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Keeping Your Customers Sticky

Customer retention—lowering churn, whatever you call it—is a key to ISP profitability. Here's a range of advice from the ISP community.

[October 4, 1999]

In a thread on ISP Marketing in September 1999, CK asked:

"Anyone care to share what your most effective customer stickyness strategy has been? ("Stickyness" is a buzz word for marketing things that create loyalty to your ISP—that induce your subscribers to stick around."

Answers ranged from fairly simple, specific measures, to general philosophies of orienting the business, to hooking into commercial promotional schemes.

[DR responded] "In an effort to increase customer stickyness, we are looking into offering web-based email. I've looked at Software.com's WebEdge, and it looks pretty good. Does anybody have any other recommendations?"

Several respondents did, in fact, have other recommendations for web-based email. You can read them in the ISP-Marketing archives.

[AL wrote] "Last month we held our 5th Annual Customer Clambake. As far as I know, we were among the first New England regional providers to host customer events such as this.

"The events have been highly successful in building customer loyalty as well as creating a buzz throughout our service region. The Boston Globe and other papers have regularly sent reporters to cover the event."

[D speculated] "I've been thinking in terms of investing about $10 for each customer to get a coffee cup wrapped in a T-shirt delivered to their home for the holiday season. I'll probably include a 'Free month' gift certificate that they can give away as a stocking stuffer or pop inside a card for the holidays."

[KR shared] ""We're a smaller ISP (fewer than 500 customers). Our stickyness strategy is personalization. Here are some of the important ingredients:

• "Beginning with the sign-up, being thorough and patient with the newer users.
• A personal Welcome e-mail explaining our services, signed by me.
• Getting to know my customers by name and having them getting to know me.
• Offering of services from Web mail to Beginners' Internet Classes.
• Follow-up Thank You cards sent via snail mail.
• Update email alerts on the latest viruses.
• Prompt service and support to those that need it. (24 hours a day)
• Offering new services from time to time—and taking the time to let our customers know about them.

"This may sound like a lot to take on, but support calls are minimal and so are our complaints. It works."

[A different KR contributed a different perspective] "To increase customer loyalty:

1. "Take your access product out of the commodity realm and place it in the proprietary realm. How? By making your service personally relevant to the user. Suggestions as from Kevin Beauchamp's recent article on local content are an excellent example.
2. "Consider moving from the philosophy of "selling access to anybody, anytime, anywhere" to a more vertical philosophy of "selling to similar groups of people who reference each other." For example, you might target a single profession in your service areas—say doctors. MDs work, conference, socialize, and play golf together. Marketing to them as a group will create a buzz for which you develop substantial word-of-mouth support ancillary to your marketing effort.

"This approach lets you articulate a message more precise and focused to their interests, compared to the generic 'fastest connections, no busy signals' approach. A message along the lines of 'Contact xxxxxx.net for your Internet service. It's the only ISP prescribed by 4 out of 5 doctors!' may sound silly. But it still sends a compelling marketing message."

[RH brought up a commercial scheme] "Check out beenz.com. This is a reward-based system similar to frequent flyer miles. A content provider buys 'beenz' at $0.01 and then offers them as rewards to users clicking on various targeted sites. End users collect the beenz, which they can then spend for products and services from participating vendors. There is a buzz that one of the top five ISPs just bought a few hundred thousand beenz to stimulate stickyness to their ISP and its customers."

[CM had another] "In order to have satisfied customers and reduce churn you need accurate demographic and lifestyle data about your customer base. Once you know what the interests, needs, and preferences of people—and businesses—in your area are, you can begin to cater to them.

"Sounds like it's too much work, too intrusive to the end user and too expensive, doesn't it? Well, Foveon Corporation has patent-pending technology that will allow your ISP to do all this plus much more. For example, thinking of deploying xDSL, and need help in getting to the right customers ASAP? Become a Foveon partner at no charge to you and Foveon will provide you the information you need.

"Right now, Foveon is looking for tier 1, 2, and 3 charter ISP's located within the top 50 MSAs in the U.S. to become 'ISPartners.' "

—End

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