Assimilation pertains to the strategies and supporting tactics of enhancing a buyers’ first-time purchase and post-purchase experience from a company so that a new customers feel compelled to make subsequent purchases and to recommend the company to others. In working with clients, I’ve found that most businesses consider first-time buyers as “active customers”; however, in reality a customer isn’t really a customer until he/she begins making additional purchases after the first one.
The late Bob Stone, a marketing legend, created his Thirty Timeless Direct Marketing Principles. The second principle was: “The most important order is the second order. After you have obtained the second order, you have achieved a ‘buying habit’.”
Proof of this became abundantly clear to me while serving the direct marketing needs of a large insurance provider for farmers. I say that for the following obvious reasons:
|
Insurance policies carried |
Active number of policyholders, Year One | Number of policy cancellations | Attrition percent | Active number of policyholders, Year Three |
Persistency Percent |
|
One policy |
72,034 |
29,264 | 40.6% | 34,686 |
48.2% |
|
Two policies |
50,526 |
9,968 | 17.7% | 37,731 |
74.7% |
|
Three policies |
16,287 |
1,137 | 7.0% | 13,771 |
84.5% |
|
Four policies |
5,353 |
231 | 4.3% | 5,122 |
95.7% |
As a long-term policyholder and member of USAA since being commissioned in the Navy 50+ years ago, I can attest to this on a personal basis – beginning only with an automobile policy. Today, my wife’s car and mine are insured by USAA, our home is insured by USAA, and we carry USAA’s credit cards.
I welcome your questions and/or comments: