My name is Karlyn Chrissinger and in Tom’s great wisdom, he has elected me to take over the blog, temporarily in his absence. Tom will be working closely on the operations end of the business for the time being and will be returning in his usual capacity, as soon as possible. As you are aware, I have HUGE shoes to fill and the only thing that keeps me grounded is the knowledge that this position is only temporary!
A little about me:
I am the Director of Sales, Marketing and Business Development for Customer Loyalty Concepts. My focus is on sales for the company, overseeing the marketing department and on new business growth.
Prior to joining Customer Loyalty Concepts, I co-owned and managed Infinity Real Estate from 2001 to 2008. I established my career while employed with US West from 1987 to 1993, where I worked directly with small business clients from set up to billing. The full spectrum of customer service provided the platform for my successful business endeavors.
I attended Oregon State University where I concentrated my efforts on business management. As a dedicated professional I continue to further my experience in the business world with continued education courses and through business networking. At this time, I am a member of numerous Denver organizations. Currently I reside in Denver Colorado with my husband and two daughters.
I was hired in July of this year and am the newest member of CLC. My first assignment was working as an Agent for the company. The experience I gained on the phones was essential to my understanding the full gamut of what CLC has to offer. I moved into my current position in the fall, and I am excited to be part of such a dynamic group.
Enough about me….
Check back and see what I come up with to say….may or may not be beneficial, but you won’t know unless you see for yourself!
I thought I would share with you one of my favorite topics. This is an article I wrote back in June of this year and it gives you an understanding of the methodolgy our company embrasses when we look at helping clients. In fact, this is a re-write of an article I wrote years ago... I hope you find it useful.
A Customer Retention Methodology
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--Of cabbages--and kings--And why the sea is boiling hot--And whether pigs have wings."
An excerpt from Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and The Carpenter”, 1872
A series of articles will present a Customer Retention methodology based on our experiences, successes and failures. We undertake this effort recognizing some of you may view what we write akin to the nonsense spewed forth by the Walrus in the above poem. Proceed we will, because we care very much about the future of our clients and believe Customer Retention to be an important tool to help them and us maintain our economic viability. We fear without strong Customer retention, our fate may be like that of the Oysters who heard those nonsensical words but did not “get it” and continued to gather around the Walrus and the Carpenter. Those phrases were intended to divert their attention from the real purpose. They were to be devoured…not a fate acceptable for our clients.
Your company does not have to follow the oysters’ path. No one thing will allow any of us to thrive in this evolving technology and market based world. It will take all of our talents, wisdom and creativity. We believe our contribution is to share what we see as a practical and logical approach to Customer Retention. Our distribution channel for this information will be a series of articles.
We have written over 40 articles for the newspaper industry that are available under the Newspaper Industry Tab on this website if you would like to read them. Simply substitute the word “Customer” for “Customer” and you will discover the principles applied are the same regardless of industry or company. These articles written over a number of years were designed for our clients to “get” that Customer Retention does not just happen. It is the result of having work processes and metrics built upon sound retention principles and practices. It takes time, patience and a very firm view of acceptable employee behavior. The goal is (1) To provide flawlessly to the customer what they purchased (perfection of execution) and, (2) To know when you have not performed as you desired so you can decisively respond and demonstrate the importance of each customer by resolving THEIR issue to THEIR satisfaction. Some of you may look at that statement and see “good customer service”. It is much more and much more complex. An analogy might be looking at the Model T and saying you have an automobile. Compared to today’s computer dominated vehicles with superior and more environmentally friendly power trains, multiple gadgets, smooth rides and integrated entertainment systems, the Model T was at best only a starting point.
“Good customer service” is an essential building block to developing a good relationship and loyalty with your customers. Customer expectations change as markets expand and customers are presented with alternatives to satisfy their needs…not ours. The game continues to evolve and change and we must fine tune our skills to remain a viable player. Thus, the importance of Customer Retention has increased. The driving force is economics which is the common force that drives many changes in our free market based society.
Our goal is to move from discussing Customer Retention at 30,000 feet above the real world to suggesting specific methodologies we have found to work. Our goal is to be specific enough that you can take what we write and implement it allowing for differences in your markets, size and complexity. Metrics will be suggested so you can keep the ship on course and can evaluate the effectiveness. We know from personal experience there will be a strong motivation to get immediate results and to get this problem handled so you can move on to the next challenge. To a great extent, this is the history of Customer Retention. We often see or hear business owners/managers describe a series of unrelated programs that are labeled as a Customer Retention program. Frustration ensues when these efforts do not produce the results they need to get that positive mark alongside an MBO item or on the bottom line. Customer Retention is instead a series of interrelated undertakings that form a defensive wall between your customers and your competitors.
