Wow, it’s been too long since my last article… will try not to do that again…

Okay, I suppose I shouldn’t speak for all cellphone companies, but in past experience I’ve seen cellphone companies offer fantastic incentives to join their network.  They’re offering huge discounts on the handsets, at times even free, very attractive talk and data plans, etc.  We all know the catch is that they want you to sign a contract with them for years, and then sometimes it can be difficult to ever get out of the agreement, but that’s not the point of this article… the interesting thing is that all their best offers and incentives are saved only for people who haven’t ever given them any prior business.  It’s all about the new customer.  Once they’ve got you, it can feel at times like they don’t care about you anymore, or certainly not as much as someone new.  Suddenly, your hard-earned business that they really went out of the way to get from you doesn’t feel like it matters so much anymore.  You’re yesterday’s news.

Doesn’t feel very good does it?  Doesn’t engender any sort of loyalty, or make the customer feel appreciated very much at all.  I’ve heard many people rail against their cell-phone provider – I’m personally quite happy with mine at the moment, but it’s not really because they’re making me feel special or valued as a repeat customer… my satisfaction comes from a quality handset, and quality cellular service.  Meaning, they’re simply delivering the goods they promised, at a level of quality I am content with.  But I don’t feel any loyalty toward them, or feel that they’ve treated me in any way special at all, in exchange for my continued business.

I feel like bands can sometimes spend all their energy trying to entice new people to listen to their music, and once a person has bought your music. or come to a show, there’s sometimes very little effort put towards making that person feel appreciated or special, beyond the band putting on a good show.  (simply delivering the goods as promised.)

There can be lots of similarities between the cellphone company example, and a band… so I have to wonder what would happen if a band started to treat their existing customers as the most special ones, instead of future potential customers.  There could be repeat purchase incentives, special offers made only to your best customers, exclusive shows only for people who bought a certain expensive merch item,… the sky’s the limit really, when it comes to ideas.

What would you do (or even better… what ARE you doing) to make your current fans and customers feel special?