Treat your customers better than your prospects
I recently saw a UK press advertisement for the phone company I use, Vonage. I subscribe to Vonage because it offers cheap calls between the UK and Canada, where I do most of my business. Also, I have a Canadian and UK-based phone number so that people can call me at local rates no matter which country they're calling me from.
Anyway, the ad is targeted at new customers and offers them free calls from the UK to Canada. Visiting www.vonage.ca, I see that a similar deal is being offered to new Canadian customers, too (free calls between the UK and Canada).
In other words, my loyal service is subsidising special offers to new customers. I called Vonage's customer service to ask if it was possible for me to get the same deal as I am a customer of several months' standing. I was advised that the only way to do this would be for me to cancel my account, then sign up for a new one. This is a non-starter because it would mean losing both my Canadian and British phone numbers, as well as paying another connection fee. An email to the head of UK operations illicited similar advice.
Vonage is willing to risk me closing my account and not subscribing again, rather than offer me a comparable deal that rewards me for sticking with the company in an increasingly competitive market. Instead of creating all of this friction and ill-feeling, how hard would it be for Vonage to ensure an existing customer remains satisfied with its service?
Happy customers are likely to generate positive word of mouth, which will help to recruit more subscribers. In the long run, this is much more cost-effective, easier to target and more likely to succeed than expensive national advertising campaigns.
Read about Fast Company's Customers First awards.
Anyway, the ad is targeted at new customers and offers them free calls from the UK to Canada. Visiting www.vonage.ca, I see that a similar deal is being offered to new Canadian customers, too (free calls between the UK and Canada).
In other words, my loyal service is subsidising special offers to new customers. I called Vonage's customer service to ask if it was possible for me to get the same deal as I am a customer of several months' standing. I was advised that the only way to do this would be for me to cancel my account, then sign up for a new one. This is a non-starter because it would mean losing both my Canadian and British phone numbers, as well as paying another connection fee. An email to the head of UK operations illicited similar advice.
Vonage is willing to risk me closing my account and not subscribing again, rather than offer me a comparable deal that rewards me for sticking with the company in an increasingly competitive market. Instead of creating all of this friction and ill-feeling, how hard would it be for Vonage to ensure an existing customer remains satisfied with its service?
Happy customers are likely to generate positive word of mouth, which will help to recruit more subscribers. In the long run, this is much more cost-effective, easier to target and more likely to succeed than expensive national advertising campaigns.
Read about Fast Company's Customers First awards.
posted by Nigel Gordijk at
12:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home