Learn Why Customers Leave to Keep Them Coming Back
By: T.J. Tedesco
For: High Volume Printing
Published: September, 2006

Despite some recent encouraging signs, economic growth is still not as brisk as many of us would like. As a result, it’s more important than ever to not just actively pursue new business, but keep the customers you already have. This is probably something you’ve begun to put more effort into lately. But before you concentrate on how to keep existing customers, it’s important to understand why they leave.

In a study conducted by the Forum Corporation, Boston, Mass., print buyers were asked why they ended relationships with vendors. Sixty-nine percent of respondents – more than two-thirds! - said their decision was based on either lack of contact and individual attention, or poor service quality. A separate study conducted by the Office of Consumer Affairs in Washington yielded similar results: sixty-seven percent of participants ended business relationships due to “poor treatment.”

At first glance, those results may seem startling. But take a look at some of the reasons given by customers for switching vendors: poor product quality, company closed or changed ownership, pricing too high, etc. All of those factors combined were not as compelling as poor service. And most importantly, service is the simplest of all of them to improve.

Right now, you’re probably thinking, ‘Those numbers don’t represent my company.’ Well, hopefully they don’t. But how do you really know? Don’t assume your customer service is top-notch simply because you haven’t received a bevy of complaints. After all, there’s only one way to find out how good your customer service really is: ask your customers!

The Forum Corporation study asked respondents to give examples of poor customer service that became reasons to end a vendor relationship. The answers ranged from “undependable performance” to “lack of ethics” – a pretty broad range. But most of the examples fell somewhere in the middle: frustration, ineffective sales rep, not living up to expectations, etc. And all of these answers scream the same thing: we want more personal attention!

See if the following is representative of your company’s typical follow-up call. About a week or two after a job is completed and delivered, you have a CSR, or perhaps the sales executive responsible for the client, make a call to the client and ask if they’re satisfied with the job. They get a ‘Yes, everything was fine,’ and they hang up.

That’s a nice gesture and certainly better than no call at all, but it doesn’t do a whole lot of good for either you or the client. If something was blatantly wrong with the job, they would let you know. It’s easy to call a client to see how things went when you have a pretty good idea they went fine. It will also be a pretty short and uninformative conversation. Why not make it more productive by asking a few questions that dig a little deeper into how a customer views your level of service? Here are a few examples:

1. Has our service been consistent for all of the work we’ve done for you this year?
2. If there’s a problem, are we easily approachable and quick to come up with an appropriate solution?
3. Do we pay attention to your specific needs?

Remember, when it comes to customer satisfaction, you’re on the wrong end of the transaction to know for sure exactly how well it went. In order to best serve your customers, you need to find out what they really want. Make these questions a standard part of your follow-up calls. Even better, have your sales executives make visits to each of their customers just to ask these questions. It’s the ultimate anti-sales call, it won’t take much time out of their schedules, and they’ll certainly appreciate it!

These questions may sound like they’re asking the same thing, but that’s the point. Give customers ample opportunity to think about your services from several angles, and offer any input they have. Perhaps you’ll find that most of your customers are perfectly happy with the level of service they receive from you. But by giving them the opportunity to voice any concerns they have, they’ll feel more comfortable doing business with you if they know you’re eager to respond to their needs.

Give them what they really want

Getting the answers to these questions is just the beginning. The information they provide means nothing if you don’t do something with it. If customers suggest you change a procedure, make sure your company follows through!  Are you finding that customers are happy with how they’re treated, but would like slightly faster turnaround times? It may be time to add or upgrade a piece of equipment. Are they having communication problems with your sales rep? Consider switching the account to someone else; a fresh perspective may be just the trick.

In many cases, though, your customers aren’t looking for even that much of a change. There is, however, one thing that you can always provide them with more of that they can never get enough of: information.

It’s quite likely that “lack of information” is the last thing a customer will think of when asked to identify ways of improving your service to them. But one of the main reasons any company continues to do business with yours is the level of knowledge your firm brings to the table. This goes beyond solving production issues. Just about any facet of your business can contain a nugget of information that your customers would love to have.

Now is the ideal time to let all of your customers know about your various services. Showing customers a quicker and more-cost effective way to get their work done – without them asking you to do so – will give you the top-of-mind positioning you need to keep them coming back!

T.J. Tedesco is with Grow Sales, Inc, a company specializing in outsourced marketing leadership for the graphic arts industry. He is the author of four books, including Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, Win Top of Mind Positioning, and Direct Mail Pal. All are published by GATFPress and are available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com. Grow Sales, Inc.’s website is www.growsales.com.