Jeff Burgar
It is often said, it costs two to three times more to get a new customer as it costs to keep one you already have.
You don’t have to be in business to appreciate this makes a lot of sense, not only in business, but in all walks of life.
Your community has good doctors and nurses? You might be putting in all kinds of energies trying to get new ones. Yet, even when the names of committees of well-meaning people are along the lines of ‘Physician Attraction and Retention Committee’ how much attention is really paid to the ‘Retention’ part of that, compared to the ‘Attraction?’
Let’s talk all walks of life. Good teachers. Immigrants who have come to make a new home. All kinds of professionals, from lawyers to dentists to mechanics to tradespeople. Is our community doing everything possible to keep them happy, even while we might be out there ‘economic developing’ trying to attract more?
To be fair, there are people, businesses, services and more who maybe we don’t care much for. Maybe it would be nice to see them gone. Even if some of the neighbours tell us, “Be careful what you wish for. You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.”
So that’s Part One of our story. Part Two is a little bit of that past statement. We never really appreciate what we had, until it’s gone. Our local priest. The cranky doctor. That store we always thought had too high prices. The fact is, the landscape of rural Canada is littered left and right with closed businesses. Closed schools. Shortages of tradespeople. High prices and high taxes to pay for what is left. Which, by the way, also makes it even harder to do that ‘economic development’ most of us claim we want.
Economic development is not just another store. It is also every industrial employer, trades person, every service that demands education, well-equipped schools, health care and recreation facilities, and events. Much much more of those so-called ‘amenities.’
This all makes very good sense. But as said at the beginning of this piece, how many people ‘talk the talk’ about doing good in their community. Then completely fall asleep when it comes to walking the walk?
There are communities across Canada getting recognition for their efforts in welcoming newcomers. Drayton Valley right here in Alberta, to name only one, has for years been proud of their Filipino community.
And here is also a point to consider. When you act as if you don’t care, even if you really do, it is oh so easy to lose a customer, a service, a community member. All it takes is one mistake, one goof up, one bad instance, one “it’s not my job” and you might have lost something valuable.
And not even know it until its gone. Worth repeating, because you were completely and totally asleep at the switch.
The worst part? The place the person or service or event went to probably didn’t lift much of a finger to attract them. But overall, the new community was prepared. It might cost you plenty to get that customer or service back or, somehow, replace them. If you even can.