RETENTION RETENTION RETENTION

Can you guess what the word of the day is?  That’s right, it is Retention.  You know what it means, but is your business doing everything it can to retain the customers who visit you?  In order to grow a business you must do two things, acquire new customers and keep them around for a LONG time.  Yet, studies show that businesses are over 3x more likely to focus on acquisition efforts compared to retention efforts.  This post will focus on why retention is important necessary  CRUCIAL to your business plan.

Retention Makes More Money Honey

According to estimates, around 80% of future revenue for businesses come from just 20% of existing customers.  And it is not hard to figure out why, existing customers are easier to sell to.  They are comfortable, they know your business.  The likelihood of converting an existing customer to buy from you again is 60-70%, while the likelihood of converting a new prospect to purchase is only 5-20%!  Are you playing the odds correctly?  By focusing your resources to improve the way you retain customers, your company has the potential to generate a significant amount of revenue.  The more you retain, the more money you have to spend on gains.

Retention Has Less Cost Boss

The cost of customer acquisition (CAC) have been estimated to cost 4 to 10 times more than the cost of retaining an existing one.  Not to mention that existing customers are familiar with your business and require a lot less hand-holding and understand how to go through the process and where to get help to solve any problems they may encounter.  As a result, existing customers are a lot cheaper to provide service to.  And your existing customer base is a golden source for referrals, therefore efforts you put into retention will help grow your customer base.  Keeping customers around for the long haul means you’re delivering a great experience and you can turn your happy customer’s success stories into case studies to bring in more prospects.

Retention Is a Marketing King

Not only do your retention efforts generate revenue, they also give you a lot of insights on how to improve your marketing effort to acquire new customers by letting you know what content you need to communicate to prospects, and who you need to be targeting.

Welp, How Does DeliveryMaxx Help?

By now, you’re probably familiar with many aspects of the DeliveryMaxx program,  (If not feel free to check out some of our older posts or http://deliverymaxx.com/why-deliverymaxx.html) but are you aware of the DeliveryMaxx tools that allow you to lead an unparalleled focus on retaining your customers?  Not only are all of your customers being followed up with messages congratulating them on their purchase, reminders to provide a review of their experience online, Happy Birthday wishes, and additional messages on the anniversaries of their purchase, you also have the ability to take it a step further with custom video messaging that only takes a few short moments to create.  You or your staff can film short video clips that will be sent out thanking them, wishing them a happy birthday or holiday, reminding them they have a service date coming up, and more!  You can create custom messages with a highly personal touch keeping you and your business in the front of their minds for years to come.

So, why are you still reading this?  Open up the DMAXX App and start building a lifelong relationship with your customers today!

STUDY: 75 Percent Of TV Viewers Multitask, And Facebook Is The Social Network Of Choice

David Cohen on June 17, 2014 5:35 PM

It’s no secret that the television screen no longer commands undivided attention in most households, but Facebook wanted to dig a little deeper into the viewing habits of its users, commissioning a study of more than 500 people by global market research agency Millward Brown.

Findings of the study, reported in a post on the Facebook for Business page, included:

• 75 percent of respondents liked to multitask while watching TV because it made them feel productive.
• 33 percent said they multitask in order to continue to be entertained or communicate with friends and family.
• The No. 1 activity during TV shows or commercial breaks was checking email, with 82 percent of respondents doing so during commercials, and 70 percent during shows.
• 71 percent of respondents said they visit social media platforms during commercials, while 64 percent did so during shows.
• Of those who visited social networks, Facebook was the most preferred, by far, at 85 percent, with 65 percent saying they spent more than 15 minutes on the site.
• 94 percent of respondents who use Facebook said it was their preferred digital platform.
• 41 percent of respondents said seeing ads on TV caused them to interact with those brands or products on their computers, tablets, or mobile phones.

The social network said in introducing the results of the study:

Once upon a time, families gathered around giant wood-paneled television sets that they switched on with the turn of a dial. As shows flickered across bulging screens, people talked, read the newspaper, or did chores.

Flash forward to the present. The TV is now a flat screen on the wall. It is still an integral part of our lives, but as modern families watch their shows of choice, many of them engage with another screen — a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, or a smartphone — that provides access to a stream of content and conversation.

