Page 323 - Duct Tape Marketing

307Chapter 19: Fortifying Customer Relationships

ߜ Help customers understand your full product range. Use customer com-
munications, promotions, and packaged offers to make it easy for cus-
tomers to make additional purchases from your business.

ߜ Increase the relationship between your business and your customers by
developing loyalty programs (see the section at the end of this chapter)
to reward customers for increased business.

ߜ Offer products your customers want to buy, provide them in the way
that customers want to receive them, emphasize value rather than price,
and convert each customer into a friend of your business.

Capturing additional sales

Make a list of all the products and services your business offers and use it to
analyze how much of your full product line your customers currently buy.

Act upon your findings following these steps:

ߜ Determine which products your customers are buying from your com-
petitors rather than from your business. This finding will help you eval-
uate reasons behind this uncaptured business. Does your customer not
know that you offer this product? Does your customer believe that your
competitor offers better value for this product? Would this product gain
appeal if it were packaged with a primary product that your customer is
buying from your business?

ߜ Discover which products your customers aren’t buying from you or
anyone else. This information may help you decide whether to drop cer-
tain products from your line or whether these products merit reintro-
duction via a new marketing investment. You may choose to let a lagging
product fade out on its own, but only if it isn’t costing you an unwar-
ranted investment in space or staff attention.

ߜ Learn the combinations of products your customers tend to buy. If
your best customers consistently purchase a certain combination of
products from you, use this information to create added-value product
packages that bundle the offerings along with a bonus product or a ben-
eficial price. By doing so, you will be giving your best customers addi-
tional value, and you’ll also be using the purchasing patterns of your
loyalists to attract the interest of others like them.

ߜ Develop ways to lock in sales of products your customers buy on a
regular basis. Try to make buyers customers for life by seeking to auto-
mate the purchases they make from you on a frequent basis.

• Offer an annual contract at a preferred rate. Your customer will
benefit from preferential pricing while you benefit from assured
business.