Increasing customer loyalty to the company. Professional cosmetics MAC. Bonus loyalty program

In short, loyalty is the customer’s positive attitude towards the image of the brand, its activities, the product being promoted, the company’s personnel and many other factors. As a rule, customer loyalty is determined by the fact that a person uses the company’s services (or purchases its goods) for a long time without leaving for competitors.

A similar term defines the attitude of staff towards the employer. Moreover, employee loyalty should be the goal of any manager, because this factor can significantly increase labor productivity, improve the environment in the team and bring many other benefits.

Let's take a closer look at both of these phenomena in our article today.

Customer loyalty

Speaking about what customer loyalty is, it is immediately worth noting the key importance of a positive user experience. If a person, along with the product, has a positive impression of working with you, then he is more likely to contact the company again.

A number of studies confirm that a person who is satisfied with a purchase is more likely to have a positive attitude towards other offers from the same brand. Moreover, including your audience in “privileged” loyalty programs, membership in which allows you to cooperate with you on exclusive terms, significantly strengthens the “loyalty” of your already most valuable users.

But you should not perceive the commodity-money aspect as the only way to leave a good impression. Remember that there are many companies on the market that provide similar services to yours - often at better prices. But this is not the only important thing for clients. If the brand image, the company’s mission, its social activity or attitude towards its business coincide with the user’s worldview, if you managed to create an emotional attachment of the audience to the brand, then people will agree to pay a little more - just to support you, or to feel involved.

Remember the huge queues in front of stores on the day new Apple products went on sale. Do people who freeze for hours in these lines really crave profit? Not at all.

Further proof of how important it is to stimulate and build loyalty will be the following arguments:

• 20% of your customer base generates 80% of your revenue - the Pareto principle applies here too;
• a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about his experience, while a dissatisfied customer shares his negative experience with ten acquaintances;
• the funds spent on strengthening the loyalty of one client will pay off within a year of working with him.
• If you think that this is expensive, then what about the following figure? The costs of attracting a new customer are, as a rule, five times higher than retaining them;
• among other things, an increase in the number of satisfied customers by only 5% can increase your income by 50%.

From all of the above, it follows that audience loyalty is one of the most important factors in the development of your business. Now, having analyzed what customer loyalty is, let's talk about another aspect - no less important. Next we will talk about staff loyalty.

Employee loyalty

According to a number of studies, the basis for the rapid and stable development of an organization is precisely the loyalty of its staff. After all, the people, the team, are your everything. But many mistakenly consider ordinary trustworthiness to be loyalty - that is, formal adherence to internal regulations (public and private), as well as basic politeness. These concepts should not be confused. So, let’s look at what employee loyalty is and how to achieve it.

Loyalty is not a formal quality, but deep trust and respect, pride in one’s company. Ideally, if the global goals of the company and its mission coincide with the employee’s plans for the future, as well as with his worldview as a whole, then such loyalty is almost unbreakable. It is worth remembering that the basis of any relationship between people is trust. Not carrots and sticks, not a good social package and a coffee machine in the office, but simple human trust in one’s neighbor.

Therefore, for example, if you do not believe that your employees are able to work effectively with the ability to access social networks, and therefore block them, then you need to change something. Either thinking, or employees, or the procedure for selecting personnel. Although, of course, all cases are individual - much depends on the field of business and the specifics of the position.

But generally speaking, try to do the following. Your employees must perfectly understand the company's goals, share them and welcome them. Therefore, special attention should be paid to addressing the brand strategy and its mission. It's worth mentioning these things quite often. Next, give employees the opportunity to express their opinions, influence what is happening within the company, and actually grow in career and salary. An organization where employees have no voice and no prospects resembles a swamp - the natural solution is to either escape from there or adapt to the environment. That is, sit quietly in your place, creating only the appearance of work.

But what loyalty to a company really is - you will understand only after a long activity in this direction. Give people the opportunity to feel respect from managers and top managers, encourage employee initiatives, strengthen the corporate culture over time - and then, of course, you will form a real team of loyal professionals.

As the population's well-being grows, the number of more discerning consumers also grows, who, when purchasing a product, pay more and more attention to its quality and level of service. To maintain the loyalty of such customers, it is no longer enough to have a lower price or simply smile when communicating with them.