Why are people looking at these other screens while watching TV, and what are they looking at? These are some of the questions we sought to answer in a study we recently commissioned of more than 500 people from global market research agency Millward Brown. The study explored people’s changing behavior while watching live primetime TV in the U.S. and the resulting implications for marketers.

And Facebook provided the following takeaways for marketers:

Brands have an opportunity to be part of the new way we watch TV across multiple screens. 41 percent of respondents said that seeing an ad on TV led them to interact with that same brand or product on their devices.

As multiscreening becomes the norm, marketers can turn what could be perceived as a distraction into an integrated and enhanced brand experience that extends from TV across multiple device screens.

Facebook — viewed as one of the main online destinations while watching live primetime TV — can help augment and maximize the reach of TV in the living room and beyond.

Readers: Did any of the findings by Millward Brown surprise you?

The Future of Social Media Marketing

The world of social media is constantly changing.  New sites, applications, and features are constantly being implemented and it is near impossible for business owners to oversee their day to day operations AND monitor social media and internet trends.

That is where DeliveryMaxx comes in.  DeliveryMaxx is the most advanced and fastest growing digital media marketing company on the planet.  We do the work for you to ensure you are getting the most return out of online marketing campaigns.

Here is a look at a few ways DeliveryMaxx can help your company grow its online presence:

Specific Consumers

Internet users have the ability to block out unwanted messages.  If a person sees someone wearing a tee-shirt with a unicorn on it that they want they go home and use Google to search for the shirt specifically.  That person will not click on the google advertisement at the top selling non-unicorn tee-shirts, they will continue to search for a company that has the item they’re looking for, and even if 100 companies carry the shirt, the one that gets the sale is the one that promoted their product correctly.  DeliveryMaxx’s experts takes your content and promotes it in ways that it will help people find exactly what they’re looking for, exactly when they’re looking for it.  Trying to force someone to buy something they don’t have any interest in ever purchasing doesn’t work on today’s online consumers.

Appealing to Previous Customers

The term Customer is misleading, you may think you’ve already won their business, but it’s easy to forget that the key word in “social media” is “social,” and you’re customers have A LOT of access to your potential future customers.  Even the shyest person behaves charismatically on social media, particularly about their experiences with brands and businesses.  It is important to think of your social media audiences as potential future customers and referrers of future customers.  If you have 1,000,000 happy customers, and one angry one, odds are your Google Review Page will have one angry review on it.  DeliveryMaxx uses custom built applications that give you and your customers the tools necessary for your happy customers to use their voice online as well.  Through our unique review sites you can encourage your customers to write about their good experience by handing them a keyboard while on site and their glowing recommendations will be visible to the world before they even walk out of your door with a smile on their face.

Being Remarkable

Remember social media networks were designed for humans to interact with humans, not businesses to interact with leads.  When marketing on Facebook or Twitter, you’re not just competing with status updates from other businesses, you’re competing with a video of someone’s niece walking for the first time.  DeliveryMaxx applies an emphasis to creating social media campaigns that are geared towards the customers creating unique content that people are actually interested in and showing that you care about more than selling a product or service.

According to the Integer Group there are 2,314 tweets sent out every single second, so how can you stand out among the chaos?  DeliveryMaxx improves the quality of your content to be more consistent across your social channels and designing content to go viral and help grow your social reach.  We can turn you into the brand or business that people genuinely want to follow and read content from on a daily basis.

These are just a few ways DeliveryMaxx can help your business grow its online presence.  For more information about becoming a DeliveryMaxx client visit http://deliverymaxx.com 

DeliveryMaxx Launches Social Media and Online Reputation Mobile App

Social Media Marketing and Online Reputation Management are two of the most important pieces when it comes to companies trying to sell services or products on the web.

Four years ago, Josh Deaton and James Schaefer formed a company that they envisioned would change the way businesses would brand, sell, and communicate on the web.  They started out helping the automotive industry and soon expanded their client network to include hotels, employment agencies, non-profits, CPAs, oil and gas businesses.  Mr. Deaton had served in many capacities helping run some of the largest automotive companies in the United States while Mr. Schaefer was a well experienced senior executive in marketing and advertising.

