Taking existing customers for granted?

Are we taking existing customers for granted?

Customer acquisition is getting more and more expensive and time consuming!

Businesses vie with each other in impressing the prospect to convert into customers.

Quite often as vendors we may have to offer better deals by extending
1. More credit
2. Better Price
3. Extended warranty and
4. even freebies
to convert prospects who negotiate too hard.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with all these. New customers hold the key to the growth of every business. It makes a good business sense to acquire quality customer's at a cost.

It's true that the survival of some businesses is in new customer acquisition(like in capex products where repeat purchases are relatively less).

Certainly understandable....

With the same breath, shall we analyse what we do with existing customer?

Once we have earned the confidence of the customer, few things happen simultaneously(exceptions are not considered here)....

1. The customer develops a relationship with us and has faith too, most times to the extent they don't cross check with another vendor.

2. We are aware of this and assume that the customer will be happy  and loyal always.

3. When the customer goes for a repeat purchase, we do not offer a special price(we conveniently forget that we save on the marketing and selling cost).

4. Sometimes, we even quote a price with a better margin since there is no competition.

5. Many a time, We are not even aware(or ignore) that the customer's trust and confidence in us has to be rewarded.

6. Sometimes, we may be marginally more expensive than our competitors due to obvious reasons. Do we take efforts to make our existing customers understand which services add value and justify the pricing subtly.

Things get out of control when realization of all the above come to us in the following occasions:

1. A competitor pitches through some contact or influence.
2. Customer starts following systems which needs to cross verify purchases qualitatively and quantitatively.
3. Worst case, for some reason the customer buys from some other vendor....

Conclusion:

Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention are Equally  important.

It has to be remembered that competitors are always on our toes and look for our mistakes and snatch away our customers.

It makes business sense to be aware that the existing customers are given their due - let's not get misled that it's all about price and freebies alone.

It's about making them feel special and important always; being grateful for having trusted us already......




Muralidharan Margabandhu
Freedom from Debt Coach
Business consultant/ Trainer/Author
Whatsapp: +91 9841049588
E-mail     : muralimarg@gmail.com