Is Loyalty Not Worth A Damn?

I am always amazed at the lengths that marketers will go to reward or entice new customers, but neglect those who are already choosing their product or service. I switched to Sprint cellular service about a year ago because AT&T would not budge on their discounts. With Sprint I was able to get a top of the line phone and a cheaper service plan, just because I was a new customer. So I switched. It is easy to do now that you can take your number with you (or if you have a google voice number that links to any number you want). Maybe the cellular industry should start looking at how to keep the customers they already have. It is widely known in the marketing world that it is much more expensive to attract a new customer, than to hold on to an existing one.

This week I saw another example of the luring of new customers. Visa and Marriott want to offer me a credit card. They are going to offer me a free night hotel room as well as 25,000 points. Add to this the Visa Signature program and this sounds like a pretty good deal. So what will Citi or Bank Of America do when I call them up to cancel their card to take advantage of this new offer (with better rates)? They might offer to lower my interest rate. OK, not a huge deal since it gets paid off pretty regularly? They might remind me that it does not look good to have so many cards on my credit report. Since I don't make a real habit of this, I should be OK here too. I expect that they will let me walk. They are more worried about their new customers than their existing.

Why don't we all just try to keep our current customers happy and look to them to help spread the word about our products?

One last story. Yesterday I was at an Acura dealership looking for a new(er) car. As I got out of my car, a woman leaving the lot pulled up along side me and started gushing about what a great business this Acura dealership was. "The service is great, they treat me like a person" on and on she went. To the extent that we accused her of being a paid spokesperson. I really don't think she was. I think she just had that great of an experience. If she believed in this business so much that she took the time to talk to a stranger about her feelings, imagine what she says to her friends. That is good marketing...that is good service...that is a whole lot less expensive and more effective than luring new customers with one time deals.