When we talk about the benefits of customer loyalty, we have in mind the goal of achieving, through various marketing and sales strategies and techniques, that the consumer who has previously purchased any of our products or services will continue to buy from us and become a regular customer on a recurring basis.
- The advantages for a company to have loyal customers are many. Here are some of them:
- Loyal customers generate more income for more years. It is something that has been proven and that has its reliable data.
- The cost of keeping loyal customers is often lower than the cost of acquiring new customers. It is more expensive to carry out recruitment campaigns than to carry out concrete loyalty actions.
- The loyal customer tends to buy the product in our company. Their loyalty will increase to the extent that their loyalty is improved through the corresponding actions.
- There is a direct relationship between customer loyalty and a higher purchase value in each transaction with respect to the sporadic customer. Additionally, the frequency of purchase is higher in the loyal customer.
- Loyal customers are more inclined to acquire new products developed by the company, and can therefore be cross-sold with other products. With loyal customers it is not so difficult to introduce a new range of products or improvements in the company's services.
- Strong loyalty to a company or brand has a lot to say about the power of that company or brand in the marketplace, power that translates into value in the companies' goodwill.
- A loyal and therefore satisfied customer is the best source of communication for the company: much more credible and cheaper than mass media advertising. We are talking about brand prescription or word-of-mouth communication. This helps to considerably reduce companies' marketing costs. On the contrary, it leads to higher marketing costs for competitors to counteract the effects of loyalty.
- To the extent that a company builds customer loyalty and provides sustainable benefits to its customers, it is, at the same time, creating both protective barriers to competition.
- Serving a loyal client means a cost saving for your company, because as you know better their needs, it costs less to serve them well.
- In the same way, serving a loyal customer generates greater satisfaction and performance of the company's employees. It is more stimulating for employees to focus on loyal customers than on sporadic ones. By doing so, productivity and efficiency increase.
- Brand loyal customers are less price sensitive, they assimilate high prices better, because they also feel that they perceive additional value in the services and in the people who provide them. There is an inverse relationship between customer loyalty and the elasticity of demand. The greater the loyalty, the lesser the elasticity.
- Brand loyal customers are the best source of ideas for new products and for the improvement of services offered. They can provide us with ideas for innovation, as well as make it easier for us to introduce new products and services derived from it.
These points make it clear that the advantages of retaining the best customers are fundamental for the company, especially today, as there are hardly any significant differences between the products of one company and another.
Strategies to carry out the loyalty
In order to build customer loyalty, in addition to logically trying to offer the best possible product, it is also necessary to implement specific loyalty strategies.
Below, we will mention three main ones:
Rewarding for loyalty. This is a solution that never fails and is still very effective. You can implement the typical point program with rewards or discounts for customers who reach a certain level of consumption of our products. For example: name VIP customers, send discount coupons, give special gifts to customers by prescription or surprise them with a totally unexpected gift.
Support your customers unconditionally. As a complement to a good communication and feedback with the client, the company's brand can become a kind of "patron" of the client himself, giving him support in his personal projects. For example, by offering them a space on the company's website or blog to promote a product or service or another initiative or project.
Searching for excellence. Especially in the after-sales period, this aspect is fundamental to achieve complete customer satisfaction, a step that is basic and often definitive to achieve customer loyalty.
To conclude this article, we must stress how important the benefits of customer loyalty are for a company. In short, it is a matter of taking good care of your customers so that they will be loyal to your brand, as well as getting those who are not yet loyal to your brand to become so at a given time.
In Afilnet can help you get benefits in customer loyalty by implementing omnichannel campaigns help you optimize communication. If you need help do not hesitate to contact us and visit our website.