Right on cue today it seems as recently I decided to initiate a service cancellation for my Internet service and the loyalty department contacted me shortly. Companies often need to know that you are serious in leaving before giving you the best deals. The thing is I spoke with other people who got retention offers and with that I already knew ahead of time what was the current best offer. This means I don’t really need to waste time negotiating and if I go elsewhere then at least I know how much cheaper the service should be.
So in talking to me they made me an offer which I knew was a little less than what was given to others. As well, I knew that they were upgrading people’s equipment for free to for better service. With all this knowledge, I pretty much just asked for these items and they just gave it to me. It falls perfectly inline with what they can offer to retain a customer. Again, knowing that’s the max too I didn’t need to press on as the deal sounded good enough for me to stay.
All these combined makes getting the best deals stress free. In contrast, I know a person who got frustrated as he phoned into the customer service department trying to get a better deal for this renewal with no constant luck it seems. I would have probably done the same if I was new to all this as you try and swarm them with all these offers from competitors in hopes to get a better deal. Simply ask what others are getting, schedule for a cancellation a few weeks ahead of the contract expiry and if they really want to keep you they will approach you instead.