remember the regular patron and his habits sometimes with the aid of data from previous encounters. The reception (please wait to be seated) guides him to his preferred table and the waiter remembers his favorite dish and how it should be prepared. (Caesar salad with chicken, dressing on the side, Sir?)
A patronage algorithm tracks the pattern of e-books previously purchased, including titles and authors that have been browsed, and then e-mailing the tracked customer with new titles that follow his literary tastes. (You can pre-order the new Stephen King novel coming out in three months.) Also, previous orders reveal preferred genres (mysteries and thrillers) and open up pitches for new authors and recent releases in this category.
Hotels with good information systems understand their customer — king size bed again, Sir in a non-smoking floor? They may even leave a menu of the dine-in preferences — you just have to call room service and say “the usual.” And of course, breakfast buffet for two.
Not all businesses expect customers to keep coming back. Those that avoid repeat business from the same customer include hospitals, car repair shops, and funeral parlors. But even these organizations still use satisfied