533 – Keeping your customers is GOLD: Tom talks Customer Retention

Episode 533 – Customer Retention
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode five hundred and thirty three of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, we're going to talk about customer retention. Now you spend five times as much time, energy and money to get a new customer as you do to nurture an existing customer. And also check this out, increasing customer retention rate by just five percent can increase your profits by twenty five to ninety five percent. So today I'm going to talk about what that nurturing looks like and how to get that retention rate up. Now, I hope you didn't miss episode 532. That was how to improve your business or personal skills over the holidays. I'm going to do a new audio book over the holidays, and I've been working on increasing my backup plan. So I have goals and I have tips on how to work it in all around the family stuff, in the football games and all all that stuff. So check that out. Episode 532 and of course, when you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com slash and then the episode number, that one was 532. This is 533 on customer retention. Now make sure you grab a copy of our automation e-book.

[00:01:39] It's allowed me to handle up to one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers and sixty five thousand customers without pulling my hair out. You will thank me for downloading this book. We we sell it for twenty seven bucks, but it's yours. Free for listening to the show. So grab it at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app. It's screwthecommute.com/app, you can put us on your cell phone and tablet. It does all kinds of cool things and take us with you on the road. All right, we're still working our great program for persons with disabilities. They're making good progress and we've got to go fund me campaign to help them out. But I've I kind of invented this thing called a triple whammy where I can't guarantee it. But ninety nine percent of the time, it'll work for you to get a big tax deduction for training from me personally. So you get the tax deduction, you get good training for your business and. All the money is going to help the persons with disabilities get scholarships. So it's a triple whammy. So check that out it. Screwthecommute.com/triplewhammy. And you can get some good training and I can deliver it after the first of the year, if you want. It doesn't matter. Or over the holidays, whatever. Remember, I do stuff over the holidays. All right, so check that out. Screwthecommute.com/triplewhammy.

[00:03:10] Let's get to the main event. Today, I'm talking about customer retention. I'm not perfect at it by any means, but I do have customers that have been buying off me clear back even before there was a commercial internet, which makes it more than twenty eight years. So I think I might have a little bit of stuff to tell you here and on a webinar. One time I asked people how long they had been doing business with me and even surprised the heck out of me. There were multiple 20 year people on that one webinar and tons of five to seven to 10 years and a whole bunch of others. So even smart Alec Tom here was humbled and thankful for that. But even though I was humble and thankful, it's not just that I got lucky. Well, well, maybe I did get lucky with all the stuff my dad taught me about being a good citizen in the world and how to always strive for excellence and and he was a big sticker on don't you cut corners? That's going to sacrifice excellence. I remember vividly him telling me that. So I spent my business time over those many years going overboard for my customers and talking to them late at night or early in the morning, if needed.

[00:04:30] And that included weekends and holidays. Now, an article in Forbes magazine said Go above and beyond for the client. And when you offer clients this level of service and overdeliver your chances of client retention increase significantly, that was from Forbes magazine. Now my main thing is I talk to people. I mean, nobody at my level will talk to you unless you dangle a couple of hundred thousand dollars in front of OK. Forbes also said nothing replaces the human touch and getting to know your customers. I mean, I talk to them about their hobbies, horses, dogs, their kids, whatever comes up, I'm an inch. I'm interested in people and I love to hear their stories. It just so happens. It makes them feel like I'm a better company to do business with. That's fair. Another thing I've done even way back when I had a pizza shop as part of my nightclub back in the 80s. Once in a while, a customer's order got messed up. And I don't know where I learned this, probably from my dad, but here's what I would say. What can I do to make it up to you? And then I would shut up. Not once. Now, even from back then and to this day in my entire business career, has someone asked for more than I was willing to give to make up for what we screwed up? I mean, even today, if I accidentally double book a consultation and I have to reschedule with one of my mentees, I've built up so much goodwill with them I can't ever recall out of seventeen hundred mentees over twenty three or so years, giving me a hard time about it.

