Page 50 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

21 FOLLOW UP ON
CUSTOMERS LATER

Following up on customers after a sale is something few companies
practice in any serious way, and when they do it is usually through
a half-hearted “courtesy call” a few days after the purchase, in
the course of which the caller makes a clumsy attempt to sell the
customer something else. Car dealers rarely call their customers
(say) two years after the sale with the idea of seeing if the customer
is ready for a trade-in: yet this seems like an obvious thing to do,
since the dealer already knows the customer’s car, and will have a
fair idea of its worth. This is, of course, one of the basic tenets of
relationship marketing—but few companies do it.

Giving people time to recover from the experience of making a
major purchase is also important—following up too quickly can
seem over-eager. The typical reaction from a customer might be
“I just spent £800 with you, what more do you want?”

The idea

The Futon Shop follow up on sales approximately one year later,
offering add-on products such as drawers to fit under the futon, covers,
cleaning, and so forth. After a year the customer has become used to
the futon being around, and is ready for extras in a way that he or she
was not at the time of purchase (obviously, or they would have bought
the extras at the time of buying the original product). The customers
have also had the chance to recover from the initial investment.

In general, customers welcome the approach, because they are
ready to spend again and find the approach reassuring rather
than threatening.

100 GREAT MARKETING IDEAS • 41