The consumer mind is known to be like a black box, because it’s extremely unpredictable when it comes down to making purchase decisions. Initially, I thought it was the convenience/cost factor, but then you see shops or services which are located far away, and yet you find this bunch of people travelling far away distances in order to purchase products and services from these shops. Leaving a big question mark in my head as to why someone would travel a very long distance to obtain a commodity. There’s the cost of petrol involved, the diffidence of traffic, and the wasting of one’s valuable time, etc? Come to think of it, it is not exactly a question of cost. It is possible there are other factors.

Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, devised what is famously known as the 80/20 rule; a rule that was based on his eager observations about the insignificant many and the critical few. According to Pareto 80% of the possible value of business activities tends to come from only 20% of the effort put into it. To benefit from Pareto’s rule, you need to identify your critical few customers and target your marketing directly towards their needs. According to many surveys, the cost of acquiring new customers runs 8-10 times more than the cost of sustaining existing ones. Point being, you’re bound to earn a stronger return on your marketing, leading to better sales.

Customer loyalty is crucial for the success of every business. You want to satisfy your customers so that they will remain loyal to you. In order to earn their loyalty, it’s very important for you to make them your top priority. By this I mean that you should make a conscious effort to identify the needs and wants of your customers, in order to gain their trust, respect, and loyalty by focusing on them. Fast and friendly customer service is a must to earn customer loyalty and to keep them coming back to you. If your customers don’t receive fast and friendly service from you, they’ll be disappointed and in return choose to do business with your competitors. There are three factors according to us that can help you ensure customer loyalty.

1.      Identify Your Best Customers

Identifying your best customers is as important as identifying their needs and wants. You should heavily rely on observation and analysis of their profiles, habits and preferences before you can differentiate them. All this aids you in creating a customer database that can be easily accessed and used by the staff, no matter which department they belong to. Marketing, sales, customer service, and billing, all these departments are very much integrated and can work together to sustain loyalty of existing customer.

Information that always proves beneficial to collect, with the customer’s consent of course, includes:

• Name, phone number and/or e-mail address, full address. .
• Date of birth of the customer, and/or other family members of the family, so you can send out E-cards or cards with birthday discount offers or gifts, or even the wish alone is god enough.
• Special offers, the customer availed.
• The amount of purchases – annual earning through this one person.
• Type of products purchased, and past purchasing patterns.
• Special orders and requests made by the customers.
• If some valuable feedback was provided.
• History of customer services.
• Information regarding the participation in any events or loyalty clubs.

For example, Sharon McRill the owner of The Betty Brigade, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based design firm, claims that her company keeps track of all the important dates in their clients’ lives and sends out automatic emails to any 400 customers at any given time, whether it’s to wish them a happy birthday, congratulate them on their anniversary or even if it’s to simply thank them for their loyalty. “This keeps our company in the customers’ minds in a positive way,” she says.

2.      Monitor the Database

Once you’ve gathered the information and built a strong database, it’s very important to get into the habit of constantly updating customer information. What is more important is to be able to analyze and verify the data. Meaning, dig into it, if you see a change in the purchase pattern, ask why that is so. For example, why the customer is buying the larger pack rather than the small one? Keep adding these minute details and ensure that the customer profile is up-to-date, because it’s these little factors that make a difference. The more updated the database is, the more current and in-check you are regarding the latest trends. Like I mentioned, these one-to-one interactions help you establish and maintain a good relationship with your customers, by making them feel special and important.

According to a Minnesota based business consultant, Kevin Stirtz, (who runs a website focused on customer service) customers like being involved with the whole project, not being restricted just to the demand and sales. “One of the big issues a customer has is that there’s too much away time – too much time where the customer feels they don’t know what’s going on. Allowing customers to offer feedback on your project or product throughout the process enables you to catch and resolve problems early on.” Stirtz says. 

Image Courtesy: All Business

3.      Carry out Promotional and Public Relations Activities

It’s a ‘help me to help you’ relation that you have with your customers. So if you want your customers to do something for you, in return you have to do something for them. You need to understand one thing that active customers are happy customers, because they feel that they’re in charge and indulge in smart purchases. You should attempt to carry out promotional activities that encourage interaction between you and your company.

Strategic public relations, is another extremely effective way of sustaining customers. Hence, editorial coverage provides the company with a great deal of credibility, because people believe what they see, hear and read in the media as the truth. So good PR offers you the possibility to inform current and potential customers about your company, elaborating on what you have to offer or the latest deals/discounts you’re offering. And in return, they get attracted and interested in your product or service.

The prevalent business environment is extremely competitive and difficult, making right now the time to for you to enhance or build your customer relationships. When the relationship starts taking a toll, you’ll reap the harvest. It’s always exciting to land new customers, but like I said, now’s the time to focus on retaining the existing customers, too.

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