Customers Vote With Their Wallet.

Your business will not learn you have lost the election until you realize the money is no longer being spent. Most of this attrition is preventable by following a few basics. Consumer Marketing 101.2: Listen to your customer and ask them how you are doing meeting their needs and fix what is broken. It is likely I am not a typical customer since I tell companies when I am happy or not with their products or services. It has been my experience that most companies DO NOT CARE or at least the people serving the customer do not care. Not too long ago I had a problem with my laptop. Over the years I have purchased at least 10 laptops from one company. The last one is the last one. They accused me of a liquid spill and did not honor the platinum warranty for which I had been charged a premium. I will not bore you with all the details. Their customer service department didn't care. End result - business lost. Lifetime value of this customer (me) is about $3,000 a year. There is a service station close to my home with a car wash. I was working with a client near but not that close so I was driving a lot. I would spend about $100 per week at that particular station. 2 out of 4 times that I used the car wash - it didn't wash. I have asked them repeatedly to fix the car wash. Each time they have given me free car washes or my car wash money back. I DON'T WANT A FREE CAR WASH ...I NEED A CAR WASH THAT WORKS. Today was the end - I will not return. End result they lose $100.00 of revenue per week. I estimate their average customer spends $80.00 a month. If I owned that station I would consider me a valuable customer. They don't care. When you see stores closing or changing ownership, just give the departing owner a sticker that says "I don't care." Consumer Marketing...It is not about the headline, the copy, the web site, the direct mail piece or media ad. First and foremost,It is about how you treat the customers you have. Author: Steve Pohlit, a business consultant who has helped companies in many industries including: retail, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, restaurant, real estate and trucking achieve increased profits. All information published by Steve, unless otherwise noted, may be republished without restriction with this resource box intact.  For more information please visit www.stevepohlit.com