Category: Building customer loyalty
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Plan to collect data about your customers regularly
If we want a stable base of business, we have to be steadily moving toward our customers, giving them more of what they want. Unfortunately, our customers are changing constantly, even moving away from us. By constantly collecting data we can follow them, or replace them, if necessary. A satisfaction survey is seldom enough, unless…
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Finding a loyalty perk that’s perfect for your customers
Our customers don't expect us to fulfill their every need. However, they appreciate when we recognize their needs beyond our business. Starbucks has actually been bringing the news with the morning coffee for some time, but this new partnership has the most synergy. Complimentary products make the best partners. Loyalty360: Loyalty Lessons from Starbuck's New…
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Understanding Apple’s iPhone Loyalty Strategy
Apple has innovated loyalty more than any other company. When I'm consulting, I tell my clients, "we have to interact with our customers." But that's not what Apple does. Apple allows you to avoid interacting with them or the carriers. Reliability and functionality create a user experience that allows you to buy and use with…
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Don’t reward Harris County Toll Road Authority, and others, for being disloyal.
So I really like the toll roads in Harris County. They make my life easier. I have driven through many of their toll booths and happily paid the toll. Now one of their toll booths is not reading my toll-paying sticker. I got a TxTag sticker because Harris County Toll Road Authority told me that…
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How owning up to mistakes leads to better loyalty
The dynamic of admitting our mistakes to customers is not a one-and-done transaction. Our customers are not surprised to learn we aren't perfect, and they judge us by the process we use to handle mistakes. When deciding how to handle a mistake, consider the following issues: What will our customers have to do to minimize…
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We profit from the customer loyalty process, not the tactics or the technology
Loyalty programs with incentives and CRM tools enable us to build customer loyalty, but they often get in the way. The foundation of loyalty is understanding and support of the customer. When the customer feels valued, they support us with more transactions, feedback and advocacy. In many ways, the discounts we offer them and the…
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Better ways of monitoring customer “satisfaction” lead to loyalty
I used to be co-owner of a company focused on administering customer satisfaction surveys, and I become well aware of their flaws back then. The surveys were easy to game and seldom stimulated the customers to open up or feel appreciated. That's not to say they weren't a huge improvement over the lack of interest…
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Making loyalty a sustainable advantage
Loyalty is a trick word, especially in the business world. The airlines proved that you can turn it into a ruthless game. Wireless companies specialize in 'locking up' their customers. Many companies destroy it by misunderstanding why their customers chose them in the first place. True loyalty is based on two ends of the transaction…
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Email can build loyalty if you’re leveraging your CRM tools
If you have email-based conversations with your customers, you are already building loyalty with email (if you're being nice, I guess). The real question is can we build loyalty with mass emails? Personalization helps, but we have to do more than just toss in a name. We have to merge individual recognition, which is impossible…
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Words customers want to hear… from Groove
One of the best ways to build customer loyalty is to recover excellently from our mistakes. Groove provides customer service software, and they've compiled a wonderful list of words that customers want to hear. I think these are phrases customers always want to hear, but they are most important when things are not going as…
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