CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGIES IN ACTION
In Customer Retention Strategies I talked about the "do a good job" approach to customer retention. Thankfully, nobody emailed me to tell me I was a simple-minded purveyor of pedestrian platitudes.

Encouraged by that, I thought I'd take it a step further and point to the company I think best exemplifies the concept of "do a good job."

Amazon.

It seems that every time I go there, they've done something new and smart that makes it easier to buy what I want. And it doesn't cost me an extra cent. For Amazon, whose entire business is based around selection, convenience and low price (their words), doing a good job means just that.

Here's only the latest example. I went to Amazon to buy a DVD the other day. What did I find? Now, in addition to the usual shipping options there's another choice. I can enter my postal code and they will present me with a list of stores nearby that have the disk in stock. I order and pay for it at the Amazon site and within five minutes the store I've selected sends me a confirmation email telling me it's ready to pick up.

Time until I get product in hand reduced to 20 minutes. Magnificent.

Pretty simple huh? Didn't cost me extra for that simple capability--in fact, it saved me shipping costs.

Maybe what's surprising about this was that I wasn't surprised--delighted, but not surprised. This was, after all, Amazon, who over time has cemented an expectation in me that if there's something they can do to better satisfy my needs, they'll do it. (Not a bad position to have in the mind of this marketplace of one, don't you think?)

In fact, this is the third time in my columnist career that I've waxed effusive about how good they are. In one of those, written in September of 2000, I essentially predict exactly this functionality (forgive my spasm of self-aggrandizement). (You can read the article at my old ClickZ archives here.)

What we all can learn from Amazon! There is no doubt in my mind that this is a company who is truly focused on providing customers high service and high value--"obsess over customers" is how they phrase it in their 2001 Annual Report.

It works. I have never mentioned Amazon to anyone who didn't agree with me that they simply do things right from a customer service point of view. (Not a bad brand to have in the mind of the marketplace, don't you think?)

Can you achieve the same thing? Without a doubt, you can. Simply commit to the same thing that Amazon commits to: customers. And do the same things they do with their customers. Listen. And act.

You know, do a good job.

O, there I go again: another Markitek bromide. Another "easy for you to say, you don't have to fund customer service for us."

And that's what stops all customer retention programs dead in their tracks. They cost money. It cost Amazon money to develop the database of stores, money to integrate orders with inventory at the store so I got confirmation in five minutes, money to pay the people who conceived and executed the program.

So now I'm going to say it. Damn the cost. Spend the money. Tell yourself it doesn't matter what it costs to make customers happy (within rational limits of course). Don't get clever and consume your time in meetings figuring out how you'll recoup the investment in customer retention strategy by increasing costs (either overtly or covertly). Just write the check. Listen to your customers. Learn what you can do to make their life better. Fund it. Implement it. Just do it. You'll recover the cost because your customers will want to do more business with you. This is not calculus, it's simple arithmetic.

Arithmetic multiplied by courage.

Of course, it has to be a sound strategy based on a solid understanding that you're providing something that the market really wants--and whether you continue the program must be driven by measuring profitability over a reasonable period of time. But once you have that understanding and established those metrics, make it happen.

I am extremely loyal to Amazon. Everybody I know is equally loyal to Amazon. The statistics indicate that the marketplace is equally loyal to them.

Wouldn't it be great if your customers were as loyal to you?

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