An alliance partner of Team HALO’s called Blue Clover – a new media advertising agency based in San Antonio, Texas – sent out an e-mail to all of their clients and partners recently that said the following…
Welcome to Blue Clover! The Mission of
Blue Clover is to create a remarkable experience for every Client, every time.
Well, after laughing outloud and thinking that maybe their marketing guy had been reading the same Seth Godin books I’ve been reading, (have I ever mentioned that I believe Seth Godin is required reading for ALL business people?) I went on to see that they wished to know my birthday, anniversary, favorite food and drink and favorite local restaurant.
Now, think about that for a minute. If you had that information about all of your best customers, you could really put together some gifts that were memorable. What an experience of service and customer care you would be creating. For me, I’m fulling expecting a gift certificate to Bravo on my birthday (my favorite local dish) or a swanky bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon when I turn 40 (that’s not this year, by the way).
Here’s another similar example –
A couple of years ago, a client of mine did something similar. He started by making an annual calendar of event options that he would sponsor and setting a budget including number of people he could entertain at each event. Then, he sent a letter out to all of his best clients asking them to mark "types" of events that they might be interested in – categories that matched precisely to his event calendar. The list included golf outings, cooking classes, spa treatments, fine dining, professional baseball, etc. Then, the responses were matched with the opportunities and remaining slots given to hot prospects. And you can guess what happened next, right? The good clients gave rave reviews of the business owner to the hot prospects while all networking and building relationships over a nice steak dinner, professional baseball game or game of golf. You get the idea?
One word of caution, however…
The KEY to the success of such high level customer retention tactics – plan what the customer wants (by asking them first) then DO it. Don’t forget birthdays once you have them. Don’t fail to invite on an event after you’ve teased with a questionnaire letter. Know that your budget is there and plan to take this tactic all the way to fruition or don’t do it at all!
