Loyalty marketing ... because companies live or die by repeat business

Telemarketing, Nov 1995 by Tehrani, Nadji

Companies cannot afford to let their employees abuse customers in this way. Mistreated customers will not waste their time trying to teach your employees the rudiments of customer care. On the contrary, they will simply "vote with their feet" and take their business elsewhere, which I chose to do with a major car rental company. This company has forever lost my company's business (which is considerable) because of the indignities I have endured at the hands of that company's employees.

The Importance Of Employee Satisfaction

The anecdotes just cited indicate that surly employees can destroy your business. If you need more convincing, consider this statistic from a recent Nielsen survey: 68 percent of customers who stop doing business with you change vendors because of indifference or hostility expressed by an employee of your company. Just think: employees with bad attitudes account for more lost business than all other reasons combined]

So what can we do to enhance employee satisfaction? Continue investing in quality. As noted by W. Edwards Deming, the celebrated management expert, most employees want to do high-quality work Indeed, few things are more frustrating to a good worker than being prevented from doing a good job. To ensure employee satisfaction, which leads to customer satisfaction, you must give your employees the training and tools they need to get the job done right.

And, while you are at it, make sure you pay attention to vendor satisfaction. Poor performance by a vendor can make you look like a second-class operator through no fault of your own.

The Use Of The Phone

The telephone is by far the most important and most powerful tool to instill customer loyalty. Here's how:

* Call the customer periodically to thank him or her for the business and check for satisfaction.

* Call customers to give them the type of information they are interested in. For example, if a customer is interested in the stock market, call and give him or her tips or relevant information.

* Call customers to wish them happy birthday or to ask about their vacations.

* Call and talk about their interests (sports, for example).

Use your imagination. The idea is to use the power of the phone for communication on topics that will enhance your relationship.

A Few Well-Known Loyalty Marketing Techniques

Examples of how to earn customer loyalty abound. Here are a few well-known examples:

* Airlines grant frequent flyer miles to customers.

* Companies sell breakfast cereals that include coupons in the cereal boxes.

* Car makers offer car buyers access to free roadside service via 800 numbers.

This last example, which is more service oriented, can be elaborated further. For example, a major motorist club, such as the AAA, could approach a car maker and offer its services at a discount. This way, the car maker could offer its customers free road service for, say, the first 50,000 miles of car ownership.

Such an arrangement could offer car buyers great peace of mind. It would thus enhance both the buying and the loyalty processes. Everyone would win: the AAA would make some money by selling its services to the car maker, the car maker would gain some customer loyalty; the customer would get some peace of mind.