"Creating Raving Fans"

by Lynora Bayless, NMD (Las Vegas, NV)

How many of you want to keep your customers for life?  That’s where the really exciting income opportunity lies in our pay plan.  Our mail box money: our residuals are based on keeping customers on the product.

Regardless of the strategy, you’re not going to be able to do that 100% of the time

But one of the basic principles of business is: it costs far more to get a customer than keep them.  If you’ve been in the business more than 90 days and find yourself spending most of your time acquiring customers, you may not be leveraging your time in the best way possible.

How do you make raving fans?  It’s not about having satisfied customers.  Most customers are “satisfied” if you’re not rude, don’t charge them the wrong amount on their credit card, get their order in a reasonable amount of time, etc.  But a “satisfied” customer is one who can be swept away by a less-expensive, copycat product, the new nutritional fad of the month, or dissuaded when a family member or even a doctor tells them Juice Plus+ is a hoax.  Having only satisfied customers will eventually make you feel like you’re pouring new customers into a funnel that leaks profusely from the bottom.

Those things would never with a raving fan.  A raving fan talks about Juice Plus with the people they care about; would gladly take information to their doctor, calls you when they read about a less-expensive fruit and vegetable capsule in Dr. Leonard’s catalog.  A raving fan tells their critics “I’m worth it!” and “I’m smart enough to make a good decision for myself!”

It all starts with you having a really clear picture of what you want out of this business and what you imagine the ideal relationship with your customers to be.  My big audacious goal is to really impact the risk of disease associated with fruit and vegetable deficiencies and obesity.  That goal is only achievable with the help of a lot of friends that I make along the way and their friends, and their doctors and so on.

The next thing is understanding what your clients want.  Do they all want the same thing?  No!  Taking time to get to know them is really important.  Complete a personal health profile and listen, really Listen to what they tell you.  Before you ever send them a CD/DVD, you want to have a really clear picture of why Juice Plus+ would be important to them.  You also want to know the best way to contact them; whether e-mail, fax, lunchtime at work, or Saturday morning. 

Next, go about making sure that your relationship with them exceeds their expectations.

What are they really looking for?

Maybe to feel better?  Can you really control that?  No, so from the very beginning, emphasize prevention.  There is something you can control; people are starving for someone to take an interest in them. 

When I complete a health profile, I make notes like mad.  Very often they’re disclosing family members with the problems I name  (Details of household; kids names, husband, etc.)  When I do follow-up calls, I know exactly what to talk about.  How are you doing with those migraines?  Noticing any change?  How’s your energy been in the late afternoons? 

I do the routine follow up with postcards adding personal notes on the bottom; I make brief follow-up phone calls, “Just thinking about you, and wanted to give you a quick call.”  One of the most important calls is halfway through their fourth month on the product to make sure they are ready for the second box before the next scheduled ship date.

Getting a second box shipped to a customer isn’t your final goal.  I want to be helping them take responsibility for their health for life.  You can go a step further. If I read a great article relating fruits and vegetables to their area of concern; I copy and mail it with a short note, “I was thinking about you and thought you’d enjoy this article.”   When I send invitations to events, I attach a short note emphasizing the part of the talk that will pertain to their health issue.  Months after the sale, they’re still hearing from me and my closing line in letter instead of “sincerely” is “your partner in healthy living.”

This may sound terribly time consuming but in reality it saves me a tremendous amount of time.  Each and every month, I’m getting referrals--both for customers, business prospects, doctors to call on, customers ready to become distributors.  I have an ever-expanding warm market with this approach instead of wondering where I can drum up more business. 

What’s in it for me?  Each new friend brings me a little closer to my goal of eliminating fruit and vegetable deficiencies everywhere!

Customer Care   •   Virtual Franchise Owner's Manual Chapter 8