I was reading Nathan’s Smith blog post, January Randomness, and noticed something very refreshing about his web host, Dreamhost.

In the post, Nathan writes that when Dreamhost offers “promotional deals, they give the same benefits to all their existing customers free of charge.”

This is really refreshing thinking. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen promotional deals from a company that only apply to new customers. I can only imagine the consternation of existing, loyal customers when they see promotional offers that aren’t offered to them.

Making your current customers happy is just as important as bringing in new customers, period.

I have a related example of this. Note: Before I go into my example, I’ll be honest, I have no idea of the econonimcs of rental properties, so it’s probably easy for me to be “armchair quarterback.” Anyone that has actual in-depth knowledge of the industry can comment or make a rebuttal.

Currently, I don’t own a home and I rent an apartment. For the past 3 years, I’ve been a loyal customer of my apartment complex and yet they make almost no effort in retaining me as a customer.

Every year, like clockwork, when my lease is up all they do is raise the rates on me and never give me any sort of deal (like the deal that I got when I moved in). What’s my incentive for staying?

What’s the outcome? I’m looking at other places seriously and if everything goes according to plan, I will not renew my lease.

I’m sure that this happens with other industries as well. In other words, what are you doing to retain your customers?