Tenacity
Growing a business is hard work. Customer acquisition and retention isn’t an event. It isn’t a new program. It is a way of thinking about customers. It is a way you go about business. It takes the right attitude, continual effort, and constant monitoring.
The question that should really matter in whether you are going to retain your customers and grow your business is not whether they are satisfied. The only question that matters is, “How likely are your customers to recommend you to their colleagues, their partners, their families, or to other people they do business with?”
If you’re getting straight 10s on customer satisfaction, good for you. That means you’re going to stay in business at least another year or two. That’s nice, but not enough. If you get straight 10s on whether people would recommend your company to someone else, now you’ve really got something going on. You are not just going to survive. You are going to grow. At PrintingForLess.com, fully one-third of their new customers come from referrals. How does that compare with your business? Think about how much impact that has on the company’s marketing budget, customer acquisition costs, or lifetime value of customers.
Sometimes a big business can show a dedication to tenacity from which we can all learn. Here’s one from my experience. I drive a GS 300 Lexus. I’ll admit that I bought my first one in 1993 because I thought it was pretty. It looked great and I could afford it, so I bought it.
I bought my second one last year because the first one was the best vehicle I’ve ever driven. It looked good, it was reliable, and it was extremely affordable. I would go so far as to say it was a bargain. Now that may sound strange when talking about a luxury car. Yes, the purchase price was high, but in terms of total cost of ownership, I would say it’s sure to be a better deal than a Mercedes or BMW and probably even better than any car that is half its price.
I paid $32,000 for my first GS 300. It got good gas mileage. I never got stranded beside the road. Repair costs were next to nothing, especially in relation to other cars my family and I have owned. Quite simply, it was the best car I had ever owned. After driving it for eight years and 144,000 miles, I sold it for $10,000. What other highly reliable, fully loaded car can you think of that you can drive for so long for so little? From my perspective, the real Lexus selling point is a value proposition. The fact that it also has luxury appointments and performance is just icing on the cake.
