Life Time Customers. Why?

[clivew]

Seeking opinions on Customer For Life offers. Good or bad.

One of the FAQ's I often get asked by program managers and from affiliates goes something like the following exchange:

[11:35:41 AM] Program manager PM says: Clive, are you around? I've got a question to ask you.
[12:28:57 PM] Clive says: hi

PM says: yes I'm here
PM says: We promise our affilaites lifetime commissions .. not using cookies so its embeded into their accounts.
What SHOULD happen if a customer makes a purchase later on, but comes through another affiliates site.
Should the orig aff get the credit, or would you expect the new aff to get the credit?

Clive says: the industry standard has always been the original affiliate
We use up to 13 levels of tracking algorithm to maintain the original referrer's integrity
because of this quite long standing practice.

However, this is not so motivating for new affiliates I agree.

So a solution can be - purge lists once a year to remove inactive affiliates?
If the original affiliates has withdrawn from the program a possible solution to the problem, from the new affiliate perspective is to purge lists of inactive affiliates once a year.

I know of 2 programs that follow this practice.

OK members - what are your opinions?

[mr_x]

I only agree with lifetime comissions if they are my own customers :)

But really I say give the comission to the affiliate who bring's him back. Otherwise the foreseen problem is the original affiliate has a great campaign and spends a ton of money on say PPC, but he only does it that one time for say 3 months and gets oh lets say 5,000 customers. Say he doesn't advertise again, but all these other affiliates are advertising andthe original affiliate is basically getting all the credit and doing nothing to deserve it.. see my point?

EDIT: I forgot to add: what about affiliates offering lower prices, free shipping, etc? The reason the customer chooses another affiliate website can be one of many and in my opinion it should always be up the the customer where they shop.

This is why i never send people directly to the source, I always make a website that they can remember, with useful information and then I send them from that site to the source. This way, when re-order time comes along they just type in the url (if they can remember) and I will get the credit.

My favorite are the programs which send the customers a renewal notice when its time to re-order and the affiliate actually gets the commission for it.

[RxRob]

I only agree with lifetime comissions if they are my own customers :)

But really I say give the comission to the affiliate who bring's him back. Otherwise the foreseen problem is the original affiliate has a great campaign and spends a ton of money on say PPC, but he only does it that one time for say 3 months and gets oh lets say 5,000 customers. Say he doesn't advertise again, but all these other affiliates are advertising andthe original affiliate is basically getting all the credit and doing nothing to deserve it.. see my point?

EDIT: I forgot to add: what about affiliates offering lower prices, free shipping, etc? The reason the customer chooses another affiliate website can be one of many and in my opinion it should always be up the the customer where they shop.

This is why i never send people directly to the source, I always make a website that they can remember, with useful information and then I send them from that site to the source. This way, when re-order time comes along they just type in the url (if they can remember) and I will get the credit.

My favorite are the programs which send the customers a renewal notice when its time to re-order and the affiliate actually gets the commission for it.

Those two statements in bold seem contradictory.

[Rick PSP]

hmm an each way bet, but what is your position RxBob? :)

[MedsMakeMoney]

Advertising is not cheap in alot of cases. I think the commission should go to the affiliate who brought the customer... meaning whatever website the customer went through when placing their order deserves the credit regardless of whether or not Website A brought the customer first, if the customer chooses website B at a later date for whatever reason that website should get the credit. The same goes for website C, D, E, and so on.

The reason i say this is because advertising is not cheap and it's not easy to gain a customers loyalty.

That's just my opinion.

[mr_x]

Those two statements in bold seem contradictory.

What i mean is yes I understand he does a great campaign but only for say 1 month, after that one month he doesnt do anything. The customer goes to order say 6 months later, and affiliate B now has the number one spot, and putting in all the effort, if that customer orders from affiliate B I say give that affiliate the comission.

That is why i find it so important to have a domain name which I use as a landing page and then branch off from there.

[RxRob]

What i mean is yes I understand he does a great campaign but only for say 1 month, after that one month he doesnt do anything. The customer goes to order say 6 months later, and affiliate B now has the number one spot, and putting in all the effort, if that customer orders from affiliate B I say give that affiliate the comission.

That is why i find it so important to have a domain name which I use as a landing page and then branch off from there.

I agree.

Also, if the affiliate program was worth it's salt, there'd be no reason for the customer to be back at the search engines in the first place. For example: auto-refills, refill reminders, reorder discounts, etc.

[Sam4RX]

in my opinion, it is not about the RE-orders...But about the initial cookies placed, therefore the initial order.

with 4rx, once a customer places an order and creates a profile he is married to the Affiliate that referred him for life, so all future orders will be credited to that initial affiliate regardless where he comes from since he logs in to place his re-orders and get his 10%

the issue is weather the cookie should be placed by the first affiliate or the last affiliate (just before the sale).

EX:
customer browses google, clicks on first link AFF 1234 (cookie is placed, if this customer doesn't clear cookies, customer will be linked to AFF 1234)
then customer decides to click on link number 5, AFF 12345 and likes that site better...he places an order and AFF 1234 gets the sale...


