subject: Five Tips to Encourage Client Loyalty [print this page] Five Tips to Encourage Client Loyalty Five Tips to Encourage Client Loyalty
The costs assoiated with acquiring new clientsa is becoming increasingly onerous. It typically costs about 5-6 times more to aquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. For this very economic reason, more and more service based organisations are begining sales training programmes aimed at improving their customer relations. Your loyal and regular customers represent an incalculable amount of profit potential - even in the current poor economic climate. So just what opportunities are there to improve customer relations? Here is a 5-step improvement programme:1. Make your key account clients partners in product development. Don't just listen to your own in-company designers and engineers when you are making decisions on improvements or new product/service developments. Talk to the specialists in your key account customers' companies and incorporate their input, experience and wishes into the project at the right moment. 2. Have a pro-active sales and customer care policy. Don't wait until a client calls you to tell you what they need or to register a complaint. Set up a telephone customer contact programme, according to which sales people systematically contact customers at regular intervals of, for example, 5 days, 30 days, 60 days or 180 days. There is a different objective behind each telephone call. One is regarding client care or the interests of market research, the next is regarding the sale of additional equipment or broaching a new sale. A well known car manufacturer, for example, calls each of its new customers three days after delivery of their new car. The sales man asks, amongst other things, "How are you getting on with your new car? Are you having fun with it? Are you lacking anything?" If the client says, for example "I could do with a socket to recharge my laptop", the sales person, who has received sales training in market research, immediately replies, "How much would you pay to have an integrated laptop charger?" All the answers are then channeled back into the design planning for the next car model. 3. Extend speed client management. It is a fast paced world and the customer wants yesterday what she orders today! Make the most of all the acquisition, development, manufacturing and logistics possibilities open to you in order to appear to be the "fastest" supplier in the eyes of the client. Experience has shown that speed management is not a magic trick. For example, if the customer of a well known company wants a new piece of equipment the sales rep draws up an outline design with the customer and emails this into the factory. Development and production takes less than three hours. Then manufacturing begins. The very next day dispatch takes place. Another good example is a well known clothes company. They have reduced their repeat order time for men's clothing from nine weeks to less than five weeks. Further more, the retail customer can change the colour of their order up to ten days before the order delivery date. 4. Make your business policy legendary. A customer-oriented business policy is extremely valuable. But go that one step further: make your organisation policy legendary. A good example of this is a highly successful American based pest control company. In the United States, pest control is a growth industry. Clients are generally only guaranteed a pest reduction to a "comfortable" level. This company's business motto, on the other hand, is that until all pests have been destroyed no payment necessary; if you are not satisfied, you will receive a refund for a maximum of 12 months; if the factory/plant has to be shut as a result of a pest infestation, the organisation will pay all fines and associated lost revenue. This company's success is self-evident: it charges up to ten times more than its main competitors, but this is accepted by its customers. The company has a very large market share and has branches all over the United States. 5. Reward large-scale consumers and long-term clients. If you reward your customers for buying more, they will remain your customers. Well-known examples include air miles programmes offered by air line companies and supermarket loyalty cards. Make sure your sales training teaches your sales staff how to best present the benefits of your loyalty scheme to your clients so as to maximize their sales success.
