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Customer loyalty is not as strong as it used to be what with more and more attention grabbing advertising luring customers to BUY THIS PRODUCT.
Customers today have an infinite choice of products and services for almost all perceivable needs.
Anything from food to cars to personal gadgets are available from an increasing number of companies that vie for the customer in terms of price, benefits, quality, features and more.
Yet customer loyalty is one of the most important elements in ensuring a successful small business.
In fact, all successful companies owe their rise and stature to the loyalty and patronage of their existing clients. Not only do these customers purchase the company's product and or service repeatedly, they are also a source of new business from referrals. So in every sense, part of your small business marketing efforts be customer loyalty development.
Developing a Customer Loyalty Program
Now, given that your business has a good product, here are some of the important points to integrate into your program to keep your customers loyal.
- Be service-oriented - all customers have the mind-set that 'I am parting with my hard-earned money to purchase your product, so you better treat me like a visiting dignitary' (or something to that effect). Now this may sound outrageous but it's true. Customers have the need for your product and chose your store; this product is available through other businesses competing with you, so once the customer steps in your door, making him feel his business is wanted and appreciated brings the transaction all the nearer to fulfillment.
- Reach for and maintain a high standard of quality - nobody wants to buy inferior products or receive lousy services; it's a surefire way to drive a business to the ground. Ask yourself the question - Would I want to buy my own product?" If you honestly can't answer with an emphatic YES!!!, then there's something wrong, and you need to correct it.
- Be professional and courteous - be it a corner store, a mall-based shop or a Fortune 500 company, professionalism and courtesy not only shows respect for the customer, it likewise places your business at a level above the rest. You may have the best product out there, but if the customer views the way you do business as anything other than professional, any transaction may be the last, and loyalty flies out the door.
- Honesty - shortchanging the customer may give you a higher profit margin, but is that really more important than having them come back and provide repeat business. Honesty is still - and will always be - the best policy.
- Customer loyalty is a major element in building up any small business. Even if you do not aspire to be the next Martha Stewart or Donald Trump, I am sure what you do want for your business is to achieve a certain degree of success and if your cultivate customer loyalty in your business... then you are half-way there.
Action Steps to Building Customer Loyalty
- Check out your client turnover. Are you indeed losing repeat customers? By how much?
Which customer demographic are you losing? The women? The men? The teenagers? Identifying this will help you focus on what to change or improve in your business.
- Get feedback on previous clients on why they have stopped buying from you.
- Work on the results of your feedback system.
Important Points to Building Customer Loyalty
- Be service-oriented.
- Top-notch quality is still what customers look for in a product or service.
- Always be professional and courteous.
- Practice honesty in all your dealings.
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