At the moment, for marketers, retaining a customer is a higher priority than attracting a new one, because... firstly, the company minimizes the costs associated with attracting them, and secondly, satisfied consumers turn to the company more often, recommend it to their friends and acquaintances and are less sensitive to price.

In the marketing literature, there are two fundamental approaches to defining loyalty. The first is based on considering loyalty as a certain type of consumer behavior, expressed in long-term interaction with the company and making repeat purchases. Despite the ease of assessing loyalty defined in this way, this approach, however, has a clear disadvantage: it only takes into account behavioral outcomes (repeat purchases), but does not reveal the reasons why a consumer chooses a particular service provider.

The authors overcame this drawback by proposing a different approach, according to which loyalty is considered as a consumer preference formed as a result of a generalization of feelings, emotions, and opinions regarding a service (or its supplier). This type of loyalty is sometimes seen as more meaningful because it is believed to indicate a consumer's future behavior rather than reflect past experiences. But, like any approach, it has its own nuances and disadvantages: firstly, giving preference to subjective opinions as determining factors of loyalty does not prove their influence on the purchase. Secondly, there are problems in measuring this type of loyalty.

If we combine these approaches and highlight the main thing, we can conclude that consumer loyalty is a feeling that arises towards a company that encourages people to give their money specifically for the goods or services of this company. The same feeling makes them want to recommend this particular company to their friends and acquaintances

Traditionally, in the relationship marketing literature, customer loyalty has been divided into behavioral and perceived loyalty. Monitoring behavioral loyalty metrics is carried out by observing the actual behavior of the client and is a method of implementing a retrospective analysis of his consumer activity.

In turn, the emotional loyalty of customers is expressed in the level of their awareness of the organization’s activities and what needs they can satisfy by using its products or services, as well as in the level of customer satisfaction with the company’s offerings, their quality and the service provided by the organization. In addition, an important component of perceived customer loyalty is the level of emotional perception of the company. It seems that for the most complete and comprehensive assessment, it is most advisable to use an approach that involves monitoring both behavioral and perceived metrics of customer loyalty.

Often in modern business practice, loyalty is often understood as customer satisfaction, which is not the same thing. As noted by S. Sysoeva A. Neiman, “satisfaction appears when the buyer is satisfied and does not regret the money spent. But the client will not necessarily become loyal. A loyal customer is always a satisfied customer, but a satisfied customer is not always loyal. Although customer satisfaction is the first step towards winning his loyalty.” A similar point of view is also shared by T.Y. Gerpott, who believes that satisfaction with a service is not identical to consumer loyalty. Customer satisfaction should be understood as a set of ordered assessments of individual characteristics of services (which can be positive or negative), and individually perceived and expected quality characteristics are included in these assessments. A positive assessment of the service (customer satisfaction) increases the strength of the intention to repurchase, but does not completely determine it, since it depends on the technical, functional and economic connection of the client to the enterprise, the general attractiveness of competitors’ services, and the general assessment of one’s own business. A number of studies have shown that customer satisfaction does not necessarily lead to repeat purchases and increased sales. During their implementation, it was revealed that it is only the foundation for further building customer loyalty.

The difference between satisfaction and loyalty has provoked opposing conclusions from a number of researchers. Some authors believe that “only satisfaction, not loyalty, can act as an achievable goal for a company,” and support their opinion with the presence of effective methods for measuring customer satisfaction, as opposed to the lack of ways to determine their loyalty. Others, on the contrary, emphasize that “loyalty, not satisfaction, should be the real goal of the company,” since customer satisfaction does not guarantee repeat transactions with the supplier, which is the reason why customer satisfaction cannot be used as a meaningful metric. The second approach looks more reasonable, so it was accepted as a starting point for further analysis of factors that influence the emergence and strengthening of consumer loyalty.

Customer loyalty today is one of the goals for any company, since it is much easier and more profitable to retain your old customers than to constantly search for new ones. It is very important for a company to retain customers. And the reason for this is not only the difficulty of finding new ones: if a company does not have large and regular clients, and the company itself claims to have a worthy place in the market, then most likely it has internal problems. The inconsistency of customers can be caused not only by obvious shortcomings (for example, inattention on the part of staff or low-quality goods and services), as some owners and managers of companies believe, but by hidden, internal ones. For the company, the client must become the center, be above all.

