Retention, Part 23: Don’t Take Them For Granted
By Sanya Weathers
As we’ve discussed, the cheapest customer to acquire is the one you’ve already got. Every additional month, every item purchased from your cash shop by someone who is already a customer means more profit on the interaction for your company.
And your customer is hotly desired by all of your competitors. Unless you’re selling something the customer can’t get anywhere else, you can’t relax.
See, your player is constantly hearing about new products. Free trial this, sign up and get this free item that, join now and get 50% off everything. He’s also seeing what you’re doing to attract new customers in the way of freebies and discounts and special attention.
Don’t give him a reason to say, “What am I, chopped liver?” Don’t take him for granted. Here are some strategies that you could use, or that might spark your own ideas.
– Give everyone who has been on your books for more than six months a special item. Make a big deal out of this item, make it clear that reaching the six month mark (or whatever point where you find people starting to drop away) will also get this item.
– Consider real life items. The main trouble with virtual worlds is that they have nothing to hold, no tangible proof of the way they’ve been spending their time. Most virtual world citizens eventually reach a point where they realize that for all the time they spend woodcarving in your world, they could have carved a thousand totem poles in the physical world. Anyone who has spent more than a thousand hours in your world should get something to show for it – even if it’s just a keychain.
– Each customer is special. You’ve got their birthdays in your database. It’s not hard to set the system to send a birthday email on the active customer’s special day. If you’ve got a small player base, consider having someone on the community team scribble a personal email.
– Celebrate the most dedicated customers. Each year, figure out who has put in the most time. Write to them, thank them, and ask their permission to celebrate them on your website.