Lego treats their youngest customer like a customer for life. See the story of how Lego responds to an email sent by a 7-year-old customer. The response is a personal message not an automated template. Most important, the outcome is rewarding for both customer and company.
How are you training and empowering your customer service and sales force? Are they able to create your next customer for life?
The Rolling Stones just celebrated their 50th year. You may have seen them on the 121212 televised benefit or pay per view. Some may have been lucky enough to attend a concert with tickets selling for up to $50,000.00 on the secondary market (scalping).
The Stones of course are more than a rock band. They are in fact an international brand and big business. Some reasons (in addition to talent) for their branding success:
Consistency– the Stones have not innovated or created disruption, including writing new tunes in a very long time. This goes against common wisdom for other products and services. Blues, rock and music in general does not demand constant innovation for success. Musical standards decades old still receive popular acclaim. See: Eric Clapton, Elton John, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Luciano Pavarotti and others. The stones do what they do best and deliver what fans want.
Limiting Exposure– is an art form for the Stones. The last time they were in public view was 5 years ago. You may forget most bands completely in less time. Rarely if ever do you see The Stones in product placement. They even have limited exposure on Twitter with 250,000 followers.
Go Deep, Not Broad– Instead of social conversations, Stones fans share. Although this may seem counterintuitive, one should listen and see musical performances not necessarily talk about them.
Sell– as limited as the Stones’ exposure or in part because of it, The Rolling Stones continue to sell out huge arenas and have successful pay per view events.
Ultimately, The Rolling Stones have created a fan base that is comprised of loyal advocates and evangelists. These fans are Customers For Life with a significant lifetime customer value.
(more reasons why Romney lost)
Nate Silver, who accurately predicted the outcome of the presidential election, has additional insights. With the importance of technology in elections, Republicans are at a disadvantage. This is because the top technology talent is in areas like Silicon Valley. These individuals are heavily Democratic. The Big Data shows party affiliations, as well as donations all leaning heavily Democratic. These same people are Democratic campaign volunteers.
What can and should Republicans do to try to even the playing field? Is there a fix that would make Republicans more competitive? Is Nate wrong and technology is not that important?
In Silicon Valley, Technology Talent Gap Threatens G.O.P. Campaigns
Often organizations lack processes that optimize lead conversions and sales. Success is a matter of planning, implementing best practices and follow-through. In developing a system, consider a flowchart. Learn how to attract new customers and make them customers for life. Convert your customers for life into advocates.
Follow this simple flowchart to start thinking about your system. How would you do it? Consider your processes for campaign management, lead generation, data cleansing and optimization, qualifying, follow-up, lead nurturing and more. Begin your process with a plan. Take the first steps to sustainable growth.
The days of talking heads predicting election outcomes may be over. Big Data received tremendous validation with last night’s election results. Nate Silver of the New York Times correctly predicted 50 out of 50 state outcomes. Mathematical models and predictive modeling have finally come of age. Use similar algorithms in not just politics, but also targeted marketing, sales and a myriad of other application. If you are currently, using salesforce.com and data.com to build customers for life you are already ahead of the curve.