Marketing specialists distinguish several types of customer loyalty, depending on different market situations. Here are the traditional types of loyalty:

1. Loyalty to the monopolist company.

This type of loyalty is possible when the consumer (client) has no alternative choice and is forced to turn to a monopoly company. Outwardly, this may only resemble loyalty, but in essence, it is not such. There is a certain external sign of loyalty: the client constantly returns to the same seller (supplier). But this is due to the fact that there are no competitors on the market. The client does not even have anything to compare with, and he does not have the opportunity to do so. True loyalty presupposes a positive attitude towards the company, but in this case the latter does not follow from constant contact with it. Situations in which customers are actually dissatisfied with a monopolist company arise quite often. This dissatisfaction can arise for a variety of reasons: poor quality service, disinterest of the company itself in clients, etc. This can be explained by the fact that a monopolist most often actually performs much worse than those firms that developed in a competitive environment. Obviously, the monopolist has no incentive to improve products, provide better services, or pay increased attention to service, because he will have many clients without additional costs, so he does not need unnecessary efforts. Loyalty to a monopolist company is built only on the basis of the client’s lack of opportunity to choose the company that is suitable for him. This situation is not favorable for a monopolist company: the company stands still and develops poorly, and when competitors appear on the market, it can very quickly lose its position if it cannot fight for customers.

2. Loyalty associated with the process of changing your service provider.

In this case, the company has competitors, they can also operate successfully in the market, and theoretically they can lure away the client. However, in practice, it is not always possible for a client to easily and quickly change the supplier company. Serious difficulties and interruptions in work may arise. This may also be due to the fact that changing the company will entail significant costs for the client, which not every company will be able to bear. These are individual factors that are associated with the activities of the company, with the peculiarities of the sphere of operation of the companies, etc. The presence of difficulties forces the client to behave almost like in a situation where there is one monopolist on the market: the client can endure inconvenience for a very long time and put up with shortcomings in work. But unlike a monopoly, the client still has a choice, and as a last resort, he can change the company to a competing company, since they can provide him with better services. But due to all the above difficulties, the line beyond which the client is ready to go to competitors often remains uncrossed. Therefore, in those industries where the transition from working with one supplier to working with another is very difficult, customer loyalty is very conditional. Companies in this situation should not think that customers are truly loyal to them; it is necessary to fully satisfy their needs, serve them as best as possible and achieve the kind of loyalty in which the client will truly be loyal and devoted to his company.

3. Loyalty and interest.

This type of loyalty is widespread today. This is strengthening customer loyalty by providing impossible discounts and benefits when using the services of a particular company. This can be a very effective method, on the one hand, but on the other hand, such loyalty also cannot be fully called loyalty. The fact is that if a client uses the services of a company only for discounts, then he can also use the services of competing companies that also offer discounts. An example of this type of loyalty is the discount cards of the largest supermarkets: many people have such cards, but not from one company, but from several competing with each other. Therefore, loyalty and interest also has its own characteristics and sometimes requires making decisions that help distinguish the company from approximately equal competitors. For companies operating in industries where consumers can enjoy similar benefits without inconvenience, such loyalty will not fully achieve the desired results. Therefore, some companies deliberately abandon this strategy and prefer to develop in a different way. If they develop their strategy wisely, this is how they can achieve success because they will stand out from their competitors.

4. Customer loyalty associated with the habit of this company.

Customer loyalty, which is explained by his habit, is very common. Sometimes the client does not even think about why he resorts to the services of the same company. The point is not always that she provides the best services, but that he knows her well, has already worked with her, and she does not evoke strong negative emotions. Also, loyalty associated with habit may be characteristic in cases where a company has the opportunity, but does not have time, to search for a new supplier, and using the services of an old one is much more convenient than trying something new. Habit is closely related to convenience and established consistency, so it is still worth distinguishing true loyalty. If a new competitor appears on the market, which will provide better service, will be more conveniently located, will have differences in work (positive), the client’s true commitment to the company will be revealed: if he leaves for a competitor, then he was not truly loyal to the company There were shortcomings in the work; it did not fully satisfy all needs. If the client stays, then he is truly devoted to the company. Therefore, you should soberly assess the situation, even if the company manages to retain its clients: the reasons that force them to use the services of your company are much more important than the external well-being in relations with customers.

