Creating loyal customers is critical for the survival and profitability of any business. Essentially, it is more cost effective for you to keep an existing customer who is loyal than to get a new one, so what are you doing about keeping your customer’s loyalty and having people buy your products or services for a long time, not just once or twice?
Today we are going to look at the Loyalty Ladder and how to create “Raving Fans” for your business.
Everyone comes to you as a SUSPECT – You “suspect” that they are in your demographic. Business owners often get confused between “target market” and “demographic”. Essentially, your demographic is a massive pool of people who might use your products or services, and a target market is a smaller, more defined group within this demographic. The critical thing at this level is to have people interacting in some way with your business. They might enter your store, subscribe to a newsletter, enter a competition, etc. In some way, you need to capture their details (with their permission) so that you know they are interested in what you may be offering.
Only once you have decided that they are within your target market, and you gather their details (Name, address, phone no, email) do they become a PROSPECT.
Now that you have their details and your marketing is working effectively, the Prospect buys something from you. Our aim is to help them to become a SHOPPER. Do you offer them excellent service when they come in? Do you have a systematic methodology for answering the phone? Do you have a systematic methodology for gathering details so that you can offer the best possible solution?
After a SHOPPER has bought from you once, the aim is to get them to come back and buy again – right? What sort of offer or incentive system do you have in place to make sure that they do come back and buy from you again? They become a CUSTOMER when you get your marketing working well, and your systems are in place, and they buy from you “more than once”.
However, it is not enough to simply have a lot of customers. To establish true loyalty, your customers want to feel as though they “belong”. Establishing a MEMBER program will ensure that your customers keep coming back, time and time again. Having a system where you offer members special rates or member-only deals will make them feel special and keep them coming back for more.
Once your members feel that they truly belong will they become an ADVOCATE for your business. An Advocate is someone who will tell others about your business when asked, as in… “Do you know a good plumber/florist/mechanic, etc”.
The final step on the ladder is to turn your Advocates into RAVING FANS – these are the people who rave about you to their friends and pretty much anyone else who will listen. These guys love what you do, and want others to have the same experiences as they did. These are the guys who will share your videos so they go viral, they effectively tell others about their experiences so that they will want to buy from you.
Our role is to move as many people up the ladder as we can to become Raving Fans. Sure, we won’t get everyone, but it is still important to have the right systems in place to get as many people up that ladder as we possibly can.
For help in developing your strategies to turn loyal customers into Raving Fan, get in touch with ActionCOACH North Brisbane and arrange a meeting.