The following is a broad brush look at our working outline. Each of the major divisions will be further subdivided into a number of specific articles as we work our way through the previous major division. Below is an initial detail breakout of the first major division.
Establish a strong foundation upon which successful retention programs can be constructed
View customer retention from the customer’s point of view as they decide whether or not they will repurchase.
Introduce and integrate the concepts from the customer retention Mission Statement, Value Statement and practical Retention Principles.
Assess your staff to determine if they “get it” and provide education and training as required.
Implement the marketing principle of “Never let a third party get between you and your customer”.
Utilize the Customer Life Cycle model to evaluate where you are today.
Chart your course in a series of practical and obtainable steps. This is truly a long journey accomplished one step at a time.
Integrate retention into the customer acquisition process
I am afraid that I do not know much about this program, but ran into the information and thought I would pass it along. Any program that passes along good will and makes someone feel special, can't be all that bad:)
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Someone asked me about the last blog where I insinuated the internet was doing a more effective job of advertising than the more traditional forms of commerce communications. It is true. Our company has supported newspaper subscriber retention for almost 15 years. In recent times, they have seen a significant drop in their advertising. Some is a result of the economy but a significant amount because advertisers believe they get better returns from the internet.
The internet, as proven by Google, has a better probability of matching your search with a product or service you want because they know more about you. Each of your searches adds to their storehouse of knowledge. It is only a small step from there for them to purchase demographic data which describes you in even more detail.
When you utilize the internet, you are in fact doing two-way communication as opposed to the newspaper which is one-way. The internet may be impersonal but it is two way. You ask, your receive information, you make another request and away you go. Over a period of time you can easily fall into a “market segment” and by being part of it, they know which kinds of ads and messaging will increase the probability of matching you with an advertiser thus increasing the probability that you will purchase. It is fast. It is convenient and many, many people like it. Wouldn’t you say it was a good match to satisfy the “all about me” in all of us as well as the fact that we are usually “time deprived”?
There certainly are some privacy issues that are surfacing and they will become a larger issue in the future. Most of us are uncomfortable with commercial enterprises knowing too much about us.
Our company agrees but we also see opportunities for the internet companies to expand their revenues and markets by expanding their own horizons.
My wife read my previous blog and commented on several of my points. She is a veteran of over thirty years in retail and finds the internet process unpleasant. Human interaction gives her energy as opposed to draining her energy and increasing her frustration when she must interface with the internet. It is true, experience with the public in a retail setting is good and bad. It is just as hard to stay “fresh” for each entering your premises throughout the day as it is for the inbound telemarketing agent. The retail customer generally has an “all about me” approach to the transaction and is usually “time deprived”. It is a combination that leads to abrupt and often discourteous behavior portrayed as impatience to find help and anger when what they want and you advertised is not available.
In my case, I dislike crowds and what is fun for my wife is agony for me. I like people but on a more personal one to a small group basis. A large crowd drains my energy and the bustling and dodging is something I work hard not to experience. I go to the mall once every year to buy shoes and the rest of the time my wife does all of my shopping.
My point is that each of us is different. One form and source of communications such as ads must take into account these differences. Of course, much time and money is spent on Marketing by large companies and they segment markets so they can communicate a message using a channel that is appropriate for that market segment. The internet is becoming more and more sophisticated at accomplishing this feat.
Belated though it may be, it is a sincere hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We certainly did as we are fortunate to have both of our daughters and their families in Denver.
Black Friday has come and gone as well as the internet’s Black Monday. I hope you did pay close attention to how the retail clerks in the bricks and mortar stores made you feel. Of course the next trick is to be sensitive to this same situation in reverse when you are interfacing with either your customers or staff and peers. How we make people feel goes a long way to them thinking of us first when they need to make another purchase. Equally as important, will be their willingness to look at your ads, direct mail pieces and to accept your phone calls. Being nice to people and making them feel good can be profitable as well as the right thing to do.
Cyberspaces Black Monday is an interesting phenomenon to someone, like me, who was in their fifties before they ever really got involved with e-commerce. The challenge they face in building a relationship without personal contact is difficult indeed. How does one build loyalty in a single dimension communication? It is impersonal…but efficient for many a time deprived person. It makes the inbound call center contact significantly more important. It is not face-to-face but it is at least a human. That can be good or bad depending on how one feels following the contact. It was your only contact but only one of many for the call center agent. Finding techniques to remain fresh with each incoming call is tough.
Black Friday is the traditional starting point for Holiday shopping. The day after Thanksgiving is when retailers would fill the newspapers and airwaves with their ads. (A trivia point – Thanksgiving is the traditional day for the largest newspaper of the year thanks to advertisers.)
This year it is hard to believe businesses can discount any heavier than they already have. It is the time to have money in your pockets if you want great bargains. Big ticket items are probably as inexpensive as they ever will be unless technology can drive additional costs out of the product. Business owners are sacrificing margin in many cases jus to survive.