[00:06:21] You know, I'm like there, buddy, I'm trying to help them, and, you know, I know about their kids and their their struggles and their hobbies and all this stuff, you know, so they're not going to give me a hard time. What if I mess up something little like that, even if I mess up something big, which I have on occasion once in a while? I did, you know, had to do with the airfare and, you know, messing things up and I paid their airfare, the airfare changes and, you know, whatever it took to make up for what I did. So so how do you create that goodwill with people and pass the plain old customer stage and get an emotional connection with the customer? Well, I'm going to read to you a section from a customer retention manual I downloaded from Braze. The entire manual is called modern customer retention, I highly suggest you grab a copy, you just put your email in and they even let you opt out of, you know, right there. There's a box you don't have to check if you don't want to hear from them.

[00:07:32] But anyway. It was a good twenty seven pages of good stuff, but I'm going to read you some ranking charts that they had. Let me get it here. These charts were the ranks of the first one was leading emotion drivers of brand humanity. So what makes people think you are a human or good brand? And the the actual research was done by Forrester Consulting. So here's the first chart, and it's one through nine. These are characteristics of brands that seem to be have good humanity. That's what they called it anyway. Number one, the characteristic was understanding. Number two, they're friendly. Number three, they're comforting. You know, a lot of times people come to me, they've been ripped off by other web people and I say, Look, I'm going to. You don't have to worry ever again. You've got me on your team, you know, so I'm comforting to them. I'm personable. Yeah, I joke around having a good time with them. I'm reassuring. I can't tell you how many thousands of times I've said, You can do this. We're going to help you. We're going to take over your screen, show you where to click. You know, so they feel they can do it. A six is surprising. Well, yeah, they're surprised they could do stuff they never dreamed they could do. So I mean, all this stuff applies to my business and I'm not trying to brag. I'm just saying this the way we work it.

[00:09:01] Seven is thoughtful. I'm not sure what that exactly means. Eight is responsive. Yes, we are responsive on day and night. I talk to people, holidays, weekends. It doesn't matter if they're in, especially if they're in need. In the last characteristic, it was happy, I guess. Yeah, we're a happy company. I'm always happy. All right, now, the second chart is called most important function drivers of human connection. And these are 10 different things that that others said that makes them feel like it's a good human connection. So no one was they said that the the person from the company speaks like a regular person would, in other words, they're not reading a script to him and and and and just like a robot. I mean, I just talked to people, as I do. I mean, that's one thing comment. I get all the time when people see me speak, you know, they say, Hey, you're the same guy on stage as off stage, which is which is not common in the professional speaking world. You get people up there that putting on a big show and then they're real pricks. You know, you get them offstage, you know? Number two, they said, is responsive to me when I need it. That's where, like I said, I off hours, I talked to people holidays, weekends, whatever. Number three is a brand I would recommend to friends and family while I try to be that way so that people know that if they refer me that they're not going to get bitched at by somebody for referring a bum, you know, so that's what they said anyway.

[00:10:43] All right. Number four is the company shows they value my time in business. Again, I thank people all the time. I. Here's an example of value in time. All right. I'm on the phone with the consultation and it's supposed to be, you know, from four to five or four to 4:30 or whatever it is. And I hear their phone ring. I said I immediately say, you know, because I don't book by the minute close to back to back because I want to give people extra value. And if it takes extra time to do it, I'm going to do it, which is what's going overboard. So let's hear their phone ring. I said, Do you have to take that? Don't worry, it won't cut into your time. That's showing that I value their time in their business. Next is communicates with me at convenient times. Again, we talked about that. It shows they understand what matters to me right now. That's why my program is all one on one, because if it's group, then you know, I got to dilute everything to the point where it's not about you anymore, or if I do do a mastermind or master class. It's a very tiny group so that everybody gets personal attention, even though it is a tiny group.

[00:12:01] It fits my lifestyle well, I mean, you're not going to join my program if it's not your lifestyle, if you love the corporate world, I actually heard somebody on a podcast the other day saying how much trouble he had transitioning to working at home because he just loved the corporate environment. I'm taking you crazy. You're sitting there, bunch amidst a bunch of low performers. You love that? Well, maybe he stood out as a high performer. But the problem is, is if you stand out as a high performer, they all start stabbing you in the back. So I couldn't understand that. But anyway, that's his lifestyle. Number eight, they say that they like a company that communicates with them using the contact method they prefer. Now I can only do that so much because I kind of keep something standardized so that I can handle more people and still give them personal attention. And a lot of times they don't know just because they're comfortable with something. For instance, one of my students now is just so resistant to get off a darn Yahoo. Well, my shopping cart won't even let you use a Yahoo address in your autoresponders because they know the deliverability is terrible and it's worst of the worst one. One of the worst of the worst emails. So. So sometimes I have to tough love people, but still I do my best to accommodate them.

