The interaction points between supplier and consumer should be worked out in a customer-friendly way to reap success. By Anne M. Schüller*Customers are more willing to switch than ever before. The new phenomenon is called the fleeing customer. The carousel of customer acquisition, customer loyalty and customer loss is spinning faster and faster. It is the regular customers who decide the fate of a provider. And they could be its savior. After all, those who buy "their" brand regularly, who identify with it completely and feel highly attached to it, are immune to competition. However, in many organizations, it is conquests, not nurturing, that are the most important thing. New customer hunters are the heroes of the service. In some industries, existing customers are hardly looked after at all because there are no more commissions for them. Or the best customers get the worst conditions. They are put on hold for thirty minutes, while customers who are not yet customers are given direct access via a dedicated hotline. As a regular customer, you are often stunned to see how new customers receive all the goodies. Expensive software licenses or high insurance premiums continue to be paid, even though they are already significantly cheaper for new business. But that is too short-sighted. If you want loyal customers, you have to reward them. Why is that? People reinforce behavior for which they receive attention, recognition and appreciation.
Bait and switch offers for new customersJust think of the new customer offers from banks. Or the premiums for magazine subscriptions. Or the introductory rates offered by electricity and mobile phone providers. New customers, i.e. those who have not yet earned any money, are given preferential pricing. They get introductory prices, big discounts, and free trial offers. This is how customers are bought from the competition. Managers usually only see what they win, but not what they lose, because such games are not only expensive, but also dangerous. While you're diligently digging at the front, your own customers are running away at the back. They've noticed that loyalty doesn't pay off. "What's in it for me if I cancel, and how do I get the most out of it?" That's a common question to the web community today. We've all learned that if the whining factor is increased, good things happen. Ergo: The providers themselves have educated us to be disloyal, to be cherry-pickers and bargain nomads.
The office staff is the B-teamThere is also a two-tier society between office and field staff. The customer hunters are courted, excellently trained and handsomely remunerated. Internal account managers, on the other hand, are relegated to the back office. Or we find them crammed into the confines of a typical call center, where frustration and employee turnover are high, but pay and recognition are low. Forced into a corset of regulations, even highly dedicated agents are not allowed to solve a customer's problems individually, even if they wanted to. Instead, they are expected to get rid of them quickly. And that's exactly how it comes across to the customer: existing customer care agents are the B-team, the second choice. Accordingly, they are rarely trained. I once did five days of sales training for an industrial company. At the end of each day, they added two hours of inside sales training. After all! But it was the first time that the office staff had ever received any service training at all. Conclusion: The term "service culture" is used by many companies today. Of course, customers quickly realize that in many cases this is little more than a buzzword.
Customer loyalty is made in after-sales serviceOn the part of the company, sales are often regarded as an end point, but from the customer's point of view they are a start: the beginning of a hopefully long, wonderful friendship that he talks about often and with pleasure. If only companies could finally see it that way, too: customer loyalty, and ultimately new business, is primarily generated in after-sales service. A large German premium car manufacturer once calculated the following figures:
| Satisfied with the sale |
Satisfied with after sales service |
Repurchase from the same dealer |
| Yes |
Yes |
93 % |
| No |
Yes |
45 % |
| Yes |
No |
14 % |
| No |
No |
3 % |
One thing is for sure: milking cows and loyal cash cows that are quietly and obediently content with second best are slowly dying out. "We hope they won't notice" strategies no longer work. No one will be taken for a fool any longer. If a provider doesn't keep up, people will turn their backs on them. And on the web, they tell the whole world why this is the case. Even in places where customers don't see through how they're being taken to the cleaners, things soon get bleak. Because the employees know that only too well. And someone will take it outside. So it's better to work out with your people how to uncover and eliminate customer-hostile practices at all touchpoints, the points of interaction between supplier and consumer. Then loyalty and lasting success are certain to follow.
*Anne M. Schüller Schüller is a management thinker, keynote speaker, multiple bestselling author and business coach. With a degree in business administration, she is considered Europe's leading expert on touchpoint management and customer-focused business management. She is one of the most sought-after speakers in the German-speaking world and holds lectures and workshops on the subject. Her clientele includes the elite of the business world. Her Touchpoint Institute trains certified touchpoint managers and issues touchpoint licenses. Contact: www.touchpoint-management.de and www.anneschueller.de
