In last week’s posting, we began counting down the top 12 strategies for building a successful customer loyalty program in 2012. In part 2 of this series, condensed from Driving Retention and from Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It How to Keep It by Jill Griffin, we continue our countdown of the top 12 action steps you can take to implement a customer loyalty program.

#6: Get Responsive and Stay That Way. More and more, customers are coming to expect round-the-clock customer service. Review all customer touch points and identify any area that produces a responsiveness bottleneck. Prioritize these areas, with highest priority given to those affecting the most customers.

#5: Aggressively Seek Out Customer Complaints. 90% of customer complaints are unarticulated and manifest themselves in negative ways: unpaid invoices; lack of courtesy to your front line service reps; and above all, negative word of mouth. With social media, an unhappy customer can now reach thousands of your would-be customers in a few keystrokes. Head off bad press before it happens. Make it easy for customers to complain, and treat complaints seriously.

#4: Serve First, Sell Second. Today’s customers are smarter, better informed and more intolerant of being “sold” than ever before. They expect doing business with you to be as hassle-free and gratifying for them as possible. They believe you earn their business with service that is pleasant, productive and personalized; if you don’t deliver, they’ll leave.

#3: Know Your Loyalty Stages and Ensure Your Customers Are Moving Though Them. A loyal customer cannot be created overnight; they become loyal to a company one step at a time. By understanding the customer’s current loyalty stage, you can better determine what’s necessary to move that customer to the next level of loyalty.

#2: Practice the 80/20 Rule. All customers are not created equal. When it comes to customer loyalty, the 80/20 rule is alive and well. 80% of your revenue is generated by 20% of your customers! A smart company segments customers by value and monitors their activities closely. Rank your customers by actual revenue generation, then rank your customers regarding lifetime value (you will probably have to calculate a formula to do this). Compare the two lists and make sure you are investing in customer appreciation programs that target high-ranking customers on both lists.

#1: Build Staff Loyalty. It’s a fact: any firm with a high level of customer loyalty has also earned a high level of staff loyalty. It’s darn near impossible to build strong customer loyalty with a staff that is in constant turnover. Why? Because your customers want to buy from people who know them and their preferences. To build loyal staff, hold regular meetings with staff and ask these questions: What makes our company a good place to work? What can be done to make it an even better place to work? Take action on what you learn.

Here’s to a loyal customer base in 2012!

In last week’s posting, we began counting down the top 12 strategies for building a successful customer loyalty program in 2012. In part 2 of this series, condensed from Driving Retention and from Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It How to Keep It by Jill Griffin, we continue our countdown of the top 12 action steps you can take to implement a customer loyalty program.

#6: Get Responsive and Stay That Way. More and more, customers are coming to expect round-the-clock customer service. Review all customer touch points and identify any area that produces a responsiveness bottleneck. Prioritize these areas, with highest priority given to those affecting the most customers.

#5: Aggressively Seek Out Customer Complaints. 90% of customer complaints are unarticulated and manifest themselves in negative ways: unpaid invoices; lack of courtesy to your front line service reps; and above all, negative word of mouth. With social media, an unhappy customer can now reach thousands of your would-be customers in a few keystrokes. Head off bad press before it happens. Make it easy for customers to complain, and treat complaints seriously.

#4: Serve First, Sell Second. Today’s customers are smarter, better informed and more intolerant of being “sold” than ever before. They expect doing business with you to be as hassle-free and gratifying for them as possible. They believe you earn their business with service that is pleasant, productive and personalized; if you don’t deliver, they’ll leave.

#3: Know Your Loyalty Stages and Ensure Your Customers Are Moving Though Them. A loyal customer cannot be created overnight; they become loyal to a company one step at a time. By understanding the customer’s current loyalty stage, you can better determine what’s necessary to move that customer to the next level of loyalty.

