Olivia: It can cost up to 25 times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. That’s a real statistic from Bain & Company. Jackson: Twenty-five times! That’s insane. Yet every ad you see, every marketing meeting I’ve ever been in, is all about one thing: how do we get more new customers? Olivia: Exactly. And today, we’re exploring why that expensive habit, that obsession with the new, might actually be killing your company. This whole idea is the heart of a fantastic book called Evergreen: Cultivate the Enduring Customer Loyalty That Keeps Your Business Thriving by Noah Fleming. Jackson: Fleming, right. I read he was inspired by his father's factory work to 'write his own paycheck.' You can feel that entrepreneurial, almost contrarian, spirit in his writing. Olivia: You really can. He argues that most businesses are sitting on what he calls 'acres of diamonds'—their existing customers—while they're out chasing illusions. The book was a bestseller and is praised for its practicality, though some readers find its core message a bit polarizing. Jackson: I can see why. Telling a business to stop chasing growth sounds like heresy. Olivia: It does. And he starts with a warning, really. A story that's like a horror movie for small business owners.

Jackson: A horror movie? Okay, I'm intrigued. Don't leave me hanging. Olivia: Alright, picture this. There's a baker in England named Rachel Brown. She runs a successful shop called 'Need a Cake' and has been in business for 25 years. She decides she wants to grow, to attract new faces. So, she runs a promotion on Groupon. Jackson: A classic move. Get a ton of new people in the door with a big discount. What could go wrong? Olivia: Everything. The deal was for cupcakes at a 75% discount. It went viral. She didn't get a few new customers; she got 8,500 new customers, almost overnight. Jackson: Eight... thousand? That's not a business, that's a stampede. Olivia: It was a catastrophe. She had to hire emergency staff who weren't trained. The quality of the cakes plummeted. The lines were endless. Her loyal, regular customers were furious, and the new Groupon customers were unimpressed. In the end, the promotion completely wiped out a full year's worth of profits. She famously called it "the worst business decision I ever made." Jackson: Wow. So she got exactly what she wanted—a flood of new customers—and it almost destroyed her. That's terrifying. It’s like a business that spends all its time and money on flashy first dates but never builds a real, lasting relationship. It’s exciting, but it’s empty and incredibly expensive. Olivia: That is the perfect analogy. Fleming shares his own experience with this. He was a loyal, long-time customer at his bank. When he applied for a simple line of credit, they made him wait for two months. When he finally asked why, the manager told him, "Honestly, Noah, we’re so busy with new customers that we don’t have the time and resources to devote to our existing customers." Jackson: That is infuriating! They're ignoring the guaranteed money right in front of them to chase potential money from strangers. It’s a complete breakdown of logic. Olivia: It’s an addiction to the "sexiness" of acquisition. Closing a new deal feels like a win. Nurturing an existing relationship feels like... well, work. But Fleming argues that work is where the real value is. Jackson: Okay, so if chasing new customers is a trap, what's the alternative? How do you build a business that actually lasts, one that doesn't get destroyed by its own success? Olivia: That’s where Fleming’s core idea comes in. He says you need to build an Evergreen organization.

