If you haven’t figured this out the hard way then you should be aware that it is far easier and less expensive to retain an existing customer and increase revenues year over year than it is to attract new ones. Some statistics have even measured the cost differential at 5X. So, knowing what obstacles you need to overcome in order to maintain customer loyalty should be high on every marketing professional’s list of things to know.
In his Direct Marketing News blog entitled “Removing the Obstacles to Customer Loyalty,” Dennis Goodman cites the following six obstacles to building and sustaining customer loyalty:
- Difficulty in measuring and using data
- Picking the right mix of rewards and benefits
- Programs lack true innovation
- Choosing to build buy or partner
- Marketing and operations are not on the same page
I think this is a solid list to work from and as always caution that vision without execution is hallucination, so take the proper attention to detail on delivery of a customer loyalty program by relentlessly focusing upon:
- Knowledge of your customer base from both a quantitative as well as qualitative perspective. Maintain meticulous data on every customer for size, industry, revenues, industry ranking and other readily available market data as well as periodically touching base to maintain a qualitative dialog.
- People like to continue doing business with organizations that recognize and reward loyalty.
- Consider the current trend of “gameifcation of programs” which is to create a game with rewards for program/product use.
- Evaluate the possibilities for partnering or outsourcing your customer loyalty programs. I personally believe this is too valuable to let anyone other than my own team to own but for some companies it may be the better course of action.
- Marketing is never an island inside an organization, it is imperative to stay integrally linked to not only sales but services and support as well to understand the ongoing temperament/satisfaction of your customer base.
Know your customer and will know the path to your success. Sounds simple, and candidly it is. Unfortunately most organizations don’t take the time to stay engaged once a customer is landed, or in taking them for granted is where the cracks in your long term success appear. Attention to the basics will ensure your success through customer loyalty.
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