Keep Your Customers Loyal

Rhonda Abrams:

Without customers, you don’t have a business. But it’s difficult and costly to land a customer. So once you have a customer, how do you keep them coming back? That’s where customer retention and loyalty programs come in.

You’re familiar with loyalty programs already — the most obvious example is the airline frequent flier program. But I’m betting you also have a coffeehouse or sandwich shop punch card or frequent buyer discount card from a small store in your wallet. I do.

Remember Rhonda’s Rule: “The best source of future business is a past customer.” Not only are satisfied customers more likely to buy from you again, they’re the ones who generate word-of-mouth marketing and referrals.

Most marketing specialists agree it’s far less expensive to keep a good customer than attract a new one. It’s estimated that it costs from two to 10 times more to acquire a customer than to retain one. So it’s worth your while to spend a bit of time and money figuring out how to keep your current customers loyal to you.

What keeps customers coming back?

The first and most important reason, of course, is the quality of your product or services and the way your company is run. If your sandwiches are lousy or customers have to wait too long at lunchtime, it won’t matter if you have a punch card for your sandwich shop. One of the best ways to cultivate happy, loyal, and long-term customers is to consistently give them an excellent product or service.

But this isn’t enough for every company, and even if you have a terrific product or service, you’ll need to make special efforts to retain customers. This is particularly true for new and very small businesses. So, consider how you might institute a “loyalty program” to keep customers attached to you.

Read more.

Photo by MSDesigns.

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