So as an OP... do you want to protect the bigger guys or the smaller guys?
this is VERY interesting since we are also debating this now internally.

Comments will be absorbed and digested.

[mr_x]

I want all my customers to remain mine regardless of when and where they order from. All new customers I get should be mine too. In fact, every order done on the internet should go to me.....

.......In my perfect world :)

[mr_x]

in my opinion, it is not about the RE-orders...But about the initial cookies placed, therefore the initial order.

with 4rx, once a customer places an order and creates a profile he is married to the Affiliate that referred him for life, so all future orders will be credited to that initial affiliate regardless where he comes from since he logs in to place his re-orders and get his 10%

the issue is weather the cookie should be placed by the first affiliate or the last affiliate (just before the sale).

EX:
customer browses google, clicks on first link AFF 1234 (cookie is placed, if this customer doesn't clear cookies, customer will be linked to AFF 1234)
then customer decides to click on link number 5, AFF 12345 and likes that site better...he places an order and AFF 1234 gets the sale...


So as an OP... do you want to protect the bigger guys or the smaller guys?
this is VERY interesting since we are also debating this now internally.

Comments will be absorbed and digested.

Sam I suppose if I had a gun to my head I would opt to keep the original affiliate for life.

[Rick PSP]

Additional factor to consider centres around churn / loyalty.

Customers for life creates a strong loyalty factor for affiliates.
No holds barred dog fight - whoever is on top today means that it actually pays you to jump from one program to the next. So you do not do any hard work helping to establish an OP. Someone else does that - you just step in and advertise to collect on the OP brand recognition.

All you need to do is wait until someone has created a good reliable brand OP and then skim the business at very little cost, possibly by attempting to pass off as the orginal promoter or just advertising the OP brand name.

Need a good example - look at mobile phone companies, for years they focssed on new customers - a formula that works. Dont worry about loyalty, just keep targetting everyone as a new customer. Annual churn rates are huge. This is great when you have an organic growth rate of 25% +.

However, when the market hits viagra like maturity, margins plummet. Instead of working on developping and growing the market the focus becomes, whose business can we "steal" tomorrow.

With Customers for Life the smarter affiliate knows that it is a good idea to help start up an OP as the benefit is long term. No customer for Life, then you have a real incentive to switch your traffic as frequently as you can.

Somewhere between Customer for Life and no loyalty to affiliate lies the answer. So want loyalty and focus on market growth with new affiliates ?

Quote: clivew "....a solution can be - purge lists once a year to remove inactive affiliates?
If the original affiliates has withdrawn from the program a possible solution to the problem, from the new affiliate perspective is to purge lists of inactive affiliates once a year. "

[Sara PSP]

Pharmacy shark Patrol (PSP) evaluates many OP affiliate programs every week, new ones appear.

From experience I personally prefer a customer for life program that does not rely just on cookies. Cookies are frequently cleared so then most recent referrer gets paid.

PSP work hard to build sites and referrals that customers (and other affiliates) rely on for reliable and fair results.

Because we work on a long term basis and we believe in the value to consumers of online purchasing from well run RX programs. Like any other business even with all its difficulties a lifetime payment can bring sufficient reward to support the maintenance of sites and monitoring of programs.

Customer loyalty to a program will disappear if service is not good, so lifetime has requirements in pharmacy selection also.

Some pharmacies bring out new sites every year, promising better this or that. This is their way of purging affiliates and destroying T2 structures. This also requires affiliates to rebuild branding. It suits newbie's and short term promoters or those who like to spend a lot of time updating.

There are always new programs emerging and only a few good programs have survived for the past 5 years. The survivors are all, without exception offering customers for life.

There may be some new programs with the same operators but the programs are changed and databases with affiliate /customer bonds are gone.

A pharmacy program that is in there for a long time will be aware of how important a good affiliate is to their growth. Life time commissions reward for the extra effort it takes to get a new customer.

So I come down on the side of life time commissions with the reality check that program life time maybe short.

[kate Smith]

I am agree with the Sara's view for the importance of Life Time Commission.

Affiliates works hard to design and promote their websites but there are chances that customer leaves due to the dissatisfaction with the pharmacy.

I think there are really few Online Pharmacies who are in the business for 5+ years and still offer life time commission.

121doc is one of them which is in the Online Pharmacy business and give the Life Time Commission to its affiliates.

121doc is also listed and reviewed by Pharmacy Shark Petrol.

http://www.121doc.co.uk

Gary Jackson
Affiliate Manager
Skype: gary121doc
Email: gary@121doc.com

[Rick PSP]

hi gary, if you spam you get banned. Take this as a warning.

[Noximus]

is selfserverx.com live?

[Noximus]

seems NO

[Sara PSP]

http://selfserverx.com/ is live when I check.

[Mihai]

Life time customers are ok. Who has taken this market into his hand should keep it in his hand. New affiliates have a very hard time to beat the sharks but its not impossible and after all, customers tend to change the place where they shop, depending on many factors. Make them aware of those factors and you got the perfect tool to combat the sharks.

[usahealthstore]

I donot promote websites that use cookie. I promote their websites and let them hold my customers.