![\"customer-loyalty\"](\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/customer-loyalty-300x300.jpg\")
first, let\u2019s examine the three kinds of loyalty you don\u2019t want to engender\u2026<\/p>\nRepeat customers, raving fans, angry backlashers, commodity shoppers.\u00a0 Oh boy, what a range of loyalty these represent.\u00a0 And in your years, you may have experienced all of these.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another way to look at the ladder to an ideal customer loyalty relationship.\u00a0 But first, let\u2019s examine the three kinds of loyalty you don\u2019t want to engender\u2026<\/p>\n
How about forced loyalty<\/em>, if you happen to have a monopoly in your niche?\u00a0 Customers hate this, especially when they have a complaint.\u00a0 I am not suggesting that you create a competitor, only that if this is the case, you should find a way to exceed customer expectations greatly.\u00a0 Often.<\/p>\n Loyalty by habit <\/em>works, until it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 Think of the supermarket you use regularly.\u00a0 You know the layout well, are comfortable with the selection, and even recognize the checkers, sometimes by name.\u00a0 That\u2019s habit\u2013shopping.\u00a0 A competitor could find easy pickings here, with direct marketing to habit shoppers with coupons, special prices, and exciting promotions.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want your customers to buy strictly because you have become their \u201chabit of comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n [Email readers, continue here…]<\/em><\/span> \u00a0Then, you can buy your customers<\/em>, usually an expensive and very tenuous proposition.\u00a0 Consider this attempt to be a bribe at best.\u00a0 \u00a0Your discount coupons, use of Groupon or other third party source, predatory pricing, or the high cost of ad word purchases is rarely sustainable.\u00a0 Worse yet, customers attained through these sources are rarely loyal at all.<\/p>\n So how do we create real, emotional, easily measured loyalty?<\/p>\n We engage the customer at the time and place most appealing to that person. We under\u2013promise and over\u2013deliver \u2013 every time. We react positively to suggestions, reward their loyalty with recognition, and make this important cohort not just seem to be, but actually be the ideal example of our mission personified.<\/p>\n It takes work.<\/p>\n And the reward will surprise you.\u00a0 Engaged customers spend more, generate higher margins, and become passionate influencers.\u00a0 Free advertising. High margins.\u00a0 What\u2019s more to like?<\/p>\n Well, how about the satisfaction that \u2013 at least for some of our customers \u2013 we have achieved that lofty mission we set out to create way back when all this started.\u00a0 And that has to be priceless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Repeat customers, raving fans, angry backlashers, commodity shoppers.\u00a0 Oh boy, what a range of loyalty these represent.\u00a0 And in your years, you may have experienced all of these. Here\u2019s another way to look at the ladder to an ideal customer … Continue reading