[00:13:31] And number nine, it says the company understands my preferences and avoids what I don't like. Yeah. So you listen to them and you see what you know, like I said in my mentor program. I don't force you to do eBay. I don't force you to do ebooks. I don't force you to do anything. I give you all these options and let you pick the one you want, and I tell you the pros and cons of it. So again, I'm following all these these things that people say they want. And number 10 was the company gets me and they know what I care about. Again, that's the same thing as talking to people, seeing what's important to them and all that. So that's from Braise, the what you call it, the modern customer retention manual. Download it over at Braze.com. Now, Braze also said growth can fuel companies only for so long, while retention is a practice that ensures survival and a perfect example is right now it's much harder to get new customers because people are scared to death about inflation and the declining economy and all the crazy things the the government's doing. And this should be opposite with my business. Because of the high profits and low expenses you with digital marketing, people should be knocking down my doors to get in my mentor program and learn what I know.

[00:14:57] And yeah, I still have a steady flow of customers, but not as many as it should be. And having a long reputation of taking care of past customers is paying off now because it keeps the cash flow coming in. I mean, I even tell people jokes, here's one for you. Did you hear about the Barbie divorce doll? Yeah, it came with everything Ken had. I'm sorry if you've been through a bad divorce either way, but that is a good one. All right now, your customer should be heard and their suggestions should be incorporated. You know, you don't want to be forcing your products and service down to them and talk to them all the time and find out what their problems are and their suggestions, and get their feedback and see feedback is a great thing that gives you an idea for new products that that meet the customer's need. See? So they're telling you what they want if you bother to talk to them, rather than you just thinking up what you want to sell and then forcing it on, people say. Now, other things you can do. You could get loyalty points and awards like a frequent flyer program for your business and in the show notes there'll be a link to a place that lists a whole bunch of customer loyalty programs so you can check those out. And you can give your best customers sales coupons and promo codes and have VIP customer events and trainings and subscriber only stuff, and you can have them share their customer experiences with you and you show them as testimonials, but it still gives them promotion too, and they'll be bragging to all their friends.

[00:16:42] So how do you identify your best customers when like, I have sixty five thousand customers, huh? How do you do it well? You know, I love the badger you about getting Kick Start Cart, a shopping cart system because I can easily run a report by customer and get a list of the people that spent the most money. Very simple. And I can also run one for affiliates who who is referring me the most and do something nice for them, say. So having these tools can really make this easy to to help you retain more customers and nurture people that are referring you. This really worth it. Most most people know about the 80 20 rule, like 80 percent of your revenue, is probably 20 percent of your customers. But if you can increase now, this is a study I mentioned in the beginning by Frederick recalled. And he was with Bain and Company. I guess they do research for people. So they found that increasing customer retention rates by only five percent. Five percent. Increases your profits by anywhere from twenty five to ninety five percent. Now if that doesn't get you going, you should. I don't know. You know, it's really important.

[00:17:59] Also in a survey taken by Statista. A customer's stated that fast shipping, easy and fast returns, expert and knowledgeable people to talk to at the company and personalisation, where some of the top reasons that they made repeat purchase purchases from these companies. So we try to do all of that stuff. And none of it's hard if you have the right attitude about it. So I highly suggest you pay a lot of attention to your existing customers and it will pay off royally. Now if you're just starting out, you will grow much faster. Right. Right from the beginning, if you're going overboard, taking care of every new customer you get, say, Hey, if you want me to teach you all this stuff in person, get it my mentor program at great internet marketing training. I do all the things that you hear on this podcast, and you won't be able to catch me not doing them because this is the way I've lived this business. My entire forty going on. Forty five years now in formal business, long before the internet started. This is the way I take care of people and this is the kind of service you'll get. And yeah, I'm going to know about your dogs and your kids and and your horses and whatever else you feel like. All right, that's my story. And I'm sticking to it. Go out and retain those customers. And Hey, Christmas is coming up. Oh, oh oh.

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