#2: Practice the 80/20 Rule. All customers are not created equal. When it comes to customer loyalty, the 80/20 rule is alive and well. 80% of your revenue is generated by 20% of your customers! A smart company segments customers by value and monitors their activities closely. Rank your customers by actual revenue generation, then rank your customers regarding lifetime value (you will probably have to calculate a formula to do this). Compare the two lists and make sure you are investing in customer appreciation programs that target high-ranking customers on both lists.

#1: Build Staff Loyalty. It’s a fact: any firm with a high level of customer loyalty has also earned a high level of staff loyalty. It’s darn near impossible to build strong customer loyalty with a staff that is in constant turnover. Why? Because your customers want to buy from people who know them and their preferences. To build loyal staff, hold regular meetings with staff and ask these questions: What makes our company a good place to work? What can be done to make it an even better place to work? Take action on what you learn.

Here’s to a loyal customer base in 2012!

Does your business strategy for 2012 include a customer loyalty program? On an annual basis, loyalty program members outspend other customers by as much as 45%. As you prepare your goals and resolutions for the new year, think about building a loyalty program that focuses on keeping a core group of customers coming back repeatedly as opposed to a marketing program that achieves short term results.

In part 1 of this blog, condensed from Driving Retention and from Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It How to Keep It by Jill Griffin, we count down the top 12 action steps you can take to implement a customer loyalty program in 2012:

#12: Store Your Data in One Centralized Database. Review your company’s current database situation. How many customer databases exist? For example, does each sales rep keep her own customer database? Does each department keep its own? Brainstorm with staff on how to start consolidating the databases, with the ambitious goal of moving to one centralized database over time.

#11: Collaborate With Your Channel Partners. Contact your suppliers routinely and ask them, “If you could change one thing about the way we do business together that in turn creates better value for the customer, what would it be?” Use this feedback to steadily improve channel partner collaboration.

#10: Give Your Front Line the Skills to Perform. Review your hiring policies for front line workers to ensure candidates are being screened for adequate communication skills, especially oft-missing writing skills. Consider making a writing test part of your screening tool.

#9: Use Multiple Channels to Serve the Same Customers Well. Whether a customer comes into your store, calls your service center or visits your web site, they should get the same level of customer service. Using customer feedback as well as formal customer research processes, monitor customer performance levels for every channel. Things to watch for: in your customer’s eyes, are you providing equal service in each channel? Is one channel preferred over another? Why?

#8: Win Back Lost Customers. Research shows that a business is twice as likely to successfully sell to a lost customer as to a brand new prospect. Yet this is an opportunity that is often overlooked. Do you have an official program to win back lost customers? If not, begin immediately to identify lost customers and research processes others are recommending to win them back.

#7: Know Your Customer’s Definition of Value. Review your company’s current knowledge base regarding what your customers’ value. Look for these insights: (1) What is it about your products or services that drives loyalty today? (2) Which product or service areas most need improvement? (3) Where are you currently over-investing? (4) Which areas deserve more study for potential future investment?

Stay tuned for next week when we count down the top six ways to build customer loyalty in 2012! 

Does your business strategy for 2012 include a customer loyalty program? On an annual basis, loyalty program members outspend other customers by as much as 45%. As you prepare your goals and resolutions for the new year, think about building a loyalty program that focuses on keeping a core group of customers coming back repeatedly as opposed to a marketing program that achieves short term results.

In part 1 of this blog, condensed from Driving Retention and from Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It How to Keep It by Jill Griffin, we count down the top 12 action steps you can take to implement a customer loyalty program in 2012:

#12: Store Your Data in One Centralized Database. Review your company’s current database situation. How many customer databases exist? For example, does each sales rep keep her own customer database? Does each department keep its own? Brainstorm with staff on how to start consolidating the databases, with the ambitious goal of moving to one centralized database over time.

#11: Collaborate With Your Channel Partners. Contact your suppliers routinely and ask them, “If you could change one thing about the way we do business together that in turn creates better value for the customer, what would it be?” Use this feedback to steadily improve channel partner collaboration.

