I was asked recently to share a story with my colleagues about Customer Retention. I’m going to share most of what I discussed there, here. Names and details fudged a bit to protect the innocent.
Now, I’m addressing Customer Retention in a somewhat roundabout way, in that I am going to talk about a customer that I almost lost.
This company, from here on out called JaxCo, is a customer that I have worked with for more than 12 years. We provide office technology and workflow solutions for them, which is the long way to pronounce “copiers.”
I am proud to say that I have many long term clients like this, because the copier industry is very competitive and Jacksonville has more than it’s share of copier companies. But, this is one client I’m very proud of… They’ve been a great customer; very demanding at times, but made up of great people throughout.
It was a couple of summers ago, and I was waiting for an renewal agreement to be signed and returned by JaxCo. I had commited to closing the roughly $180k transaction to my manager, and I expected the signed documents back at any moment.
Just like all the other times.
Except:
There was one thing that was different this time; there was a new CFO. While I didn’t know this new CFO very well (he had only been in the position a very short time), I still had every expectation that the agreements would be signed and returned, any minute.
Then I got this email:
(and I’m paraphrasing)
“Thanks for all the great work over the years…”
Blah blah blah, a bunch of nice, fluffy stuff…
“But the financial advantages of your competitor’s proposal are too great to ignore and we’ve decided to move on.”
Talk about a gut shot.
But I didn’t give up.
I got angry:
Here’s this new guy, coming in to MY customer, and messing things up. He went to one of my cheapest competitors, to one of those “sell it and forget it” account reps that couldn’t make it at any of the 5 previous copier companies of which he’d been a part. He went to that rep and got a really, really, really cheap (on paper) proposal designed to “buy the business.”
But I didn’t give up. I jumped on the phone and got a customer meeting scheduled. My team and I met with the customer and discussed the differences (there were quite a few) between us and them, between their products and ours (there were many.)
We reminded them of how we’ve supported their golf tournaments as well as their business over the last 12 years.
I jumped on the phone and got a customer meeting scheduled. My team and I met with the customer and discussed the differences (there were quite a few) between us and them, between their products and ours (there were many.)
We reminded them of how we’ve supported their golf tournaments, as well as their business, over the last 12 years.
And yes, we had to give up some revenue, some margin, some money.
But we didn’t give up, and we ultimately got that (expected) signature and kept them as a customer.
Since that time two summers ago, we’ve developed what, I think, is a good relationship with the new CFO.
I’ve done all the things that all good salespeople do to retain customers- I touch base often and do account reviews, I address any service or billing issues when they come up, and I talk about additional products that might be a good fit for his environment.
We invited, and he attended, one of our quarterly roundtable luncheons, where we learned about his biggest challenges.
We invited, and he attended, an Open House technology expo. He was impressed, and he told me so.
After spending some time in our facility, he looked around and asked me “Why do you do all of this?”
I answered that we do “all of this” to show you what we bring to the table, how we’re different, how we’re better than the competition.
We do this, to gain and retain our customer base. We do this, so that when it seems that we’re a little more expensive than a competitor, it’s understood that we deliver value moreso than a cheap (on paper) price.
And, that is how I almost lost a great $180k client.
Thanks for letting me share my story and good luck out there!
