Alienating Potential Customers?

This was not my intended new blog but after talking with a few others feeling the same way, I felt this was a good time to talk about it. That is alienating customers.

Now some don't even realize they are doing it. Some simply don't care. Some realize it but feel it is a good marketing tactic and will even repeat this again.

My first personal experience with this was at an online party for a product I was very interested in. At a party you normally expect some sort of special. The special was announced and sounded great! Then the conditions came - you receive the special for signing up with a new payment system only. What!? So because I already signed up I was not able to get the special no matter what I spent. How fair was that!? So I asked is there something special for us who have already signed up? No such luck. We got full price and full shipping, no discounts of any sort no matter the order size or even a freebie thank you gift.

Talk about feeling devalued. Maybe it didn't seem like much to some but here you are so excited to attend a party, ask those burning questions, you know a game is just around the corner, and a party special to sweeten the night only to be stunned with being told if you don't help the rep earn a referral bonus, you get zip, zero, nada.

Now I thought this was an isolated incident. I spoke with a few others casually and found it is becoming common. As we spoke a few things came up about how that made guests feel - unimportant, greedy rep, selfish rep with selfish intentions, alienated, devalued, unappreciated. More importantly the most common results was everyone would not buy from that rep, did not buy during that party even if a friend was getting credit, would not buy from that company even with a better rep, have told others to not buy from the rep/company.

Now the rep I encountered could have very easily earned my sale and a few others in my position had the special gone something like sign up with {blank} and get such and such off the entire order or spend such and such amount and get so much off the entire order. This way everyone is encouraged to buy, rep makes several sales, and likely to receive return customers.

I am sure these specials sounded great in theory but I don't believe these reps really knew how they made guests feel. By the way this was not the same rep in all situations. Each had a different encounter with a different rep.

While planning your party whether home, online, or catalog, make sure you are offering something for everyone and not just a select few. This is seperate from games. If you want to offer very little as far as specials, do a game and save your customers.

Remember a happy customer is a repeat customer and repeat customers tell others who become customers. No matter how it happens that means dollars for you no matter how you add it up. A unhappy customer or potential customer means no sales, then they tell others who also become non-customers that turns into a bad reputation. No customers mean no money no matter how you add it up.

Every customer and potential customer should be valued no matter how much they spend with you. Treat them as such and reap the benefits.