My guess is that many, if not all of you, will be at the malls or on the internet selecting gifts for friends and loved ones. When you do, make mental notes of how you feel after every transaction…whether it is face-to-face or on a website. These are the moments when good marketing and sales teams will endeavor to build or add to a relationship. Please recall as you complete each purchase what Maya Angelou, the poet and writer, said that we discussed in an earlier blog.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
This is a tough economy and every transaction is critical for a business to leave you with a positive feeling to encourage you to return. You options to buy are almost endless and more and more businesses are expanding their product line to encompass other’s products and services. We are entering the Holiday shopping season but more importantly the Customer Retention season. Now is the time for sellers to leave buyers with that positive feeling which will bode well or poorly for them after this shopping flurry subsides.
I would enjoy hearing your real positive and negative feeling transactions.!!
My last blog entry discussed similarities between business models in different industries and concluded the business model may be transferable but the knowledge of the market and prospect sources are not. The only source for that knowledge is the potential client in a new market. A friend of mine took the point a step further when he recounted a frustrating experience he had recently with a salesperson in his company.
It was not my friend’s responsibility but he took it upon himself to put together a short presentation regarding their product. The salesperson was all excited because it succinctly stated the advantages which would save about half of his ten minutes that he spent with a new customer.
My friend was appalled. He queried the salesperson how he could possible establish a relationship and even begin to understand a prospect’s needs and dreams in such a short period of time. It was an “all about me” as a salesperson moment and not about the prospect. This generally leads to selling only on price.
Yep, that is what was going to take place. The salesperson now had a quick tool to TELL the prospect what they needed to do and a red hot sales price just authorized to stimulate revenues. Sad, but it is all too true today with many purveyors of your products and service. Salespeople (and often their supervision) just don’t get that it is not about them. It should all be about their potential customers. Spend the time understanding and solving a customer’s needs and you have a continual revenue source. A loyal customer.
Preparing to contact a prospect, I spent time on the web learning what I could about their business and their business model. It is a franchise that uses heavy price discounting to entice potential customers. The discount requires a minimum commitment length and the monthly charge to the customers’ credit card or bank ACH.
What struck me in my research was that the model was in an entirely different industry but operated like the newspaper industry subscription model where we have fifteen years of practical experience. It seemed like a slam dunk until I tried to think through their prospect sources. One of our fundamental beliefs is that you must “give yourself a chance t build loyalty”. In other words, be selective with your prospects and/or new customers. The secret to building a core customer group is to locate prospects who believe your product or service will add value or solve problems in their lives. We all come from an “It’s all about me” mentality when it comes time to separate us from our hard earned cash.
Each business and industry has their own reliable sources. The business model may be the same but I realized you cannot take our knowledge of newspaper sources and transfer it to another industry. Customer source is something we need to learn from the client. There is quite a bit of demographic data and other tools available to assist once we know the characteristics of the new industries ideal customer.
It just confirms nothing replaces an in depth conversation with your prospect really learning their business, the prospect sources and their retention challenges.
This past week, I spoke at the 2009 Circulation Strategies Academy in Minneapolis hosted by the Inland Press Association. It was a two day session devoted to many aspects of the business relationship between newspapers and their subscribers. My topic was “Subscriber Retention.”
One of the presenters repeated a statement made by a Senior Executive in a meeting with his management team. “It’s good enough” were the words this executive used to summarize their customer service. My fellow speaker was shocked when he heard it and used it as an example of misguided thinking. His and my experience is that you can only build loyalty with customers if their interactions with your company are superb, top notch, outstanding…not “good enough”.
I have ruminated about this statement since hearing it and found myself on several occasions trying to rationalize it. It was probable the newspaper was having financial difficulties, as so many businesses are, since advertising revenues have plummeted in many markets. Perhaps, I thought, he meant to say that given our current economic situations this is the best we can do.
However practical and seemingly logical the statement was to the Executive, he just gave his employees permission to lower standards and to relax. It is like telling a race car pit team to take their time changing the tires during a race. Both will find themselves in a losing position.
Yes, these are tough economic times and many companies have reduced their workforce below levels to adequately service the needs of their customers. Ironically, customers have not changed what they expect nor are they sympathetic or understanding when their needs cannot be met. The Senior Executive in question lost focus. His focus became internal and all about his needs and not the customers. He forgot the critical point, “It’s all about me, Baby.” A serious and potentially fatal lapse.
I did get reaction from my last posting where I expressed some frustration with an employee of an eating establishment that seemed unconcerned about providing me information I needed to place an order.To some it seemed petty and I must confess it was not a make or break event in my life.
