It’s easy in the day-to-day grind to focus on only one area of business. For many businesses, that one area is the goal of gaining new customers. It sounds simple enough — more customers means more sales, which in turn means a better bottom line. But without caution, that goal may have you overlooking your biggest sales force.
The Gift of Loyalty.
Did you know that over the span of your business relationship, your most loyal customers will outspend your average customers by as much as 10 times more? Altogether, those loyal customers will also make up approximately 70% of the business you do. Now that’s a lot of loyalty! That also means you may have a very large untapped profit area if you aren’t keeping in touch with your loyal customers.
The Gift of the Repeat Customer.
One of the most common and easiest ways of showing customer appreciation is by starting a loyalty program. Now, you may be thinking “but I’m supposed to be gaining business, not giving discounts!” But before you go too far, consider that a loyal customer will buy more than they originally planned 60-70% of the time. Taken a step further, these same VIP customers are more likely to talk about your business to others. That’s right — we’ve come full circle and are back to those new customers you were hoping to find. By saying thanks to your repeat customers, not only are they buying more, but they’re also sharing the good news and recruiting new customers for you.
The Gift of Knowing their Needs.
Are you convinced? That’s great! Before you get started though, take a moment to identify your best customers and what would be most valuable to them. Here are a few pointers to help get you started:
- Talk to your customers. Go straight to the source to find out what would be most useful to your customers. You may be surprised at what you hear. At the end of the day, the more beneficial they find the perks, the more likely they will be to keep coming back.
- Seal the deal with a KISS. There are lots of different loyalty customer programs out there competing for your customers’ attention. So remember — keep it simple stupid. Simple to join and simple to use.
- Spread the word. Once you’ve worked out the kinks, it’s time to spread the word. That’s where we come in. We’ll make sure everyone knows, and in no time, your loyal customers will be saying thank you and your average customers might just upgrade to VIP status.