RE: online-ads digest: February 05, 2002

From: Mitchell Kelley (esc1krm) <esc1krm_at_ups.com>
Date: Wed 06 Feb 2002 11:40:39 -0500

Hear, hear for Tony Napolitano! I would like to open
a discussion on customer retention.
  
>Marco Janeczek wrote:
>Most of the things we did is to focus on customer acquisition,
>but was there a real true focus on customer retention?

I offer a past experience of mine:
As revenue declined in late 2000 and the acquisition cost of
customers inched ever higher, it became clear that we needed
to shift some focus onto retaining the customers my company
had acquired. By analyzing 2 years' of customer purchasing
data, we were able to segment our customers into 3 "buckets"
based on usage level and then determine an average "life cycle"
for a customer within each group. Using a very simple
database structure, we were able to record a user's
registration date, the first purchase date, and then project
out the user's life cycle. When the life cycle was close
to completion, we sent a very friendly email offer. This
simple communication increased existing customer purchases
by over 20%! We were able to extend the life cycle by weeks,
even months, dependent on the customer's "bucket". It seems
as though our customers simply needed a gentle reminder to
stimulate them to return. Mind, customers opt-in for
email communication when they register - no spamming here!

Anyone else have customer retention efforts to share?

Sincerely,
Kelley Mitchell
  






Received on Wed Feb 06 2002 - 10:40:39 CST