#10: Give Your Front Line the Skills to Perform. Review your hiring policies for front line workers to ensure candidates are being screened for adequate communication skills, especially oft-missing writing skills. Consider making a writing test part of your screening tool.

#9: Use Multiple Channels to Serve the Same Customers Well. Whether a customer comes into your store, calls your service center or visits your web site, they should get the same level of customer service. Using customer feedback as well as formal customer research processes, monitor customer performance levels for every channel. Things to watch for: in your customer’s eyes, are you providing equal service in each channel? Is one channel preferred over another? Why?

#8: Win Back Lost Customers. Research shows that a business is twice as likely to successfully sell to a lost customer as to a brand new prospect. Yet this is an opportunity that is often overlooked. Do you have an official program to win back lost customers? If not, begin immediately to identify lost customers and research processes others are recommending to win them back.

#7: Know Your Customer’s Definition of Value. Review your company’s current knowledge base regarding what your customers’ value. Look for these insights: (1) What is it about your products or services that drives loyalty today? (2) Which product or service areas most need improvement? (3) Where are you currently over-investing? (4) Which areas deserve more study for potential future investment?

Stay tuned for next week when we count down the top six ways to build customer loyalty in 2012! 

Representing more than 1.7 billion consumers worldwide, of which 77 million are in the US, the so-called ‘Millennial’ generation (aka. ‘Generation Y’) is presenting marketers with some new challenges and changes as it comes of age and takes the reins of the global consumer economy, according to a study by Aimia (formerly Groupe Aeroplan).

To compare the attitudes and behaviors of Millennials (born between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s) with older consumers, Aimia commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct an online study of more than 6,000 consumers in Canada, the UK and the US. The study – recently released in the United States as “Born This Way: The US Millennial Loyalty Survey” – concluded that Millennial consumers will certainly change the way companies and brands build sustainable customer loyalty.

Generation Y is bigger than the Baby Boomer generation, and is three times the size of Generation X. With Baby Boomers retiring, it’s critically important for marketers to understand how Millennial attitudes toward technology, data privacy and rewards will change the way brands build strong, profitable relationships with their best customers.”

Among the high-level findings are these important insights:

Loyalty Behaviors

Over three-quarters (77%) of Generation Y claim participation in loyalty and reward programs, compared to four in five (82%) non-Millennials consumers.

Over three-quarters (78%) of US Millennials are more likely to choose a brand that offers a loyalty or reward program over a brand that doesn’t offer one.

In unprompted responses, US Millennials rate loyalty rewards as the top incentive they look for in exchange for sharing personal information with marketers.

Nearly half of US Millennials (44%) are willing to promote products or brands through social media in exchange for rewards.

Mobile Technology

Generation Y is skeptical of the value of location-based marketing offers delivered via smart phone, with only one in ten (13%) claiming to have responded to such an offer.

Using a mobile device as a substitute for carrying a plastic loyalty card is the top requested mobile payment application for Millennials, (26% express interest); meanwhile, only one in ten (13%) express interest in using a mobile device as a credit or debit card.

Privacy

US Millennials are significantly less concerned than non-Millennials with data privacy and security overall. Of all named marketing channels in the survey, loyalty and reward programs are perceived as the most privacy-friendly by Millennials: only 14% of Millennial loyalty program members are concerned about sharing personal information with loyalty programs.

Nearly half of US Millennials (47%) agree that they are more likely to share personal details with a brand that offers loyalty and reward incentives.

This blog is condensed from Driving Retention and the Aimia report on Millennial Loyalty, “Born This Way: The US Millennial Loyalty Survey.” 

Representing more than 1.7 billion consumers worldwide, of which 77 million are in the US, the so-called ‘Millennial’ generation (aka. ‘Generation Y’) is presenting marketers with some new challenges and changes as it comes of age and takes the reins of the global consumer economy, according to a study by Aimia (formerly Groupe Aeroplan).

