How Customized Service Develops Relationships

The goal of every business is to attract, obtain, and KEEP profitable customers or clients. When you think about keeping anything (car, money, last nights dinner, etc.) it requires a proactive effort on your part.  For cars it’s keeping the oil changed, for money it’s keeping it in a savings account, and for your last nights dinner it’s properly packaging and cooling it.

If you want to keep profitable customers or clients you will need a Thank You Department. There’s only one purpose for this department: proactive retention. They look at service improvements, process enhancements, and quality initiatives that encourage customer loyalty primarily by removing the causes of disengagement in the first place.

Their job is to develop different loyalty programs, along with customized service. For example: if a customer engages with you and clearly identifies how they want to be treated, you can effectively “loyalize” the customer by remembering that personal information and providing a customized experience in the future. In effect, by telling you what he or she wants, the customer is also investing in the relationship. Even if your direct competitor offers the same kind of customized service, the customer would first have to re-invest into the relationship by telling the competitor what he or she needs in order to enjoy the same level of customized service.

This is sometimes called the lock-in effect.

Question: What do you think about building relationships though customized service?