No matter what, loyal customers matter

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

That’s a common phrase which simply means that it is worth holding on to what you have rather than hoping for something you are not sure would be better.

Loyal customers are worth holding on to, although some do take them for granted.

They are the ones paying the companies’s bills and staff salaries, and give companies the cash flow to service their debts.

It’s their bread and butter and companies need to take care of them, although new growth is necessary and will make their stock more attractive.

A report says that in economic terms, a retained customer delivers significantly greater profitability than a newly acquired customer over two years.

In the telecoms sector, new packages seem to offer better value and greater flexibility, and users are not contract-bound unlike the older contracts where users are tied to 12, 24 or 36-month contracts.

There is no flexibility and breaking a contract comes with penalties.

Maxis Bhd was recently embroiled in a social media storm after details of a special offer to a user from East Malaysia who wanted to port out went viral.

Although it may be seen as unfair to other users, what Maxis did was nothing out of the ordinary, as it is something other companies in various industries do to retain customers.

Maxis could have responded sooner to avoid the flak, although eventually, its CEO and head of consumer business did come out, a move seen by industry peers as a brave one, in a live feed on the telco’s Facebook page to apologise for the unfair treatment and offer customers higher Internet quota.

The quota - 1GB to 5GB, 3GB to 8GB, 5GB to 12GB and 7GB to 16GB - is there but some users felt it came a little too late.

Yesterday, Maxis released 3GB of data valid for 45 days and you can expect more enhanced offerings by the end of the month.

This extra data offering will eventually eat into its earnings, but questions are still being asked as to why offer this only after an incident, and why to Maxis One plan and Surfmore50 users only?

The telco business is highly competitive and the services being offered are almost commoditised.

The ability to change service providers while keeping their phone numbers has allowed customers the freedom to seek the best packages.

With penetration rates showing a saturated market, the priority for service providers has shifted dramatically from simply acquiring customers to keeping the customers they already have.

As a report says, providers will need to earn their customers’ love in a large enough measure for customers to choose to stay loyal when tempted by competitive offers.

And when earning a customer’s loyalty, there are no second chances. Never assume a customer will cut you slack because you’ve got a long history together.

To earn loyalty, you must constantly prove to the customer that the relationship is crucial, the report says.

To the industry peers, there are plenty of lessons to be learnt from this episode, and to Maxis too.

Those dealing with users will have to bear in mind that the dynamics of the market has changed, and so has the consumer, his needs, wants and communication channels.