Customers in an economic downturn

I found a very interesting post at CustomersThink by Mark Hunter. He discusses the situation when customers call and complain about your price increase, and threaten to switch to your #1 competitor. He points out that this only ends up happening about 10% of the time, however, if you're prepared during the initial conversation with the customer, you'll be set. It's important that sales representatives do their homework, and can talk through the process with the customer. Yes, the cost of switching is incredibly high, but be able to inform the customer as to how long it'd take for them to get the anticipated savings back, and how long it would be before a return on investment is to be seen. Be prepared to give the right answers to your customers, and it'll result in customer retention.