Customer Loyalty

Customer Loyalty is great for business and creates smiling customers. Sadly many businesses say they love their customers, but will often treat new customers better than old customers. This leaves the long term customer with a very bad impression of the business, which is not good. Loyal customers are vital to every business and can bring in a lot of repeat business and they will often refer their friends to the business. Companies need to rethink how they can reward customers in unexpected and surprising ways.


It will be the front line staff who will be vital to increasing customer loyalty. They are the ones who are the first point of contact between the company and the customer. They are the face of the company. Now aside from the more formal company procedures to reward customer loyalty, it will be the front line staff who will be crucial to the loyalty process. They get to know their customers, and are often in the best position to decide how best to reward customers. Some customers like discounts, some special promos, or they want to increase their current  product or service for free. Each customer can have different ideas about how they want to be rewarded for their loyalty.


The point is that staff need to recognize loyal customers and be prepared to reward them on the spot. Yes , I know companies often have well organized loyalty programs, but sometimes customers fall through the cracks of these programs. Also what if the customer does not want to wait the full two years to get their special loyalty gift ? This is where the front line staff could offer an unexpected loyalty gift, and surprise the customer with this gift.


Unexpected reward gifts are great because the customer does not expect them, and they did not have to fight with supervisors or managers to get a small loyalty gift. This will show the customer, that the business really does appreciate their patronage. Can you imagine how surprised the customer will  be, when the front line staff can reward them immediately, without them  having to ask for a gift or discount.


It will take time to train staff on how to reward customers and recognize loyalty. However, this loyal customer training will bring long term benefits to both the business and customer. Staff training will increase customer retention and create a lot of happy customers. We all know how much it costs to gain new customers, so retaining customers is simply good business.


Common sense will often be the biggest factor, when staff reward customers. They will need  to listen more and should be able identify loyal customers. When the staff are interacting with customers, they will need to be trained on how to identify a loyal customer. Also, every business will have different customer clues on how to recognize loyal customers. The point is, that each business needs  to produce training materials appropriate for that business. Then staff can be trained correctly on how to identify and reward loyal customers for that business.


Customer loyalty is built over time, and as customers develop a positive relationship with the business, the company will notice a growing customer base. Proper loyalty training for staff will be the key to increasing customer retention and loyalty. This growing customer base will produce many smiling customers, and is great for business.