To compare the attitudes and behaviors of Millennials (born between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s) with older consumers, Aimia commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct an online study of more than 6,000 consumers in Canada, the UK and the US. The study – recently released in the United States as “Born This Way: The US Millennial Loyalty Survey” – concluded that Millennial consumers will certainly change the way companies and brands build sustainable customer loyalty.

Generation Y is bigger than the Baby Boomer generation, and is three times the size of Generation X. With Baby Boomers retiring, it’s critically important for marketers to understand how Millennial attitudes toward technology, data privacy and rewards will change the way brands build strong, profitable relationships with their best customers.”

Among the high-level findings are these important insights:

Loyalty Behaviors

Over three-quarters (77%) of Generation Y claim participation in loyalty and reward programs, compared to four in five (82%) non-Millennials consumers.

Over three-quarters (78%) of US Millennials are more likely to choose a brand that offers a loyalty or reward program over a brand that doesn’t offer one.

In unprompted responses, US Millennials rate loyalty rewards as the top incentive they look for in exchange for sharing personal information with marketers.

Nearly half of US Millennials (44%) are willing to promote products or brands through social media in exchange for rewards.

Mobile Technology

Generation Y is skeptical of the value of location-based marketing offers delivered via smart phone, with only one in ten (13%) claiming to have responded to such an offer.

Using a mobile device as a substitute for carrying a plastic loyalty card is the top requested mobile payment application for Millennials, (26% express interest); meanwhile, only one in ten (13%) express interest in using a mobile device as a credit or debit card.

Privacy

US Millennials are significantly less concerned than non-Millennials with data privacy and security overall. Of all named marketing channels in the survey, loyalty and reward programs are perceived as the most privacy-friendly by Millennials: only 14% of Millennial loyalty program members are concerned about sharing personal information with loyalty programs.

Nearly half of US Millennials (47%) agree that they are more likely to share personal details with a brand that offers loyalty and reward incentives.

This blog is condensed from Driving Retention and the Aimia report on Millennial Loyalty, “Born This Way: The US Millennial Loyalty Survey.” 

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a busy time of year for many auto dealers. It can be challenging for salespeople to keep up with all the showroom traffic, but that’s no excuse to let extra revenue opportunities fall through the cracks! While the customer is still engaged at the sales desk is the perfect time for a salesperson to boost revenue with the following programs:

Pre-Paid Maintenance Program: What better gift to give than an entire year of worry-free driving? A pre-paid maintenance program is the perfect new vehicle “accessory.” These plans can be sold in both the F&I and service departments. To maximize revenue, dealers should look for PPM plans that require no third-party administration, no sharing of program revenue or forfeiture and no service claim submission requirements. Plans should be customizable and branded to your store.

Loyalty Card: If your customers accumulate enough rewards points, they may be able to redeem them for a gift (either for themselves or a loved one) next year! Rewards should be tailored to what your customers want, such as a free dinner at a local restaurant, spa service, or coupons to local retailers. A points-based rewards program is very appealing to most customers, with the majority of customers choosing to opt in when offered. It doesn’t cost them anything, and encourages them to return to your dealership for service and parts purchases.

What other ideas or recommendations do you have for maximizing revenue opportunities in your auto dealership during the busiest sales week of the year?

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a busy time of year for many auto dealers. It can be challenging for salespeople to keep up with all the showroom traffic, but that’s no excuse to let extra revenue opportunities fall through the cracks! While the customer is still engaged at the sales desk is the perfect time for a salesperson to boost revenue with the following programs:

Pre-Paid Maintenance Program: What better gift to give than an entire year of worry-free driving? A pre-paid maintenance program is the perfect new vehicle “accessory.” These plans can be sold in both the F&I and service departments. To maximize revenue, dealers should look for PPM plans that require no third-party administration, no sharing of program revenue or forfeiture and no service claim submission requirements. Plans should be customizable and branded to your store.