5. Ideological loyalty.

This is a rather rare type of customer loyalty that does not occur very often. Ideological loyalty is the most difficult to achieve, but it is precisely this that most strongly binds the client to the company. For this type of loyalty, you can use words such as “devotion to the company,” “loyalty to the company,” “sense of duty.” Sometimes such attachment can be irrational. Every company dreams of ideological loyalty of its customers, but it is very rarely achieved. In order to achieve ideological loyalty, you need to “win the heart” of the client: at every meeting with him, offer only the highest quality products, high-level service, and possibly an individual approach. A client who is ideologically loyal turns to a company not because it is the only one on the market, it’s convenient or he’s simply already used to it, but because he considers it the best on the market or, at least, the best for himself. This is the main difference between ideological loyalty and all others, and it should be the goal of any company operating in the market that wants to take a leading position. In order to earn it, it is not enough to provide a discount or promise benefits: such loyalty requires the development of special actions aimed at creating a positive image of the company in the eyes of customers. Large companies are willing to spend a lot of time and money on this, because they know that the result will pay off more than once, and the position in the market will become stronger, the company will be inaccessible to its competitors.

Thus, there are several types of customer loyalty. However, a truly loyal consumer is quite rare; more often, a situation occurs when the client is outwardly loyal, but is actually interested in the competitors’ offer. Customer loyalty is a very broad issue that affects almost all areas of the company's activities, because... loyalty depends on a very large number of factors (service, quality of service, company reputation, etc.).

The “strongest” brands with the greatest brand equity have a large number of loyal consumers. Commitment is quite easy to recognize as it manifests itself in a variety of ways. One of the key indicators is the number of interactions committed consumers have with other consumers associated with the brand. Loyal consumers typically love to talk about a brand and recommend it to others.

Loyal consumers can be called those consumers who remain “faithful” to the company for a sufficiently long time (compared to the life of the product) and make repeat purchases.

The dream of any entrepreneur is to increase the number of sales of goods or services offered to consumers. In order to achieve results, a businessman needs to answer two fundamental questions for himself: and how to win regular customers.

The answer to the first question is not as difficult as it seems. Typically, a business owner sets the goal of optimizing his business after opening his own business (retail outlet, salon, workshop, etc.). Consequently, we are talking only about the selection of goods within a deterministic assortment, which greatly simplifies the task.

A simple example can be given to confirm the thesis. Choosing to suit his taste, the entrepreneur decided to open a clothing and footwear store for children. It is quite logical that the basic assortment in this case will include items of clothing and a variety of shoes for children and teenagers, but not snowmobiles, winter tires or, for example, elite wine. A business owner can fill his outlet with goods of different brands and price categories, without going beyond the boundaries of the predefined assortment - otherwise the store simply will not be able to satisfy the needs of the target audience, and therefore will be unprofitable.

The second question has become increasingly relevant lately; The reason for this is increased competition to the limit and, in large cities, an excess of shopping centers and stores offering the client similar or identical goods on different terms. Of course, according to the theory of probability, customers will make purchases in each of the existing stores, but the entrepreneur is not interested in the fundamental possibility of selling the product, but in the favorable distribution of the total number of sales.

There are two ways to achieve this:

• increasing the overall flow of customers;
• developing a base of regular (loyal) customers.

Achieving the first goal is mostly achieved by conducting large-scale advertising campaigns that cover as large a percentage of the target audience as possible. Such promotions will inevitably be costly: the business owner will have to pay for proper placement of advertising materials in newspapers, television, radio, on the Internet, and also, ideally, for the creation and promotion of appropriate groups on social networks (SMM).

Oddly enough, you can reduce costs while simultaneously working on the second task. After all, a loyal client is likely to recommend his favorite establishment to friends and acquaintances, acting as an advertising agent of his own free will and completely free of charge. This means that by investing in customer loyalty programs, an entrepreneur will achieve two goals at once. Nevertheless, one should not completely forget about traditional advertising campaigns: even a large number of regular customers does not guarantee a stable and constant increase in customer flow.

Customer loyalty is...

There is no clearly formulated definition of customer loyalty. Signs of loyalty include:

1. Willingness to turn to your chosen entrepreneur for a product or service over and over again.
2. Higher frequency of purchases and/or inquiries compared to the average customer.
3. Desire to use additional services and participate in promotions (for example, receive or purchase a loyalty card).
4. Increased resistance to proposals from other entrepreneurs.
5. Willingness to make minor sacrifices in order to receive a service or purchase a product from a favorite seller (wait for delivery, overpay a little).
6. Emotional attachment to the establishment/brand: the buyer recommends them to his friends and acquaintances, writes real reviews on social networks and websites, including leveling negative reviews from dissatisfied or “custom” customers.

