The package arrived in the post the other day. Excitedly, we tore it open to find a beautifully wrapped dark brown box...
One of the holy grails of sales is forced continuity. Imagine for a second selling something once and then forever more having your clients ring you up ordering more and more.
I can hear some of you saying, “I’d never get sucked into something like that...”
Really?
Bought a Gillette or Schick razor? They could give you the razor free – and have you buy the blades for ever more.
How about a water filter? At the low end you buy the jug and have to keep replacing the filters every month or so. And if you have an under the sink system – replacing the filter could be around the $100 or more mark.
And if you’re a coffee addict, Nestle makes a wonderful system called Nespresso.
The coffee machine is idiot proof, ridiculously easy to use and clean. You have no roasting, grinding or cleaning to do.
The coffee comes in sealed, one use capsules. You have a large range of blends to choose from and frankly, it beats just about any coffee I’ve bought in a café.
And if you’re like us, we go through boxes of the stuff. Forced continuity.
And there’s forced continuity in the service industry too.
Private medical insurance is a classic. In fact the Government forces you into it by charging you a premium on Medicare if you don’t. And once you’re in, you can’t leave without having the premiums jump dramatically if you want to come back.
And while you might change providers without penalty, most people, once they’ve joined a fund, will stick with it.
Banks are another. Most people hate changing banks and while you bitch and moan about lack of service, it’s often just too hard to change.
Now most of you reading this aren’t large corporations and may be wondering how you can get some forced (or at least what seems to be forced) continuity components into your offerings.
If you’re a professional service company, you might offer a service contract. Your clients automatically enrol when they start working with you and you have an opt-out process in place meaning you automatically charge them until they tell you to stop.
The service contract allows them to call you for advice and get priority service.
One of our mentors, Mal Emery does this very successfully with his coaching programs. Once you sign up he’ll keep charging your credit card every month, year in and year out.
And if you genuinely can’t find some way of providing continuity for your product or service, consider offering a loyalty program.
It could be as simple as a coffee card from a neighbourhood café – buy 5 coffees and get the next one free.
Our massage therapist offers this. We make sure he signs the card as we get a free 1 hour massage after every 5 we pay for. In fact, I’m going to have a free one this evening.
But back to the brown box...
It was from Nespresso. As part of the Nespresso Club, we regularly get sent 
samples of new coffee blends and other offers.
This is what it said on the box...
“Dear Club Member,
To thank you for your loyalty to Nespresso, we are delighted to offer you Palets Amandes, specially selected as a little treat to accompany your favourite Grand Cru. We wish you continued enjoyment with Nespresso”
Well, both Barbara and I scoffed some down. And we felt good.
Now that’s both a continuity and loyalty program in action.
Rashid.
P.S. If you’re struggling with how you could create a loyalty or continuity program, give me a call on (02) 9499-7958. We’ve helped a large number of companies just like yours create successful programs that bring in additional profits, day in and day out.
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