Reviewing some contracts recently, we uncovered a fascinating statistic – and one that makes us very proud. Across our product range, over 62% of our customers have been with us for more than ten years.
Ten years; that’s since we had the Coalition Government, before anyone had used the phrase ‘Brexit’ and before the topping out of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building (at time of writing!).
Every business website will tell you how important loyal customers are and we are certainly very grateful that so many of ours are. But what do we value most about our customers’ loyalty?
Loyalty reassures us that there are clearly a good number of things that we doing right. We often hear reports of competitors who are not responsive or who can’t grasp the particular challenges of working in Further Education in Britain. We are pleased to say that these are not criticisms levelled at us, because our customers help keep us in touch.
We would also like to think that the loyalty of our customers is in no small way down to the friendly, skilled and experienced colleagues in our team. Many have a background in FE themselves and believe passionately that the products we design and support can make working life easier for those still in education. Loyalty is definitely a compliment to our staff too.
But, more than anything else, what we value most about having such a loyal customer base is the quality of relationship we have built with them. Their honest, informative feedback allows us to update and develop our products not only as those colleges need but in a way that we can feel confident our products are fit for purpose in other colleges and training providers too. (This reminds us of a blog our CEO, Mark, wrote last summer called “Why we value developing new products with our customers (not just for them)”. If you missed it, follow the link here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-value-developing-new-products-our-customers-just-mark-trinick/)
We want to say a big ‘thank you’ to all of our customers, the long-standing and the new. (But, if you’ve been working with us since before the South Africa World Cup brought us the vuvuzela, know that we raise a loud fanfare to you in particular!)