In today’s market conditions, it is important for an entrepreneur to understand that passing through and forming a primary attachment is not enough: the mood of even a loyal customer can change quite quickly due to many factors.

For example, a loyal customer will be ready to put up with a slight delay in the delivery of the product he likes - approximately 25–30% of the expected time. If an item must be delivered in 14 days, a loyal customer will wait 18–20 days without much dissatisfaction. However, if the wait period exceeds 1-2 months, and this happens on an ongoing basis, a loyal customer will almost certainly be lost.

The same situation applies to the cost of goods. A loyal buyer is ready, for the sake of special conditions offered by the seller, to overpay a certain amount (it is impossible to name the exact percentage in this case), but within reasonable limits. Even the most regular customer will not purchase a product for 20,000 rubles, if its price in another store is 10,000 rubles.

Maintaining the quality of products or services is particularly important. To develop a base of regular customers, various loyalty programs are used.

The loyalty program is...

A loyalty program is a set of activities aimed at creating a stable emotional and behavioral attachment of a client to a brand/outlet/establishment.

There are three main types of programs:

1. Bonus loyalty program. For each purchase, the client receives bonuses in the form of points, points, etc., in order to exchange them for a real purchase or service in the future.
2. Discount program. A regular buyer receives a document (usually a plastic discount card) giving the right to further purchase goods (any or from a limited list) at a discount.
3. Savings program. Unlike a bonus, the client receives an additional product or service (for example, free delivery) when the total amount of purchases he has previously made reaches a certain point.

Increasing customer loyalty can be achieved without the involvement of professional marketers: now on the Internet you can find many examples of successful programs and, by applying them to a specific situation, achieve success.

This is especially true for small localities with relatively low levels of competition (and sometimes even a complete absence of it). For example, when deciding, an entrepreneur should first of all pay attention to unoccupied or poorly occupied niches - in particular, computer equipment. In a small settlement, especially one remote from the regional center, such a store, in the likely absence of competition, will be in demand among young people and middle-aged people who do not want to waste time traveling to a big city.

The situation is more complicated in large cities, where any new establishment is doomed to compete with existing ones. In such a situation, simply copying a customer loyalty system that has worked for a third party will not be enough, and it is best for the entrepreneur to resort to the services of a marketer, advertising manager and other specialists.

Stages of becoming a loyal customer

The buyer will not become loyal after the first purchase, not to mention just visiting the establishment. The formation of customer loyalty occurs in several stages:

1. First visit.
2. One-time purchase.
3. Repurchase.
4. Attachment to the store.
5. Loyalty.

One-time visit

A variety of factors can motivate a potential buyer to visit:

• targeted advertising;
• recommendations from relatives or friends;
• simple curiosity.

After visiting the store and getting acquainted with the assortment, the visitor can come to one of three decisions:

• don't buy anything;
• buy something, but later;
• buy your favorite product right now.

In the latter case, we can already begin to talk about the formation of loyalty, but no guarantees can be given. The buyer may not like the quality of the purchased product (or service) or service. In addition, the location (too far from home or in an uncomfortable area), opening hours of the establishment, or other factors may be unacceptable to him. In the end, the customer may be lured away by competitors - for example, with lower prices or attractive offers.

In other words, you can start fighting for customer loyalty from the first purchase, but you should not rely on it. Promotional materials can include advertising brochures, online mailings, offers to participate in discount promotions for newcomers, and so on.

Returning client

After a customer has purchased a product or service and is satisfied with the quality of the purchase and service, there is about a 25% chance that he will think about visiting the store again. Having returned and made a purchase again, the buyer moves on to the third stage of loyalty formation.

Returning client

Gradually, a person stops purchasing relevant goods or services from competitors, giving preference to his favorite establishment. Such a client is called a returning one and, as statistics show, makes purchases 45% more often than primary visitors.

Loyal client

This term refers to a buyer who is emotionally and behaviorally attached to a specific brand or store, ready to defend it, object to critics, and recommend it to family and friends. At this stage, the formation of loyalty can be considered complete, but there is still no point in relaxing: a gradual deterioration in the quality of goods and service or, for example, the emergence of competitors with a more attractive offer can lead to an outflow of not only one-time buyers, but also regular customers.

