marketing toolbox


Tools and Techniques for Effective Customer Retention

When customers leave, they take their business plus their referrals and give it to your competition. Do you recommend restaurants where you no longer eat? Would you recommend a service you had chosen to quit using? Your customer is no different.

If the business that won a customer stayed in touch, treated them fairly, remained valuable and continued to build the relationship, the customer can’t help but use and refer them in the future!

How does this happen? As we’ve mentioned time and time again, it begins with a relationship between you and the customer. The relationship is strengthened by your good service and the company’s quality products.

You have to keep your company’s name in front of your customers. We all forget things all the time. Imagine how quickly a customer can forget your company’s name without additional contact.

A thank you note after the sale is not just being polite.  It’s a part of the customer retention program. The salesperson should be sending (if not signing) the “thank you”. Why would your customer want to hear a generic “thank you” from a receptionist or unknown marketing person? The thank-you comes from you and/or the company’s tech that visited.

Refrigerator magnets with your company’s name on them aren’t just “freebies” from your company. They serve a purpose. They hold little Johnny’s artwork on the refrigerator gallery – while also keeping the name of your company in the customer’s home 24/7 where visitors can also see your company’s name. If your company has magnets, make sure you offer one to your customers.

Company Stickers.  Okay, let’s think this through. When a customer has a problem with the furnace, or hears a funny noise, the first thing he does is look at the system. He may not know what he’s looking at, but you can sure bet he opens whatever door it’s behind and looks at the system.

Don’t you think that system needs a sticker with your company name and telephone number on it? Sure it does.

How about on the emergency shut-off valves? Inside air filter access doors? Remember, all you’re trying to do is make it easy for your customers to reach your company when the need arises.

The Most Profitable Customer Retention Tool of All.  By far, the most economical and efficient way to package “helpful, insider information” is through a good, strong Customer Retention newsletter program.

The best newsletter campaigns give customers rich, interesting information that is useful in helping your customers run their households safely and cost-efficiently.

The best newsletters have information that is not solely about heating and air! This is because you must – repeat must – retain customer interest… and 1500 words on systems will not do it. This is a tough pill to swallow, but you must know this. Maintain a 60/40 split of “general interest” to “specific field interest” in your editorial balance.

Almost every amateur attempt sets this wrong. However, the worst newsletter is a cartoonish, jumbled bunch of “offers” or mess that screams advertising to anyone within 5 blocks. It quickly goes into the trash where it belongs.

Other dreadful newsletters harp endlessly about the company, the policy, the bloated self-impression, the oh-so-boring industry “news”, the new products, the blah-blah-blah that customers had better not be operating heavy machinery while reading. You can have articles of interest about the company, but keep it to 10%-15% of your total verbiage.

Customers will only read about what interests them. You cannot force this interest, so you may as well provide articles that they already have an interest in.

A newsletter campaign brings your company name and logo right into your customers’ homes. It keeps them informed about new products and services too, but does so in a way that shows the customer benefits therein.

We have newsletters for the HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractor.  Click here to read more.