Loyalty Card: If your customers accumulate enough rewards points, they may be able to redeem them for a gift (either for themselves or a loved one) next year! Rewards should be tailored to what your customers want, such as a free dinner at a local restaurant, spa service, or coupons to local retailers. A points-based rewards program is very appealing to most customers, with the majority of customers choosing to opt in when offered. It doesn’t cost them anything, and encourages them to return to your dealership for service and parts purchases.

What other ideas or recommendations do you have for maximizing revenue opportunities in your auto dealership during the busiest sales week of the year?

Facebook Marketing Solutions recently held a series of six marketing bootcamp webinars for Facebook business pages. In case you missed them, here are brief summaries of some of the highlights:

1. Why Facebook for Business? Besides the fact that 800 million people are on Facebook, word of mouth marketing is twice as likely to result in engagement and four times as likely to result in purchase than any other form of marketing.

   

2. Connecting with Customers: Facebook provides businesses with proven methods to connect with and engage their customers. By building out your business page, engaging with current customers and providing them with incentives to come to your store, you have the opportunity to both build customer loyalty and reward them for their loyalty.
3. Facebook Ads: Facebook allows businesses to target a very specific audience using demographic and geographic data, or by workplace, education, likes and interests. To create effective ads, use Facebook insights to see who’s already visiting your site.
4. Sponsored Stories: As any marketing expert knows, it’s better for someone else (especially a customer) to say something nice about you than for you to say something nice about yourself. Customers referred from others generate higher profit margins than other categories of customers. Sponsored stories allow businesses to turn their customers’ engagement into stories for those customers’ friends to see.
5. Insights & Optimization: Perhaps the two most important elements of good marketing are getting the right message to the right audience at the right time and optimizing future marketing efforts with effective result analysis. Insights is Facebook’s reporting and analysis tool designed to help you optimize your campaigns from both the creative and technical stand points.
6. Making Technology Social: Marketing is about pushing information out to your target audience and social media platforms have an unprecedented ability to reach deeper and further into your desired market. Facebook has built several tools that can help businesses make their technology “social” to achieve this depth of penetration.

To read more in-depth summaries of the Facebook weekly webinars, follow this link to our customer loyalty blog, Driving Retention: www.drivingretention.com

Facebook Marketing Solutions recently held a series of six marketing bootcamp webinars for Facebook business pages. In case you missed them, here are brief summaries of some of the highlights:

1. Why Facebook for Business? Besides the fact that 800 million people are on Facebook, word of mouth marketing is twice as likely to result in engagement and four times as likely to result in purchase than any other form of marketing.

   

2. Connecting with Customers: Facebook provides businesses with proven methods to connect with and engage their customers. By building out your business page, engaging with current customers and providing them with incentives to come to your store, you have the opportunity to both build customer loyalty and reward them for their loyalty.
3. Facebook Ads: Facebook allows businesses to target a very specific audience using demographic and geographic data, or by workplace, education, likes and interests. To create effective ads, use Facebook insights to see who’s already visiting your site.
4. Sponsored Stories: As any marketing expert knows, it’s better for someone else (especially a customer) to say something nice about you than for you to say something nice about yourself. Customers referred from others generate higher profit margins than other categories of customers. Sponsored stories allow businesses to turn their customers’ engagement into stories for those customers’ friends to see.
5. Insights & Optimization: Perhaps the two most important elements of good marketing are getting the right message to the right audience at the right time and optimizing future marketing efforts with effective result analysis. Insights is Facebook’s reporting and analysis tool designed to help you optimize your campaigns from both the creative and technical stand points.
6. Making Technology Social: Marketing is about pushing information out to your target audience and social media platforms have an unprecedented ability to reach deeper and further into your desired market. Facebook has built several tools that can help businesses make their technology “social” to achieve this depth of penetration.

To read more in-depth summaries of the Facebook weekly webinars, follow this link to our customer loyalty blog, Driving Retention: www.drivingretention.com