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August 25, 2011
Customer Appreciation Events are WRONG
VALUE is…
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Thank You #2
Customer Appreciation Events are commonplace in business. Customer Appreciation Day, Week or for the more ambitious, Month, are intended to show customers how much they are cared for.
Why? I don’t get the logic. And in most instances it’s hypocritical.
Do we only appreciate or care for people one day (or week, or month) a year? Do we save up all our love and dump it on them at one time and expect them to thank us and believe we sincerely want to develop a deep intimate relationship with them?
I have always been offended by this marketing tactic because it implies that the business doesn’t give a damn about someone for the rest of the year. Even worse is the situation where a company with marginal service does this believing it will mend broken customer relationships. Really?
Think you’re fooling people? Think again.
So, to those who want to throw their money into an event that few customers believe in, I say this: invest in providing caring service to your customers EVERY MOMENT of EVERYDAY and you shall reap the rewards of rich Fan relationships and maniacal Advocates who will spread your word to others.
Keep ‘grinning’ your most precious asset once during the year and you won’t be around long.
Cheers,
Roy
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Posted 8.25.11 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (4) | Leave a Comment
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Hi Roy,
We will have to agree to disagree on this one.
While I see the point you are trying to make, you are simply wrong that few customers don’t truly appreciate even one day that their favorite or local store gives back a public ‘thank you’ for their loyalty.
In fact, if you do a search in Google, you will see that the search return show a 95% positive experience including increased immediate sales and in some cases, an increase in pre-orders for up-coming offerings too.
I challenge you to try your own search (in Google) and read the results via blogs, Facebook posts, tweets and photo journals. Just so it is consistent, use this search term: “do customer appreciation days work in 2011?”
Have a nice day.
Comment by William on August 31, 2011 at 9:05 am.
Hi Roy,
Your reply is a mirror of your original post and as such, I have to say I’ve heard your position all before…. I do agree with you however about a company/store that treats you like crap and then tries to make up for it via a C.A. day/week/month… they are seemingly doing little to establish a long term plan for their brand’s strength and their customer’s loyalty… but we are not talking about loyalty programs, those are much more strategic in nature and go at the loyalty in a very different manner.
Customer Appreciation (C.A.) events on the other hand, are used for brand-power and Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA) campaigns.
That all said, marketers that are ‘stuck’ in the old-school mentality about the company controlling the brand are being left behind…. at least 50% of brand strength is consumer-based now and because the balance of brand strength is today so heavily based on consumer perception and WOM endorsements
As such, there are overwhelming positive reasons for “Customer Appreciation Days” in today’s marketing mix…
- Most events show a lift in retention and acquisition above normal/typical numbers
- Stores that have also used Social Media along with the C.A. day/week/month, have also shown a viral lift.
- Third, and most assuredly one that will hit home to your past, if a phone company would take one day to elicit a giveback to it’s loyal clients, they would not see the churn that they do. As you make already know, Telus is notoriously and efficiently bad about this.The fact that phone companies miss this seemingly simple facet of retention is amazing to me.
I believe that if you have to force a customer to stay with you, you are not doing business the right way. If you remember carefully, this was the demise of AOL.
All my best,
Will
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William S. Dickinson
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/williamsdickinsonComment by William on September 2, 2011 at 11:42 am.
Thanks for the comments on my Blog article. It’s definitely ok to disagree:)
My position on this is quite simple. I see company after company inadequately treat their loyal customers in many ways (rude staff, rules and policies that do nothing but annoy them, special Offers to attract new customers which are kept from existing customers to note a few) yet host a ‘Customer Appreciation Day’ believing it will show their loyal customers how much they love them.
These Events are insulting to loyal customers. I want to see organizations do ‘the little things’ day in and day out that consistently demonstrate the affection they hold for the people that do business with them over the long haul.
Most Appreciation Events are nothing more than price discount promotions in disguise. They attract non-customers who gratefully accept the discount and them move to another Event hosted by someone else and do the same thing.
It’s not about the short term benefits that these Events create for the sponsoring organization. It’s about first creating a ‘serving culture’ that focuses investment on people who continuously give you their business and second offering ‘thanks’ as a normal course.
Ever ask a loyal customer what THEY would like to see as a loyalty thank you tool? Not many do. In my experience few look to Appreciation Days as an honest heartfelt way to express a human thank you.
The other thing I want to raise is that I really don’t know of many companies that offer an Appreciation Day ONLY to their most loyal Fans which is kind of inconsistent with the whole idea of using the Event to reward loyalty doesn’t it?
When you host an Appreciation Day for anyone, you are hoping you will hit some of the people who ARE loyal to you, and you probably will. But you will also attract many others who are there for a deal and who will go elsewhere in a heartbeat for a better one.
Bottom line for me: if you want to reward customer loyalty, build a ‘thank you’ culture that focuses on saying “yes” to people with a caring attitude. And ask how people want to be rewarded and treated as the special folks that they are. Giving everyone a 10% off promo doesn’t make your 10 year loyal customer feel special. It makes them feel exactly the opposite. Same as the rest of the crowd you attracted by the Day.
And if you really DO want to host a Day like this, be honest and call it what it is. A Special Promotion Day where discount pricing is offered to anyone who wants it.
Love the conversation. Thanks.
Cheers,
RoyComment by Roy Osing on September 3, 2011 at 3:20 pm.
Will
To further our conversation:
- CA Events are supposed to be just that (OR change the name and spin that everyone puts on it), to say ‘thanks’ to loyal customers. As you said, I have already stated my case that these do little to speak to loyal customers at least the way they are conducted today.- If you are now saying these Events are intended to pump up your Brand, that’s an entirely different matter. There are many types of promo campaigns that purport to do this. I’m ok with this, but DON’T make them out to be to thank people for their business. Wrong.
- don’t hang me with the Telco situation. I don’t advocate their approach and am trying to get organizations generally to change.
- I acknowledge there may be a short-term lift to business as a result of these events. As I said before, this is very unlikely the result of loyal customers ‘buying up’. More likely it is due to opportunistic buyers looking for a deal. Short term promotions like this rarely contribute to any consistent long term financial gains.
- I certainly am NOT saying you should force customers to stay with you. First, you can’t force anyone to stay with you, and second, successful businesses build a culture that does a million things every day to cause people to WANT to stay with them.
Thanks for engaging. You make some great points.
Cheers,
RoyComment by Roy Osing on September 3, 2011 at 3:30 pm.
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