Customer Life Cycles in Libraries

From Rajesh Jain’s Emergic blog:

I was inspired by this blog post to think about the customer life cycle in libraries:

The 5 Phases in the life of a Customer Relationship:

1. Non-Customer and Competitor’s Customer: This is the universe of customers that need to be targeted. They can either be first-time customers in a category, or they could be competition’s existing customers. Need: Branding and Lead Generation
2. Future Customer: This is where a subset of the non-customers have become interested and could be prospected to become a customer soon. Think of this as ‘dating’ or scouting. Need: Engagement
3. New Customer: This is where the customer has just begun a relationship (‘marriage’). The first month or so can be thought of as a ‘honeymoon’ period with the customer. Need: Onboarding
4. Existing Customer: This is where the customer needs to be retained, delighted and harvested. Else….think ‘seven-year-itch’! Need: Servicing and Engagement
5. Ex-Customer: This is where an existing customer leaves to become someone else’s customer (‘divorce’). Need: Branding and Lead Generation

So, ask yourself the following questions about your customers. I’ll use public libraries as an example:

“1. Non-Customer and Competitor’s Customer:

Who else has customers you would like to have? Schools? Universities? Colleges? Bookstores? Clubs? Service organizations?
What are the qualities of your target markets? What are you desired demographic targets?

2. Future Customer:

Who are your future customers and how do you handle them? Story hours? Maternity moms? Immigrants?
What services delight whom? DVDs for some, audiobooks for others? Programs for some, newspapers for others? Teen clubs or genealogy clubs?

3. New Customer:

Where do you find new customers? Newly arrived people in your community? Welcome wagon? Immigrants? New homes and apartments? New school enrolees?
Who underuses the library and what do you have that would attract them?
Is there a difference between the physical library and the virtual library promotion?

5. Ex-Customer:

How do you handle customers who fail to stick? Do you look at circulation records and find them and survey why they left? Did they move or lose interest? Are they sick? Are they aware of distance services?

Just some questions using this framework. Great businesses follow this model to recruit and retain new customers? How does your plan look for increasing cardholders, reputation, and gate traffic?

Stephen