Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

THIS IS YOUR GRANDFATHER’S CUSTOMER SERVICE

Well, kind of. Back in the days predating the faceless monolithic global corporations, one common thread bound these concerns together: service. Personalized and empathetic customer service was fairly commonplace. Without it, there wasn’t much chance of survival. One didn’t need fancy technology, computer systems, or databases to remember the names and preferences of one’s most loyal and valuable customers. Today, however, it would appear that the tides have turned irrevocably and that great service has become an endangered species.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the piano industry was one of the most popular and fastest growing in the United States; there were literally hundreds of piano manufacturers worldwide. Today there are but a handful, one of which is the very recognizable and popular Steinway company. Here’s a little blurb from their web site³⁴:

Figure 10.1 Dissecting Customer Experience across the Flipped Funnel

Source: © Joseph Jaffe.

The purchase of a Steinway-designed piano is an investment in music and an artistic musical instrument that requires general care and maintenance to ensure that it will perform to its designed specifications. To protect this valuable instrument it is important to ensure that you and your sales representative have completed, during the purchasing process, the owner’s registration ...