by Scott Howard | Apr 30, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Core Customers – Keep Them!
Every business owner understands that keeping a current customer is much less expensive than creating a new customer. Or at least you think they would! Let me rephrase this; Every SUCCESSFUL business owner not only understands this, but they do things to ensure that they remain a customer and become a Core Customer.
So what exactly is a Core Customer? A Core Customer is someone that has done business with you in the past “X-period of time” and has the potential to do business with you again.
The “X-period of time” depends upon the purchase cycle or how often purchases are made within each business category. For example, in the automotive category, a typical person purchases a vehicle every 3-½ years. In the plumbing business, less than 20% of the population use a plumber every year and 50% of the population only needs a plumber every 4 to 6 years. In the hardware business, it can be 1 time per month or more.
If your current customers have purchased from you within your “purchase cycle” time frame, these people should be considered a “Core Customer”. As a business owner, you want to connect and reconnect with people between purchases until, at minimum, they are out of the “purchase cycle” period.
The other important question is, how often do you need to keep in contact? It can vary to some degree depending upon the buying cycle, but the rule of thumb is 3 to 5 times a year, with a minimum of two.
The first thing you must do is identify your business’ buying cycle. Then, identify who your current core customers are.
If you do not have a list of your customers and their contact info, start to create one. The only info you need is the name, mailing address, email address, date of purchases, and if possible, what they purchased and the transaction amount.
Having this information is useless unless you USE it!
Keeping your current customers is one key to success, but we must understand that regardless of what you do, you stand to lose 20% of your customers each year due to attrition in one form or another. Therefore, it’s paramount that you continue to attract new customers that turn into Core Customers. Once you’ve created the relationship, do everything you can to keep them!
I have 8 helpful tips on how to stay connected with your Core Customers and protect them from predators (your competition). Just email send me an email to Scott@WOWO.com with the subject Core Customers. I also have a weekly marketing tips newsletter that I will send to you free when you fill out the form below.
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by Scott Howard | Aug 4, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo Sales Tips, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
I just finished reading an article on Medium about Influencer Marketing that claims, For Every $1 Spent on Influencer Marketing, A Brand Makes $6.50.
But they are wrong.
I’m not doubting the facts and figures they present, but I doubt that the return is what they say it is.
It’s too low.
But it’s impossible to accurately measure despite the rise in data collection and technology that links our lives and behaviors, there is still a missing link and that missing link is the human factor which makes it impossible to accurately tell us which piece of the marketing puzzle was the final one that inspired us to buy.
Truth be told, there are countless influences on each individual buying choice we make.
So instead of telling you which is the best form of advertising and marketing, I’m going to challenge you in a different direction with the purpose of converting $1 into $10 with your marketing.
It boils down to what you do with a potential customer after they’ve heard/seen your ad. 
It’s about making the right connection with the follow through.
I’ll use an advertising partner of mine who will remain nameless today, but they are aware of what I’m going to share and I’m going to help them fix the problem.
This service oriented business was getting several phone calls from people that could have become customers but didn’t.
(I have access to some of their incoming phone calls and listened to a couple dozen of them recently.)
The service manager talked to a potential customer for 5 minutes without offering to schedule a service call to send a tech to diagnose the problem. Instead he gave the person calling advice on what the problem could be and left it hanging…
Another call from a potential customer who was ready to book a service call but the scheduler led her down a different. complex path and again it was a lost sale.
That’s just two calls that I heard where the professionals in the business had potential customers call them and the result was not good.
It wasn’t good for the people who called because when they hung up the phone there was no plan to fix the problem they called about.
It wasn’t good for my advertising partner because they spent time on the phone and lost money (for the time) instead of earning money (by converting the call into a customer.)
This is not an isolated incident.
I dropped my insurance agent a few years ago, because he didn’t offer a solution to a problem.
Even the fast food minimum wagers are trained to ask if you want to make that burger a full meal.
Your job as a business is to offer a solution to people who are asking for help.
Most people will pay you for that solution.
You spend money to invite those folks to contact you.
Now you need to follow through and with those people who walk in your store, call your office or connect online. Solve their problem, and they will pay you. They will also tell others about how well you took care of them.
You’ve already spent the money to get them to connect. Earn that money back and you can start seeing a 10 to 1 return on your advertising and marketing.
by Scott Howard | Feb 12, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Time to continue with #2 on the list I created last month of 17 Ways To Increase Your Business Profitability is:
Offer Additional Services
Before I give you a couple of examples, let me tell you why this could be an easy way to increase profits.
- You don’t need to buy anything extra
- You are selling to a customer that you already have
- You’ve done minimal work to earn extra
- You’ve created a stronger bond with your customer
Not every one of those may fit your business, but let’s look at some examples.
I work with a heating and cooling contractor that is focusing on increasing the number of service agreements they have with customers. I bought one last year. As their customer, I will get a little bit of savings and priority service and they will also do maintenance on my homes heat pump twice a year to ensure I stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I trust them and they are the only ones we will call.
The business benefits because they are going to make extra money and continue to earn my trust.
I’m old enough to remember what it was like for fast food joints NOT having drive up windows at least here in Fort Wayne. Wendy’s was the 1st I believe and remember the novelty of it when I was a kid. That was a service that revolutionized the industry and forced many chains to follow. Yes, there was some additional expense, but it quickly became very popular and profitable.
