The Power of Loyalty. Roger Brooks B.

ALL EXPERIENCED THE SURPRISE and delight of You’ve all experienced the surprise There delight of being treated like a valued customer. There is no better feeling than being pampered when buying a new pair of shoes or being attended to when trying to find a cold medicine at the pharmacy. On the flip side, there is no worse feeling than being pushed too hard, ignored, or even unnoticed when you are ready to buy. Staying attentive to your customers’ needs is a tough and delicate balance, and it is a key component to achieving customer approval and earning a customer’s loyalty. Treating your customers like they’re made of GOLD is the next layer in the foundation of building your loyalty strategy.

      In order to win your customers’ confidence and eventually win their loyalty, there’s a prerequisite needed: Tactfully demonstrate that each customer is valued and treat her as such.

      Over the years, I’ve attended many customer loyalty sessions, conferences, and seminars. The general consensus is that you should focus a majority of your resources on your most loyal and profitable customers. While it’s vitally important to focus resources on your most loyal customers, it’s equally important to place value on all customers. There’s also a direct effect on properly training your employees so they can help carry out your goals to promote customer loyalty and your customer loyalty initiatives.

      As you’ve likely observed, this entire book is dedicated to a theme of GOLD. The reason, as outlined in the title of this chapter, is that loyalty, customer loyalty, and loyalty programs have a direct effect on how customers are treated.

      If you treat all your customers like they are truly valued or like they are made of GOLD, they will react accordingly. The “GOLD” theme in this book is a constant reminder to treasure the business each customer contributes to your bottom line. If you do, customers will return that special treatment in repeat business as a loyal customer. The ultimate goal in business is to earn your customers’ trust and their lifelong loyalty. Fulfilling that goal will result in increased profits, which underscores the fact that treating customers like GOLD will garner the same.

      The reason you’re in business is to grow your customer base and continually increase profits. Every business strives to capture more market share. Making modifications in how you treat your new and existing customers can be the most cost-effective way to increase your profits. So before you initiate or enhance your customer loyalty strategy, it’s very important that the entire organization adopt a policy to treat each and every customer as they would want to be treated themselves.

      Treating customers like they’re made of GOLD will yield:

       Allegiance

       Devotion

       Commitment

       Support

      Promise Dedication

       LOYALTY!

      Treating customers like they’re made of gold is the essence of customer loyalty. It reinforces why loyalty is reciprocal. If your product or service continues to exceed customer expectations and your company has a fundamental practice of valuing each customer, you will succeed in your mission of achieving exceptional customer loyalty.

      KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS. It’s surprising that a high percentage of companies do not know or care to know who their customers actually are. Many companies simply see customers as dollar signs and avoid any personal connection beyond the transaction itself. One of the most basic practices of any business should be to know your customers because without them you’ll have no business. It’s not that you need to know the name of every person who enters your place of business, calls your office, or visits your website each day, but you should have tools in place to be able to gain some intelligence about your customers in order to effectively service or upsell them. Learning more about your customers helps build better relationships that lead to increased business.

      How can you learn more about your customers?

       Listen to their needs.

      The 2nd ESSENTIAL STEP to Build a Successful Customer Loyalty Strategy is to KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS; TREAT THEM LIKE THEY’RE MADE OF GOLD.

      Like all relationships, in order to get to know and better understand your customers and their needs, it is important to start by gathering relevant information about them and their spending habits. Having better insight into their buying preferences allows you to market to them in a more relevant way.

      You have all heard the old adage that people will tell only one person about a positive experience versus telling ten people about a negative one. Assuming that is true, it is all the more reason to treat all customers equally. If you only focus on those customers you feel are your most profitable customers, you may be alienating a large customer segment and potentially forfeiting potential business by simply not treating people better. This is especially true and becomes more obvious when you have a mechanism in place to track customer spending and behavior. Frequently, it is the customers you may least expect that are actually your most profitable customers in the end.

      Mystery shoppers or mystery callers should play a key role in your loyalty strategy. Mystery shoppers are hired to pose as regular customers while they take certain actions such as buying a product, asking for assistance, or even voicing a complaint. Then, the mystery shopper or caller will evaluate her experience and measure the quality of service received. The feedback you receive will be crucial in order to continue to improve your tactics.

       Treat ALL customers equally.

      Value each customer, as each contributes to your bottom line.

      Show appreciation for all purchases, large and small.

      Have a formal process in place to personally thank customers for their business.

      Consider how your business can begin to reward loyal customers for their continued patronage.

      Purchasing habits are sometimes unpredictable. It is better to service each customer to the best of your ability so each can be valued for the business they bring. Anything less is unacceptable.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

      Looking back on our nation’s history, I’m not sure exactly when we lost common decency and respect for our fellow man. There were obviously many cultural and political changes and advancements that took place over the decades that had both positive and negative effects on where we are today. Without getting too philosophical, it seems the business community as a whole has lost many basic fundamentals in treating customers with common decency and respect—even in this highly competitive consumer-driven world we live in.

      Our country has lost a great deal of ground in the common decency category, and it is going to be a challenge to make it up. You can, however, do your part to improve the level of respect your employees show for your customers in your respective business. Common decency and respect return loyalty. It seems so basic, doesn’t it?

      Consumers remember their experiences. They tend to complain about negative experiences more than they brag about positive experiences. Negative experiences can dominate their thoughts, and negative thoughts have a direct effect on purchasing behavior.

      So how do businesses keep their employees positive and focused on each individual customer so that each experience is a positive and pleasant one? It’s not easy.

Training Is Key

      To