Together they formed DeliveryMaxx which is one of the fastest growing Digital Media companies in the country.  “It is not about how large our company is becoming; but rather about the service we are able to deliver.  DeliveryMaxx is truly social media’s answer to customer engagement and online reputation management.” States Josh Deaton, CEO and co-Founder of DeliveryMaxx.  DeliveryMaxx has truly created something special.

During Deaton’s time in the automotive industry; he noticed a lack of companies that engaged potential customers.  All of the social media companies promoted the same thing.  “They (Social Media Companies) would all have the same story.  We can advertise you or tell you when you have a bad review.  However, there was no real work or innovation on their part.  It was all done by the press of a button” explains Deaton.

DeliveryMaxx is a Cinderella story.  Financed by both Deaton and COO & co-Founder, James Schaefer; DeliveryMaxx has fast become the talk of the digital world.  “We have created patent-pending technology that actually provides opportunities for customers to share their experiences with future potential customers.  We do this utilizing Social Media Marketing and Online Reputation working together to produce these measurable results” states Schaefer.  Other companies have tried to mimic DeliveryMaxx, but fall short of the mark because they do not have real people doing real work for their clients.  “Those companies are all automated, and fail to use simple business practices that make sense for their clients” says Schaefer.

After a 60 day beta testing in current clients; DeliveryMaxx is launching the first Mobile App of its kind allowing their clients customers to share their experience with the world immediately.  The phone app is compatible with iOS, Android, and soon the Windows phones.  In addition to the phone app; DeliveryMaxx also includes an Online Review program that helps customers give reviews to all of the major social media sites.  “Not only do we build great original content for dealerships, help them obtain online reviews; but we also monitor the review sites and help respond.  This has worked very well for our automotive dealerships, but we are finding that almost any company who depends on online reviews is able to utilize our services” comments Deaton.

The app can be downloaded by anyone, but will only be able to be utilized by DeliveryMaxx customers.

“DeliveryMaxx was created methodically filling in all of the gaps that dealerships were unable, or did not know how to fill to complete the circle of attracting a new customer, providing great service or products, and having them share their experience immediately with friends and family” explains James Schaefer, thus providing automotive dealerships and other organizations with a unique ability to increase CSI Scores, Sales, Customer Loyalty, Service Revenue, Online Reputation, Search Engine Optimization, and Branding.

DeliveryMaxx is a privately held company providing social media marketing, web-based solutions, customer retention, and other advertising services and is based in Rockwall, Texas.  DeliveryMaxx is the preferred provider for companies needing to improve web presence, online reputation, customer satisfaction, sales, and innovative strategies that enables them to confidently deploy their mission-critical products and services in today’s competitive environment for market share.  

Clients of DeliveryMaxx include automotive dealerships, hotels, surgeons, insurance agencies, marketing agencies, educational institutes, non-profits, sports teams, attorneys, employment agencies, and politicians.  

For additional information about the company or its products and services, visit www.deliverymaxx.com.

Huffines Chevrolet Plano shares story through Digital Media

After 85 years of success, and thousands of happy customers in the Dallas Fort Worth area; the Huffines story will be shared by DeliveryMaxx’s digital platform.

On May 5, 1924 Huffines Motor Company opened for business in downtown Denton. J.L. Huffines, Sr. founded the company on two principles which are still the benchmark for all decisions made at the dealerships – treat the customer the way they want to be treated and support the community.

Mr. Huffines always believed that when he sold someone a vehicle he had made a friend. Passed from father to son, to grandson, Mr. Huffines' philosophy has formed the solid foundation on which every Huffines dealerships are grounded, small town friendliness and a strong commitment to please each and every customer.

Through all of this, Huffines had been satisfying customers – many who still shop at Huffines today. The fact that grandchildren and great grandchildren of original customers still shopping at Huffines 85 years later certainly proves the success of their commitment to customer satisfaction.

Today, the Huffines Motor Company has grown to nine auto dealerships in Plano, Denton, Lewisville, and McKinney and has over 800 team members to better serve all their customers automotive needs.  The dealer franchises include Chevrolet, Subaru, Dodge, Jeep, RAM, KIA, and Hyundai.  All of the dealerships include the latest most advanced cars, trucks, and suvs as well as a plethora of pre-owned vehicles.

