The Who keep saying farewell to their customers – so should you
A classic rock band’s penchant for "farewell tours" can serve as promotional inspiration for retailers.
British Invasion legends The Who have announced yet another farewell tour that will cross North America this summer. It is at least the fourth Who tour billed as the last chance to them in the last 40-plus years (I saw their “final” 1989 tour where they played their classic rock opera “Tommy” in its entirety and it was a stupendous performance).
The Who are not the only band to keep saying goodbye to their customers (ticket-buying fans). The Eagles, Kiss and the late, great David Bowie have all been known to take liberties with their farewell tours.
While encouraging fans to purchase tickets with shaky promises of a “final tour” may be a tad duplicitous (Who vocalist Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend both admitted in their autobiographies that at least the first farewell tour in 1982 was primarily a marketing gimmick), there is something to be said for engaging customers with multiple goodbye offers.
Here are a few customer touchpoints where you can drive sales with a farewell discount that doesn’t mean you won’t be seeing them again.
Leaving your site or store without a purchase
In an ideal world, every customer visit to an e-commerce site or brick-and-mortar store would result in them buying something. But the real world isn’t ideal, and potential shoppers often wind up never progressing beyond the browsing stage.
However, an empty-handed customer exit is the perfect opportunity to try to save the sale with a digital offer, at least for those shoppers who identify themselves. An instant offer with a message like “So sorry to see you go and we hate to see you leave empty-handed,” accompanied by either a personalized offer or a general discount good for the next 30 minutes could be enough to bring that shopper back.
At checkout
Last-minute efforts to add to customer baskets at online or in-store checkout are a time-honored retail promotional strategy. And for good reason. A customer who is already in the process of opening their wallet and happy to have found the product(s) they wanted is inclined to spend, so it’s the perfect time to make a targeted cross-sell or upsell offer.
[Read more: West Coast grocer Stater Bros. promotes loyalty at conveyor belt]
But don’t hesitate to add to the psychological imperative to take advantage of a targeted checkout offer by emphasizing that it is a parting gift. Something as simple as, “Goodbye, we’re so happy you came to see us today, here’s a special thank you in case we don’t see you again for a while,” can create valuable urgency that converts to extra sales.
After the customer says goodbye
Sometimes, the customer is the one that says goodbye. They usually don’t come right out and say it, but they simply stop visiting your site and/or store and no longer make purchases.
When one of these customers happens to be a loyalty member or otherwise identified shopper, you can reach out with a “final” goodbye message to get them to make at least one more purchase.
You can automatically flag these customers after a set period of time and send a message along the lines of, “We’re sorry that you no longer shop with us, but as a parting gift to thank you for your patronage we’d like to offer…” whatever targeted discount your algorithms identify as a likely purchase driver.
This can get at least one more purchase out of an otherwise dormant shopper, and possibly even rekindle a customer relationship. After all, goodbye doesn’t always mean goodbye, I’ve seen the Who three times since they bid me farewell in 1989 based on the offer of loud, driving rock n’ roll.
