Retain Midcycle Customers and Save the Planet…At the Same Time!
Verizon sent me a pretty cool text message on July 7. I would have written about it sooner, but I was, um, washing my hair…for, um, over two weeks.
Here’s what it said:
From: 900070003548
Free Verizon Wireless
Msg: We will give you a
$10 bill credit AND plant a
tree on your behalf when
you sign up for paperless
billing & autopay! Log on
to vzw.com/myverizon,
click profile, & update bill
options. Offer ends
7/13//08. To opt out of
future messages, reply X.
I thought that was a pretty cool offer, especially since I always view my bill online and never actually open the paper bill I receive at home. And a tree! Just for me? Just for getting rid of something I didn’t like anyway? Very cool.
Now, maybe Verizon sent this to all of its customers, I can’t say for sure. But I can’t help but think that this has something to do with the fact that I’m a midcycle customer (midcycle customers are those who fall somewhere between sign-up and contract completion). I have a year to go on my contract. And even though that’s a whole year away, I’ve been thinking about switching to AT&T for that pretty little iPhone. But now I’m having second thoughts. Verizon has been good to me. Great customer service, great network, and now they’ve planted a tree for me. It kind of makes it hard to leave, you know?
Companies often inadvertently neglect their midcycle customers and end up touching base right before the contract ends, which is often too late. I think this is especially true with carriers. Unless something bad happens—like, for instance, your trusty RAZR is stolen from the animal shelter you volunteer at by someone who is supposedly an honest, dependable person—you often don’t have to interact with your carrier. And if your carrier hasn’t had a chance to go above and beyond with great customer service, then there’s a good chance that you can be wooed by another carrier with a shiny new phone.
I’m not saying that a single tree will make me stay with Verizon. Ten trees maybe, but not one. But seriously, that text message did remind me that they’re there. That they’re doing good things for me. And so what if those good things for me actually save them money (that’s one less paper bill they’ll have to print, cut, fold, stuff, and stamp). And so what if it’s probably just a PR stunt that they’ll then grandly publicize later or at the very least write a press release about (”Verizon Wireless saves the planet by planting 1 million trees!”). In the end those things don’t matter much because both sides get something good out of the deal. I get $10 off my next bill. Verizon gets to save billing costs and increase the likelihood that I’ll remain a customer. It’s a win-win.
Tags: AT&T, iPhone, midcycle customer, mobile marketing, RAZR, SMS marketing, text marketing, Verizon