Taking Care of [Current] Business Pays

Is It Just Me, or are loyal customers getting the short shrift?

You heard it here first: I'm officially pissed off. My annoyance has been brewing for quite some time now, but it came to a head early this week with a TV advertisement from Time Warner. For new customers, I learned, the company is offering a DVR, Road Runner Turbo and voice mail -- all free for an entire year. But wait! Act now, and they'll throw in free Showtime on their cable TV service.

How wonderful -- except the part about "new" customers. Just a minute, guys: I've been a cable TV customer of Time Warner ever since the service came to my town, and ditto the company's Road Runner. I was one of the first to sign on once I learned it was available to me -- and I've been a loyal customer ever since. Since then, we've purchased digital TV (including a DVR, for which we pay a fee each month), and I ordered the Road Runner Turbo service for which I pay an additional $10 a month even though I haven't noticed an appreciable difference in speed, I hasten to add. Along the way, I've recommended Road Runner many times to other folks.

Now I certainly understand the concept of "bundling" services, and I also understand that AT&T is in the process of cleaning Time Warner's clock in terms of landing new customers for its DSL and phone service packages that are, at least in the beginning, considerably less expensive than Time Warner is offering. I understand that the great deals Time Warner is promoting are an attempt to generate new business -- and in a down economy, what better way to accomplish that than with attractive discounts?

All the same, I'm totally offended by all these free (or low-cost) offers that don't include loyal customers like me. Why don't those of us who would rather fight than switch providers get a break now and again? After all, we're suffering the same slings and arrows as everyone else these days; why wouldn't a company take steps to protect what it already "owns" from being raided by a competitor?

Of course, Time Warner isn't the only company to forget who's putting most of the butter on its bread. Take, for instance, a membership-based Web site to which we've been loyal almost from the start. Today, despite a membership roster numbering in the hundreds and a potentially lucrative niche market, active participants have dwindled to less than two handfuls. Although a number of management mistakes have contributed to the site's freefall, first and foremost is the site owner's total disregard for the most important fact of business success: If you don't take care of your customers, they'll stop caring about you.

Recently, ownership of the site changed hands; and if any money changed hands as well, I'm quite certain that it was a tiny fraction of the amount the former owner sank into development and maintenance over the years. Now, although members like me are taking a wait-and-see approach, the damage already has been done. Whether or not the new owner can restore trust and honest communication to the site remains to be seen (but every member I know, including me, is hopeful).

Some companies do seem to "get it" -- and Kohl's department store, which I've mentioned favorably in previous blogs, comes to mind immediately. Back when we first got a credit card there, the stores held "Senior Citizen" days once a month, when anyone age 50 and over who paid with the store credit card received an additional 15% off -- no limits, restrictions or exemptions like other department stores are fond of tacking on to their "special" offers. Those senior days apparently proved so popular, though, that they're now held every week (and I think the requirement of using a Kohl's charge card has been dropped as well).

For all intents and purposes, I should be upset that everyone else gets the same benefits as I do. But I'm not -- and here's why: Kohl's realizes the value of loyal customers and has sweetened the deal for us as well. Not only to we get frequent coupons giving us the 15% off in between those weekly seniors-only days, but I even received a no-strings-attached $10 gift card on my birthday. That was made even sweeter when I discovered I didn't need to buy $100 worth of merchandise to take advantage of it -- no, all I needed to do was spend the amount of the card (or more, which of course I happily did).

Savvy business owners realize that keeping current customers happy brings a number of benefits. Studies have shown, for instance, that it's far easier and more cost-effective to get additional business from existing customers than to recruit new ones. And, satisfied customers are a great source of the cheapest possible advertising -- word of mouth as they tell their family, friends and co-workers about their experiences. So it's a mystery to me why companies will spend a fortune trying to woo new folks to the fold, all the while making long-time customers feel unappreciated and undervalued by offering the farm to newbies who are likely to hang around only until some other company makes them a better offer.

At the moment, Time Warner is getting somewhere around $160 a month from our household. Over the years, we've been "treated" to a number of price hikes, but never -- not even once -- anything close to a financial deal. All I've ever received were offers to sell me more, and at prices that tended to increase after a ridiculously short time.

No, I'm not quite ready to bolt the door, but those offers from AT&T are starting to look very appealing right now. So if Time Warner doesn't start convincing me pretty soon that my business is just as important to them as the new kids on the block, I just may reconsider.

Or Is It Just Me?