What I do for a living has expanded too. Years ago, the advertising sales team at WOWO radio and any other radio or television station were limited to offering our clients ads on our stations with a few add-ons.
Today, I am also able to offer a whole collection of Digital Marketing options that can be used with or without radio advertising. I have advertising partners that are radio only, some are digital only and many use both.
Because the digital marketing services are something that my advertising partners want, and because I am trusted to only offer solutions that work, this additional service makes sense.
I know of a local self-storage company that offers a free truck for customers to use. This service saves their customers time and helps the self-storage company earn more business.
I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Think about it and come up with at least one additional service you can offer your customers this year. Want help? Contact me.
by Scott Howard | Apr 13, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Nearly every business wants repeat business, even the funeral industry. No, they don’t want to bury you more than once, but they want your entire family, when each person dies.
But this story is about a true life story from a week ago, and no one had to die.
Last summer, my wife and I each bought new glasses. I was having problems with the frames recently and was getting inwardly upset because they were less than a year old.
I decided to stop into the national eyewear chain that I bought them from and see what they would do.
Monday at lunch time, I drove to their office where the receptionist greeted me as soon as I walked in.
She was wearing a name tag so I addressed Lisa by name when I told her that the glasses they made for me last summer were “deteriorating”. Yes, I said deteriorating. And I spoke calmly.
I removed my glasses (slipped on my prescription sunglasses so I could still see), and showed her how the plastic markings were bubbling and starting to flake off. I told her I thought I bought them in June or July.
She asked for my name, found me in her computer, told me it was August and then proceeded to see if the frames were still in stock. They were and she said they would replace them and double checked my phone number.
I said, “you’re just going to swap out the frames and use the same lenses, right?” Lisa said, “No we are going to make everything new again. It will take 7 to 10 days and we’ll call you when they arrive.”
With that I was on my way to grab a quick bite and continue with my workday.
Here are 3 ways to keep customers:
- Treat them with respect. Lisa didn’t have any idea who I was when I walked in the door. When she learned I has an unhappy customer, her attitude didn’t change, she gave me the same level of respect as if I was about to spend $1000 on eyewear.
- Empower your employees to take care of customers without jumping through hoops. Lisa didn’t have to ask for a manager to talk to me about my problem. She didn’t ask for my receipt or ID or anything. Her focus was on solving my problem.
- Go beyond the minimum. I was expecting to have to be told that I could buy new frames. Instead, Lisa told me that they would replace them at no charge. I was ready to to fight to get new frames free. That was my minimum expectations. Lisa is going beyond the minimum and getting me a completely brand new set of glasses, including the lenses without my asking.
That visit during my lunch break took less than 10 minutes. I then went to a neighboring Fast Food joint to get a salad. There were about 5 places and I picked one. 5 minutes later, I walked out. Without a salad. They lost me as a customer.
Why? They were busy but also fully staffed. I counted 12 employees. Some were working the drive thru, others were cooking, one was pushing a mop bucket. Several were standing and talking with each other about their weekend, or something. None of them came to the counter to take my order. Not a single employee. I said they were busy, the ones working were focused on the drive thru, but no one even glanced at the counter.
I walked next store and was greeted by two employees at this other fast food joint who both welcomed me and took my order. 60 seconds later, I was eating my salad.
What’s the one way to lose a customer?
- Ignore them. Just pretend they don’t exist. And they pretty soon they won’t. Your former customer will give their money to your competitor. Just like I did.
by Scott Howard | Feb 5, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom
Sunday, I was cleaning out my unread email messages when I came across the following from Seth Godin:
There’s a huge difference between “no one” and “almost no one”.
Almost no one is going to hire you.
Almost no one is going to become a true fan.
Almost no one is going to tell someone else about your work.
Almost no one is going to push you to make your work ever better.
If only 1% of the US population steps up, that’s 3,000,000 people in the category of “almost no one.”
If only one out of 10,000 internet users engages with you, that’s still hundreds of thousands of people.
The chances that everyone is going to applaud you, never mind even become aware you exist, are virtually nil. Most brands and organizations and individuals that fail fall into the chasm of trying to be all things in order to please everyone, and end up reaching no one.
That’s the wrong thing to focus on. Better to focus on and delight almost no one.
While Seth was talking primarily about online stuff, it applies to all aspects of life.
In a competitive world, it might be nice to be liked by everyone, but it will not happen. As a business, you will only get a fraction of the potential customers you could serve.
Sunday as I was reading the Seth Godin email and writing what you are reading right now, I was sitting at the Firefly Coffee in the 3500 block of North Anthony in Fort Wayne. This place has been around for 15 years or so and is one of a handful of places on this block you can get a cup of coffee including another coffee shop a couple doors down!
The radio station I work for, WOWO, has over 100,000 people who listen every week. Not one of my advertising partners (with the exception of McDonald’s) could handle that many customers in one week.
One final thought.
And this is about attitude. Your Attitude.
Before you get upset that “everyone” doesn’t like you, be sure to cherish those that do like you and let them know that they are important. Be grateful for the customers you have and take good care of them. Then as you gain more and more, continue that grateful attitude with actions.
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