Customer loyalty programs - examples

For example, we can consider two loyalty programs - successful and unsuccessful:

• In the first case, an entrepreneur, opening a new store, launches a wide advertising campaign to attract one-time customers. After forming a steady flow, he begins to weed out regular customers, offering visitors a bonus loyalty program that allows them, upon accumulating a certain number of points, to receive one unit of an average price category product for free or for a small additional payment. The vast majority of clients will decide to participate in the program, but a minority will purposefully accumulate points (in this case it is impossible to name the exact percentage, it depends on many factors). Having accumulated them and received the promised product, the client will not only receive moral satisfaction from the purchase and service, but will also want to participate in the promotion again, and therefore will make even more purchases. For buyers who have collected the required number of points more than twice, the entrepreneur provides an additional discount without reducing the number of points accumulated. In this way, he will finally win over the consumer, and he will bring with him new potentially loyal customers.
• An unsuccessful option for a loyalty program is to conduct a bonus promotion, but with restrictions on the range of goods sold or offered as a bonus (for example, an entrepreneur will try to sell unclaimed or low-quality products). Unnecessary goods simply will not be sold out; Moreover, customers will not want to exchange honestly earned points for it. Another unfortunate example is that the bar is raised too high: if in order to receive the simplest bonus a client needs to buy goods worth several tens of thousands of rubles, he will most likely simply consider participation in such a promotion inappropriate.

How to develop your own customer loyalty program?

Independent development of a loyalty program includes several basic steps:

1. Demand research. Before creating an offer, an entrepreneur needs to find out what exactly the buyer wants from him. For example, if a store sells children's clothing, it would be logical to arrange seasonal discounts on summer clothes, swimsuits and school uniforms.
2. Selecting the program format. The entrepreneur decides whether it will be a bonus program, the participant of which, having accumulated the required number of points, will be able to exchange them for goods from a pre-compiled list, a discount program, the participant of which will be able to receive a discount on purchased products, or some other type.
3. Clarification of conditions. The business owner determines which products can be obtained as part of the promotion, the amount of points required to receive this or that item, or the gradation of discounts depending on arbitrary factors (total amount of purchases, time of work with the client).
4. Delivering information to the target audience. For this purpose, advertising events are carried out in the media and on the Internet, banners are hung, mailings are carried out on social networks and other actions are taken that correspond to the financial capabilities and needs of the entrepreneur.
5. Carrying out promotions and further retaining customers. It is important for an entrepreneur to fulfill all the promises given to him: to provide discounts, award bonuses and allow them to be realized. Otherwise, even the once positive reputation of the brand will quickly be lost, as will loyal customers. It is possible to restore the shaky situation in the future, but it will take a lot of time and require considerable financial investments.

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As you can see, the general principles of developing a loyalty program are quite simple and can be easily implemented by any business owner. All that is required of an entrepreneur is to correctly determine the direction of movement and conscientiously fulfill his obligations. In this case (even with a relatively modest offer for the loyalty program), the flow of grateful customers will be ensured, and with it the long-awaited increase in sales.

In contact with

We, as consumers, have become different compared to previous years, and our clients have also become different. They are no longer looking for manufacturers, they are looking for manufacturers. The dictates of producers have been replaced by the dictates of buyers. There is a real hunt for the buyer. Techniques are constantly being invented to secure customers, create loyalty and commitment: Games, sweepstakes, lotteries, prizes (collect something and you will receive), creating clubs of adherents of a particular brand (“Mazda-6”, “Harley Davidson”, “Buran” , UAZ), subscriptions (swimming pool, club, cinema), sales spirals (“Vest”, “Herbalife”)etc. This whole circus is invented only in order to stimulate repeat purchases and bind the client with something. In business language, this process is called creating loyalty programs, but this absolutely does not lead to loyalty. The events that I have listed, with the exception of brand loyalty clubs, are in fact events to stimulate repeat purchases and are very far from actually creating loyalty. What is customer loyalty and how can we win it?

A.People go shopping where:

• are absolutely sure that they will get what they need;
• where they are welcome, welcome and their interests are valued;
• where they will be listened to carefully, imbued with their problem and clearly
• will respond to wishes and whims.

This is exactly what they are willing to pay for.

B.Whether we are selling a product or a service, both have 3 components and we sell them together:

1. material component (the product itself);
2. service (this ishow, in what waythe company sells its goods and carries outpromised service).
3. additional service (these are additional activities promised by the company for the product being sold);

Maintenance - maintenance and service - are no less important components than the material product itself.

