Customer loyalty counts
November 2, 2004
EVER wondered if customer loyalty programs are worth the trouble?
Spoilt for choice.... Keep customers with loyalty programs. Picture: Chris Pavlich
According to marketing communications firm Tick Yes, businesses can benefit in seven ways:
1. Predictability
Knowing your customers means you can predict the future of your business. When you can predict your customers' buying habits, you are also able to predict staffing, inventory, and every other aspect of your business.
2. Save money
It costs a lot to attract new customers. By holding something like a loyalty card, a consumer has shown a commitment in which they are bound to the company in some form or other.
3. Save time
It takes time to learn how to best work with new customers. How demanding are they of your product or service? How responsive are these new customers to special sales or promotions?
4. Word of mouth
Positive word of mouth is free advertising and is the most effective way to attract new customers. Your customers have more credibility with their friends and family than you do.
5. Sense of importance
Maslow, Freud, Jung and many other great scholars of the human condition tell us that only two forces motivate people: the sex urge and the desire to be important.
6. We like you
People respond to and naturally like people that like them. People don't have to be alike to like each other.
7. Customer knowledge
Gives you a better understanding of your customers and what motivates them to return. Each time they communicate it's a chance to learn more about who they are and what they like.
The Daily Telegraph