Jackson: An Evergreen organization. I like the sound of that. It makes me think of something that's alive and stable, not constantly in a panic. Olivia: That's precisely the metaphor. He tells this beautiful story about visiting Cathedral Grove in British Columbia, seeing these ancient Douglas firs that are 800 years old. They survive storms and seasons because their roots are deep. For a business, he says, those roots are customer loyalty. And you build them with what he calls the Three Cs: Character, Community, and Content. Jackson: Alright, I'm listening. But 'Character, Community, Content' can sound a bit like marketing fluff. Break it down for me. What does 'Character' actually mean for a company that sells, say, plumbing supplies? Olivia: Great question. Character isn't just your logo or your slogan. It's your 'why.' It's the core belief system of your company. For that plumber, it might be 'unshakeable reliability' or 'we treat your home like our own.' It’s about having a personality. Think about Apple's 'Think Different' campaign. Steve Jobs said that ad was as much for the employees as it was for the customers, to remind them who they were. Or think of Jeff Bezos, back in 2012, putting a handwritten letter on the Amazon homepage to announce the Harry Potter books were coming to the Kindle library. It was quirky, personal, and it screamed 'we are book lovers at our core.' That's character. Jackson: Okay, the handwritten letter is a great example. It’s unexpected and authentic. So what about the second C, Community? Olivia: This is where it gets really interesting. Fleming makes a sharp distinction between a 'tribe' and a 'community.' A tribe is exclusionary. Think of Abercrombie & Fitch in the 2000s. Their CEO openly said he only wanted "cool, good-looking people" wearing their clothes. It was about who you kept out. Jackson: I remember that. It was effective for a while, and then it became a PR nightmare. Olivia: Exactly. Now contrast that with a community. A community is inclusionary, built around shared goals and values. Fleming's prime example is CrossFit. People of all shapes and sizes come together with a common goal: to get through a tough workout. They cheer each other on. They have their own language, like WOD for 'Workout of the Day.' The community grew the brand, not the other way around. Jackson: Ah, so it's about shared goals, not just looking the same or buying the same thing. That makes sense. It’s the difference between a clique and a team. And the final C is Content? I assume that's just the product you sell. Olivia: Yes and no. The content is the product or service, but Fleming argues that's the least important of the three. He says customers don't just come for the content; they come for an outcome and they stay for the experience. His example is Chipotle. You're not just buying a burrito. You're part of the experience of creating it. You're in control, you're watching fresh ingredients. The 'content' is the food, but the experience is a mix of all three Cs. Jackson: That's a great point. The burrito itself isn't that different from other places, but the feeling of the place, the process, is unique. So the Three Cs are the foundation. But what happens when you have this beautiful evergreen forest, this loyal customer base? How do you take care of it? Olivia: Well, once you have your garden of loyal customers, Fleming says you have to do something that sounds crazy: you have to pull the weeds.

Jackson: Hold on. Fire a customer? The first rule of business is 'the customer is always right'! You're telling me I should show paying customers the door? Olivia: It sounds radical, but think about it. We've all had them. The customer who is verbally abusive to your staff. The one who complains about everything just to get a discount. The one who takes up 80% of your customer service time but only represents 1% of your revenue. Fleming calls them 'Hungry Hippos'—they're insatiable. Jackson: I know exactly the type. They drain your energy, your profits, and your team's morale. But actually firing them? That feels like a step too far. Do big, successful companies actually do this? Olivia: They do. And they're very strategic about it. In 2007, Sprint sent letters to about 1,000 customers and canceled their service. These weren't people with one or two complaints. These were customers who were calling support hundreds of times a month, often just to scam the system for credits. They were a net loss. Jackson: Wow. So Sprint did the math and realized these customers were costing them more than they were worth. Olivia: Precisely. And it's not just about abuse. Amazon has been known to ban customers who have an extraordinarily high rate of returns. They have the data. They can see who is using the system and who is abusing it. Firing these customers allows them to reallocate those resources to serving their good, loyal, evergreen customers better. Jackson: Okay, so we're not talking about firing someone who had one legitimate complaint. We're talking about a strategic removal of people who are actively harming the business. That's a powerful reframe. It’s less about being mean and more about protecting the health of the entire ecosystem. Olivia: Exactly. It’s about tending your garden. You can't let the weeds choke out the flowers. By focusing your energy on the 20% of customers who bring you 80% of your joy and profit, the whole garden thrives.

Jackson: This whole philosophy is such a powerful shift in perspective. It’s not about endless, frantic growth. It’s about deliberate, sustainable cultivation. Olivia: It all comes back to that 'Acres of Diamonds' idea he mentions in the afterword. It's a story about a farmer who sells his land to search the world for diamonds, only to die poor. Meanwhile, the new owner finds that the farm he sold is one of the richest diamond mines in the world. Jackson: And the diamonds are the existing customers. Olivia: The diamonds are the existing customers. Businesses are so focused on hunting for new treasure that they're standing on a diamond mine. The real work isn't acquisition; it's cultivation. It's about building something with Character, that fosters a true Community, and delivers its Content as a memorable experience. Jackson: So the takeaway isn't to stop marketing or to never seek new customers. It's about rebalancing the scales. Maybe the one thing our listeners can do this week is to identify one small, meaningful way to thank their top 10% of customers. Not with a discount, but with a genuine gesture. Olivia: I love that. It’s a perfect first step. And it leads to the final, most important question the book leaves you with. Jackson: What's that? Olivia: Ask yourself: are you building a business that's just transactional, or one that's truly Evergreen? Jackson: A question worth thinking about. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.