Ray Huffines, is the dealer principal for the Huffines Auto Dealerships and is guiding the dealerships selling more than 13,000 new and used vehicles a year, still embracing an 88-year-old mission—to treat customers’ right and support the communities in which the Huffines’ dealerships operate.

“The Huffines family has always said if we treat someone how they want to be treated and support the community as well as take care of your employees, success will take care of itself” states Mr. Huffines.

The Huffines Auto Dealerships have been honored with the Consumer’s Choice Award for Auto Dealership Group of the Year for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. The Dallas Morning News recognized with its Top 100 Places to Work for 2011 Award and the Neighbors Choice ‘Go’ section, Best Auto Dealership and Best Auto Repair Facility Award. The dealerships have also been recognized by the DFW Community Newspapers for the Best New Dealerships, Best Pre-owned Dealerships, and Best Repair Facilities Awards. In addition, the Huffines Auto Dealerships have also earned GM’s Mark of Excellence and Standards for Excellence awards, the Chrysler Five Star and Customer Care Standards awards, the Hyundai Board of Excellence Award, KIA’s Dealer Excellence Program Award, and Subaru’s Stellar Performance Award.

“DeliveryMaxx is honored to provide our services for such a great organization like the Huffines Motor Company.  As a kid growing up in Denton, I always knew the Huffines name and I am proud to say that my grandfather, my parents and I have been customers of the dealership” states James Schaefer, Chief Operating Officer of DeliveryMaxx.  “The Huffines name is synonymous with the automotive industry in North Texas.  They have a great story to tell, and we are excited to help them share this wonderful story with the internet community.”

Huffines Chevrolet Plano is located at 1001 Coit Rd in Plano, Texas.  More information can be found by visiting www.huffineschevyplano.com or by calling 972.867.4000.  “We welcome everyone to come see what it is like to be treated how you want to be treated” says, Lee Ingrahm, General Manager of Huffines Chevrolet Plano.

Baytown’s Leading CPA Selects DeliveryMaxx for Digital Solution

When searching for a certified public accountant businesses and individuals have the ability to choose from hundreds of individuals and firms.  However, very few CPA’s are able to adapt and change with the today’s advancement of technology.  After a rigorous search, BW James Certified Public Accountants, led by founder and CPA Barry W. James, has chosen the leading firm of DeliveryMaxx to provide Social Media Marketing and Digital Solutions to keep their clients better informed of the latest financial, accounting, back office support system, advisory, and tax services available in the industry.  BW James Certified Public Accountants is one of Houston areas most progressive accounting firm.

Barry W. James is a native of Baytown, Texas just outside of Houston.  He is known as being innovative and by utilizing advance technology and sound financial reporting accomplished through one-on-one approach Barry W. James CPA’s gives their clients the attention that they deserved.  Barry James’ clients are highly valued.

With over 8 decades of experience performing financial planning and public accounting for clients; Mr. James and his CPA associates have provided exceptional tax, financial, estate planning, and accounting services to a diversified client base throughout the area and state.  Having a close relationship with each client, assisting them personally with tax, accounting, and personal wealth needs; he specializes in IRS, state and local tax audits, as well as small business and personal consultation.  

James is a long-standing member in the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, the National Society of Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He was recently selected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Rehabilitation Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to making a difference to thousands of children and adults with disabilities in Baytown and the surrounding East Houston communities.

Barry James is part of RootWorks, the accounting profession’s exclusive premier membership-based education organization which reviews today’s most advanced cloud-based technologies exchanging ideas to best serve their clients’ necessities.

“Barry James Certified Public Accountants is truly the Next Generation Accounting Firm and Barry James is the epitome of a servant leader who protects his clients and guides them through the various financial trials” states DeliveryMaxx’s Chief Operating Officer, James Schaefer.  “We are honored to provide our digital solution platform for Barry James and his firm.”

Barry James Certified Public Accountants is located just outside of Houston at 721 E. Texas Ave. in Baytown, Texas.  Barry James and his team of financial and tax professionals can be reached by calling 281.420.1040 or visiting https://www.bwjames.com.

