Musings Of A Marketer » customer retention http://www.nastaev.com Blog By Zalim Nastaev Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:36:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Increasing Prices, The Smarter Way… http://www.nastaev.com/2008/04/07/increasing-prices-the-smarter-way/ http://www.nastaev.com/2008/04/07/increasing-prices-the-smarter-way/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:03:07 +0000 Zalim http://www.nastaev.com/?p=46 One day or another you have to expect that you will have to increase prices for your product/service. The level will depend, of course, and here, in Russia, it is hardly acceptable. Government can’t help it, their forecasts and plans for the forthcoming year are never true. So, what would be your way out – how are you going to settle your pricing policy without jeopardising your relationships with the customers?

Depending on your industry flexibility, there’s a good way to implement target price increase. Raise air ticket prices as much as you can for those business people who need to fly urgently on a specific date, and return the next day. Raise you hotel room prices for those who order specific rooms on a specific date – and that means tomorrow. Keep the prices fixed for those who order 3 months before. Keep the prices at the same level for schoolkids who travel on their summer holidays, and increase the prices for the parents accompanying. Keep the prices (or try to lower them) for oldies who visit their kids’ families.

Or, simple as that – give your customers a little more than you offered before. For me here, in Moscow, a nice and sincere smile from a pretty sales lady will be more than enough in many cases (’cause it’s really a rare occasion and a very big deal here)…
Big deal for me – big deal for you if you sell me smth that way :)

]]> http://www.nastaev.com/2008/04/07/increasing-prices-the-smarter-way/feed/ 0 Prefer Loyal Customer or Prospect? Try Both… http://www.nastaev.com/2008/03/25/prefer-loyal-customer-or-prospect-try-both/ http://www.nastaev.com/2008/03/25/prefer-loyal-customer-or-prospect-try-both/#comments Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:30:56 +0000 Zalim http://www.nastaev.com/index.php/2008/03/25/prefer-loyal-customer-or-prospect-try-both/ A marketing dilemma from Seth Godin – which customer will you choose as preferred, and thus pay more attention and provide a better service: the one who is loyal and valuable or the one who you might turn into loyal.

Simple answer is that you cannot afford providing insufficient service. You can, and you must, treat people differently but none will settle for the worse. Should you have no nice table at your restaurant, let them have a special offer, a free drink, or whatever else. Should you have no nice rooms left at a hotel, there are tons of ways to make your guest feel special living in a less decent room etc. Many ways to improve the worse offer, many ways to lock a customer loyal and as many – to set him free to search for your competition. Choose one wisely…

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