The point I tried to make is it is often not the big things that impact a customer relationship.It is the little things such as showing no interest in getting me some simple data so I could choose an omelet.The further the transaction is removed from your inner circle of family and friends, the more small matters tend to form your judgments regarding the person with whom you are doing business.We are clearly more critical of those we do not know and this becomes more significant when we are in process of making a commercial purchase.Researchers tell us the final decision in any purchase contains a great amount of emotion.Our behavior up to that last moment may be cold hard headed analysis and logic but in the end emotion plays an important role.
The only rationale I can develop for this phenomenon is that each of us is very self centered.“It’s all about me, Baby” is a term that comes to mind.To varying degrees, we all try to treat others as we would like to be treated but we find ourselves continually reverting to what we want for ourselves.In that sense, I can see emotion playing a role.I now try to observe my own feelings when I buy and the one coming through the most is “I want it”.It seems to be my primary rationale for making the decision. Price and other factors may turn me off before I get that far but in the final analysis, “I want what I want.”
Our self focus puts us in constant danger of doing or saying something to offend a customer or at least to inhibit a positive relationship. What we are instituting as a guiding light for our company to minimize any impact is a statement attributed to Maya Angelou, a truly great multi talented writer and poet.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
For additonal articles and information please visit our website at, http://www.customloyal.com/resource-library.html. Tom Kucera, founder of Customer Loyalty Concepts, welcomes your questions and comments. He can be reached directly at
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My wife and I went for breakfast on Sunday.The menu did not describe an omelet that sounded interesting so I asked our young waitress what was in it.She replied, “I don’t know.”And that was it. No attempt was made to complete the sale by providing me the information I obviously was seeking.This was a bright young woman probably in her 20’s.It was her first day serving breakfast and we found her to be charming and service oriented as the meal progressed.
I ruminated throughout the day her response to my question. The meal was wonderful, reasonably priced and the service was good.Yet, I may or may not go back.Her lack of concern satisfying my need for information overshadowed the entire experience.It tells me her management did not instill in their work force the fundamental belief that makes or breaks customer interactions daily.Every financially successful company we work with has instilled the following value into their employees.
A customer’s perception of how they are treated during the acquisition and execution process will impact their decision to pay and/or to repurchase.
This is true of every transaction any of our companies have with customers.It doesn’t matter if we only seek information or we want to part with some of our hard earned money.It does not even matter if it is a big important item or something quite small…in terms of how our employees see the situation.The only measure that counts is our customers’ perception.
Many of you may believe my concern over something so small is ridiculous.I challenge you to test it out yourself.Pay close attention to your feelings during some upcoming transactions and see if it is not just fundamental, common sense values like the one above that make the difference on how you feel about the person serving you and their company.Most people in this country don’t complain, they vote with their feet and you can hear the sound of their footsteps receding out your door.
By the way, I did order the “mystery” omelet and it was delicious.
For additonal articles and information please visit our website at, http://www.customloyal.com/resource-library.html. Tom Kucera, founder of Customer Loyalty Concepts, welcomes your questions and comments. He can be reached directly at
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Today is the first day of the rest of our lives…..
A true statement as this is the first of what we hope will be many blog entries.It is also, somewhat true of our website (www.customloyal.com) as it was revised from stem to stern with some renovating still taking place. Our company has spent over 16 years focusing on customer retention.We spent the first 15 years exclusively within the Newspaper Industry.The initial attraction was their very high subscriber churn rates.It was an obvious challenge to us as we believe building customer relationships makes a difference when it comes time to repurchase.We developed a suite of services which did help reduce customer churn and reduced the cost of growing and maintaining a customer base.
I would like to say that we foresaw the rapid declination of newspaper subscribers due to technological change, i.e. the internet.Newspapers tried very hard to be everything to everyone and they still have a solid core of customers and a viable business model.The movement to alternate sources for news happened much quicker than anticipated and was partly fed by the recession.Some customers, especially the younger one, were suddenly able to access the internet easily and with great response time.The playing field changed and many subscribers moved from reading the newspaper in the morning to one of initiating requests for the news they wanted when they wanted it 24/7.Control moved from what the newspapers included to what the consumer wanted.
It awakened us to the power of the internet and we pursued ways in which we could participate in this growing phenomenon.The more we looked, the more we realized most of the business transactions on the internet were impersonal.Everything is done on line and with emails with minimal human reaction.The result in many cases is a high number of one time purchases with few observable efforts to develop long term relationships with customers.We see this as an opportunity for our company and we are exploring how to actively help commercial websites grow their revenues.
This blog will primarily focus on developing and maintaining profitable customer relationships. Our views are probably much broader than many of you have been exposed to as we focus on four phases of the customer life cycle.
For additonal articles and information please visit our website at, http://www.customloyal.com/resource-library.html. Tom Kucera, founder of Customer Loyalty Concepts, welcomes your questions and comments. He can be reached directly at
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Tom Kucera
16:07:00