Customer Retention & Loyalty Done Right

Customer Retention marketing is a tactically-driven approach based on customer behavior. It's the core activity going on behind the scenes in Relationship Marketing, Loyalty Marketing, Database Marketing, Permission Marketing, and so forth. Here’s the basic philosophy of a retention-oriented marketer:

1. Past and Current customer behavior is the best predictor of Future customer behavior. Think about it. In general, it is more often true than not true, and when it comes to action-oriented activities like making purchases and visiting web sites, the concept really shines through.

We are talking about actual behavior here, not implied behavior. Being a 35-year-old woman is not a behavior; it’s a demographic characteristic. Take these two groups of potential buyers who surf the World Wide Web:

People who are a perfect demographic match for your site, but have never made a purchase online anywhere. People who are outside the core demographics for your site, but have purchased repeatedly online at many different web sites. If you sent a 20% off promotion to each group, asking them to visit and make a first purchase, response would be higher from the buyers (second bullet) than the demographically targeted group (first bullet). This effect has been demonstrated for years with many types of Direct Marketing. It works because actual behavior is better at predicting future behavior than demographic characteristics are. You can tell whether a customer is about to defect or not just by watching their behavior; once you can predict defection, you have a shot at retaining the customer by taking action.

2. Active customers are happy (retained) customers; and they like to "win." They like to feel they are in control and smart about choices they make, and they like to feel good about their behavior. Marketers take advantage of this by offering promotions of various kinds to get consumers to engage in a behavior and feel good about doing it.

 These promotions range from discounts and sweepstakes to loyalty programs and higher concept approaches such as thank-you notes and birthday cards. Promotions encourage behavior. If you want your customers to do something, you have to do something for them, and if it’s something that makes them feel good (like they are winning the consumer game) then they’re more likely to do it.

Retaining customers means keeping them active with you. If you don't, they will slip away and eventually no longer be customers. Promotions encourage this interaction of customers with your company, even if you are just sending out a newsletter or birthday card.

The truth is, almost all customers will leave you eventually whether you are priced out of their market,have suppior competition, or the customer dies. The trick is to keep them active and happy as long as possible, and to make money doing it.

3. Retention Marketing is all about:

Action – Reaction – Feedback – Repeat.

Marketing is a conversation, as the ClueTrain Manifesto and Permission Marketing have pointed out. Marketing with customer data is a highly evolved and valuable conversation, but it has to be back and forth between the marketer and the customer, and you have to LISTEN to what the customer is saying to you.

For example, let's say you look at some average customer behavior. You look at every customer who has made at least 2 purchases, and you calculate the number of days between the first and second purchases. This number is called "latency" - the number of days between two customer events. Perhaps you find it to be 30 days.

Now, look at your One-Time buyers. If a customer has not made a second purchase by 30 days after the first purchase, the customer is not acting like an "average" multi-purchase customer. The customer data is telling you something is wrong, and you should react to it with some type of strategic promotion. This is an example of the data speaking for the customer; you have to learn how to listen.

 4. Retention Marketing requires allocating marketing resources. You have to realize some marketing activities and customers will generate higher profits than others. You can keep your budget flat or shrink it while increasing sales and profits if you continuously allocate more of the budget to highly profitable activities and away from lower profit activities. This doesn't mean you should "get rid" of some customers or treat them poorly.

It means when you have a choice, as you frequently do in marketing, instead of spending the same amount of money on every customer, you spend more on some and less on others. It takes money to make money. Unless you get a huge increase in your budget, where will the money come from?

For example, let's say you have 1,000 customers, and you have an annual budget of $1,000. You spend $1 on each customer each year, and for that $1, you get back $1.10 in profits. That's an ROI of 10%; you got back $1,100 for spending $1,000.

Now, what if you knew spending $2 each year on a certain 50% of customers would bring back $8 in profits? That's a 400% ROI. Where do you get the extra $1? You take it away from the other 50% of customers. You spend the same $1,000 total and you make back 500 (half the customers) x $8 = $4,000.

If you always migrate and reallocate marketing dollars towards higher ROI efforts, profits will grow even as the marketing budget stays flat.

You have to develop a way to allocate resources to the most profitable promotions, deliver them to the right customer at the right time, and not waste time and money on unprofitable promotions and customers.

For more information creating customer loyalty, visit www.deliverymaxx.com

Good luck, and we look forward to seeing you at the top!