Are you ready to make the loyalty leap?

Loyalty… the biggest marketing buzzword as there is no shortage of articles and sentiments on this topic. The goal of a loyalty programme is to create barriers to switching which can either be psychological (Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club membership) or economical (Clicks cash rewards) for the members. But, loyalty programmes have simply become the cost of doing business as they are increasing the cost of serving a price sensitive and sometimes non-loyal customer group. In the end, the goal of loyalty is to drive commitment and faithful behaviour of profitable customers, therefore we need to engage with our customers, make it easy for them to communicate with us, create exclusivity for them and earn their trust.

The silver bullet here is data. Customer data can inform decisions throughout your business that can create the transformation between retaining your customers at present along with developing lasting emotional loyalty. The PicknPays and the Clicks’ of our country are already committed to using data for this purpose, but many businesses are still casual about the application of customer data across all facets of their business – they have yet to take the business-wide leap committing to put the customer at the centre of their purpose.

Customer data items include demographical data, lifestyle information, and transactional data along with the customer experience which ranges from customer complaints to opinion polls. This wealth of customer data allows us to transform the data into a customer intelligence tool. The customer intelligence tool allows us to calculate the customer lifetime value which is an indication of the value (future or current) to a business which differs from business to business.

Most importantly is how this information is fed back to where it is actually required into the business – the marketing department. But it is what the marketing managers do with the data once it is collected that matters most. Unfortunately many businesses still don’t understand how use those customer insights profitably and responsibility to make the customer happy, oftentimes with damaging results to performance, reputation or both. Businesses are reluctant to use the data they have due to the following major reasons:

1. They are concerned about the volume and how to cope with data overload.
2. They struggle to fully integrate the data into the decision-making tools available.

Important to note, this valuable information will assist the marketing team in the creation of new marketing campaigns, provide the right information to the right people at the right time, thereby solving the customers’ needs the first time around.

Easy as pie! So… are you ready to make the loyalty leap?

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: Is Social Media a Fad?

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: Is Social Media a Fad?: Lately, I have been tasked by my MD to launch and implement our Direct Marketing Strategy which also included a segment called Social Media....

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: Where is loyalty marketing heading?

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: Where is loyalty marketing heading?: I have been in the loyalty and rewards business for a couple of years now and recently discovered, interestingly enough, that there are stil...

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: When you change the way you look at things, the th...

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: When you change the way you look at things, the th...: Interesting topic.... do you agree? Let me explain, on the one hand, companies are making use of eCommerce to increase their market share wh...

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: Know your customers well and treat them like royal...

LoyaltyPlus' Blog: Know your customers well and treat them like royal...: The number 1 rule in business is to think of our customers as individuals, then only can we realise that our business is our customer and n...

Know your customers well and treat them like royalty

The number 1 rule in business is to think of our customers as individuals, then only can we realise that our business is our customer and not our service or product on offer. Without our customers, we literally do not have a business to run and good customer service goes a long way to ensure that our customers will return. If we don’t look after our paying customers, we might as well close our doors. Unfortunately many franchises along with JSE listed companies in South Africa have failed miserably in providing any form of customer service.

Herewith a few very important, if not yet crucial customer service tips that we all should be reminded of and try to incorporate back into our businesses:

• Employees will treat your customers the way that they are treated. Do you realise the importance and the value of your employees? Do you great them enthusiastically and are you polite in your interactions with them? Companies do not help customers… people do, therefore you need to meet and exceed their expectations, continuously. By respecting and taking care of your employees, you can create brand ambassadors which any company desperately seeks.

• Quality of service = quality of employees. If you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. By paying the minimal wage, providing the fewest of benefits or by providing minimal training to your employees, will show in their dealings to your customers.

• Go the extra mile for your customers. You simply cannot create brand loyalty if you don’t go the extra mile for your paying customers. Loyalty is not necessarily set in stone, it is something that has to be created and maintained through your interactions and communications with your customers.

• Customers should be given the benefit of the doubt. A very difficult task to execute but if done right, you will reap the benefits. Never try to win an argument with a customer and don’t ever put your customer in that position either. Train your employees well to listen, stay polite throughout the conversation, maintain a positive attitude with the customer, provide a solution and a follow-up afterwards.

• Greet your customers when they walk in the door. We all want to be treated fairly and made feel special. Happiness breeds happiness!

We need to realise that if we don’t look after our customers, they will go to our competitors and the big money lies in as much as winning customers as in keeping them satisfied and happy.

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Interesting topic.... do you agree? Let me explain, on the one hand, companies are making use of eCommerce to increase their market share while keeping their customers loyal. Therefore, they can retain existing customers, attract new customers to attain sustained profit growth through data warehousing, data mining and customer relationship management. On the other hand, loyalty programmes focus on helping customers to get more value for their rands and at the same time, helping the customers to improve on their social consciousness and health. In this highly competitive market, companies are being challenged by the following factors:

• Customers are spoiled for choice.
• Customers expect rapid service at a lower cost as they want companies not only to meet their specific needs, but also to anticipate what those needs will be in the future.
• Winning customers' trust by offering them a few savings, opportunities to earn points and achieving goals like improving their health (Discovery Vitality).
• Difficulty in retaining customers due to the emerging sales channels, rapid introduction of improved and innovative products along with the increased global competition.
• Technology is changing faster than the customers, customers are changing faster than companies and companies are changing faster than the people who run them. In order to outlast the competitors (direct or indirect), companies have to realise the importance to amend their strategies and processes by investing in technology infrastructure to support their eBusiness activities.
• The Internet has become a mass media vehicle for customer-sponsored communications. Customers are turning more frequently to various types of social media to conduct their information searches and to make their purchasing decisions.

The answer? Companies should focus on providing excellent products/services, adapt to all challenges, provide additional services (especially trustworthy customer service), understand their customers' expectations, offer value for money, advertise systematically and invest in improvements in order to survive!