Drive deep sales with a customer loyalty plan

November 5, 11:50 AMAustin Business Strategies ExaminerJim Kleidon

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With the economy poised for recovery, businesses are looking for ways to reach out to new markets. However, many companies will continue the same sales-killing habit of focusing on short-term customer satisfaction, while neglecting their customers’ long-term success. The result is lost repeat business, fewer referrals, and customer churn.

Customer satisfaction vs. loyalty
Even though the phrase “customer loyalty” has been around for several years, few businesses realize what it is, and even fewer have a plan to achieve it. Customer satisfaction is a measure of how well a product or service meets the customer’s expectations. Customer loyalty is the customer’s commitment to a business or brand.

Achieving customer loyalty is not something that happens overnight, it takes foresight, fortitude, and planning. The only way to win customer loyalty is to earn it by weaving continuous, effective, and adaptable practices throughout an enterprise.

Step 1: Establish the vision
Adopting a customer loyalty vision and following through with action differentiates a business. The organization must be customer-focused at every step, within every department, and at all levels—from product design, to marketing, to sales, to support. An idea, mission statement, or slogan is not enough; a business must have a passion and a plan for achieving customer loyalty.

Step 2: Implement best practices
The typical sales and support organization is reactive, shuffling from one crises to another. Ease this constant firefighting mode by taking a proactive approach to customer management. The primary component of a customer loyalty plan is to develop and implement consistent, repeatable standards and best practices:

• See the customer’s point of view
• Use effective communications
• Set realistic expectations
• Create a process for overcoming customer challenges

Step 3: Measure loyalty plan effectiveness
After putting the loyalty plan in place, measure to determine which areas need refinement. Collect useful loyalty metrics by putting repeatable methods into place. Do this is by leveraging 360-degree, ongoing feedback from both the customer and the support team’s touch time opportunities. Without measurement, there is no way to gauge loyalty and take proactive, focused steps that move the customer up the loyalty path.

Step 4: Adapt and optimize to customer dynamics
To sustain long-term loyalty, businesses must constantly adjust to change. Products evolve, the competition gets ugly, and the customer’s needs shift. Combating these realities requires that a loyalty plan be flexible enough to stay ahead of the curve. While gauging the loyalty plan results, be sure to leverage lessons learned, and optimize the plan accordingly.

After implementing a customer loyalty plan, be sure and treat all business relationships like personal relationships—give them time and room to grow.