When was the last time you looked at your current spending to see if you could cut costs? In an effort to find some savings so that I could hire a virtual assistant, I did this recently and was thankful to realize some savings.
Searching Turns into Frustration
Imagine my surprise when it turned out that the social media scheduling tool that I absolutely adore, promote all the time, and have been a loyal customer for 5+ years, had a lower cost option available where I would get the exact same services for $30 less per month and I had no idea when that package option launched. It was pretty frustrating to see that I could have been saving money for a while now.
Happy with my discovery, I went to the next expense on my list and decided to cancel my monthly membership with my favorite stock photo site. I wasn’t using the credits and there are plenty of free photo sites out there. It would be more valuable to have an assistant than to waste money each month with photo credits that I don’t even use.
Guess what? They now offer an UNLIMITED photo option for LESS than what I was paying per month for only 5 photo credits. Only when I tried to take the steps to cancel my subscription did this option come up. Which brings me to point.
GIVE YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS THE BEST PRICE.
Now I’m annoyed. Why didn’t anyone reach out to me from these businesses? How much money have I wasted in the past couple months, if not years?
It’s horrible customer service to make your most loyal customers pay more than they need to.
Imagine if someone reached out to you from one of your monthly service companies and said, “Hi Lindsey, I was calling because it looks like you’re on the $99/month plan but we just came out with one that is $65/month that I think would be a better fit for you. Would you like me to tell you about it?”
I would be a customer for life because I would have felt like they care about me. It’s completely selfish to come out with a lower cost plan and not reach out to your existing clients. In fact, I would encourage the exact opposite and say that you should offer your existing customers the new packages first.
Make them feel like an insider. Make them feel like you care about your business. Because you should. The better they feel, the more likely they are to stick around and encourage others to do business with you.
The first company that I mentioned, the social media scheduling tool, there are a lot of competitors out there. One of them has excellent analytics and reporting, but I was hesitant to make the switch because I really liked my current scheduling tool. Now, I’m not as attached.
See what happens when your most loyal customers feel like you aren’t very loyal to them?
Hug your customers. Give them the best price. You might lose a few dollars in the short term, but you will gain a customer for life.