If the buyer meets again and again high level product, service and promised service, then he not only becomes a loyal (loyal to the company) customer, but also shares his positive impressions with the people around him.

An increase in sales volumes is possible only through three main sources:

1. conquest (“taking away”) customers from competitors,
2. attraction new clients (market expansion),
3. increase in shopping intensity existing customers (in B2P this is “chew chewing gum after every meal”, “change the oil in your car after every 5,000 km”, etc., in B2B this is securing customers who should shop only from us and help them develop and grow their business).

The buyer goes through the following stages:

1. potential buyer;
2. buyer;
3. regular customer (reasons for repeat purchases vary);
4. loyal (faithful) customer;
5. committed buyer.

Customer loyalty – This is a positive, loyal attitude of consumers towards everything related to the organization's activities. Loyalty is a consequence of high satisfaction.

Customer loyalty for a company is:

• Guaranteed, permanent,projected sales volume allowing to planproduction volumes, purchases, etc., as well as build long-term plans with long payback periods. The manufacturer and seller, trying to build loyalty among their customers, actually seek clarity about how much of which product will be purchased tomorrow.
• Increasing company value. The number of loyal customers, like a litmus test, reflects the real value of a brand, company, product, service, etc.
• The criterion that the quality of the product or service is acceptable, A the level of service corresponds to the requested price for the purchase.
• This is a significant cost savingslooking for new clients.

Loyal consumers are distinguished by:

• Remain loyal and devoted to the company for a long time;
• They buy not only existing goods and services, but also new services offered by the company;
• speak well of the company, recommend and refer others;
• Conducts the most effective advertising “by word of mouth”;
• They act as lawyers and defend company policies. prices, goods;
• Do not respond to promotions of competing companies;
• Less sensitive to price levels;
• Not critical to one-time cases of quality deterioration;
• They are happy to take part in various types of surveys;
• Actively express proposals for improving products and services.
• They require less attention in terms of maintenance and time spent on them.
• There are no start-up costs required to win their loyalty.

According to the European Trade Institute, it costs eight times more to attract a new consumer in Germany! more money than to motivate a repeat purchase.A loyal customer brings 11 times more profit.

Loyalty brings financial benefits. An increase in the number of loyal customers by 5% can increase sales volumes up to 100%. Loyalty can be built and strengthened. The cost of attracting a new client is on average 5 times more than retaining an existing one. A satisfied customer will tell about a successful purchase to an average of 5 acquaintances, a dissatisfied, offended customer will tell at least 10.

The basis of loyalty is positive personal experience , which the consumer received in the process of purchasing / consuming a given product or service, but loyalty can even arise as a result of the perception of the company’s image.

A company that wants to be loved must, in turn, love its customers and this love must have an actual expression. These are not discounts and benefits in the first place, but taking into account interests, signs of attention, and a willingness to meet people halfway.

Everyone should start working on creating a customer loyalty program. Winning customer loyalty begins with the first contact, literally with a phone call, and goes literallyacross all touchpoints . Touchpoints are the points through which the client passes from the beginning of contact to the end, from the first phone call to purchase and support. These points need to be identified, written down and worked on: convenience, comfort, politeness, courtesy, cleanliness, aesthetics, etc.

Goals of creating loyalty programs:

• Attraction of new clients;
• retention of existing clients;
• countering the efforts of competitors to lure customers.

Loyalty factors:

• Time for cooperation. When analyzing the level of loyalty, this factor must be taken into account.
• Satisfaction levelclient. This is a necessary condition for loyalty. The client does not need a perfect product, he needs a fair ratio: price / quality / functionality.
• Experience of interaction. Real experience of using the product.
• Repeat purchasescommitted of their own free will in the presence of alternatives, but not when stimulated by bonuses or dumping prices. This is a truly objective indicator of loyalty.
• Personal contacts. Not only for the consumer market, but also the market "B2B"("Business to Business"). The better the seller’s employees know the buyer’s employees at the level of interpersonal communication, the higher the loyalty of the buyer company, because the purchase is not made by the company, but by a specific person who can be loyal to either one or the other. Task No. 1 for a seller is to win the loyalty of the person making the purchasing decision.
• Experience in properly overcoming a crisis in a relationshipseller and buyer.

A correctly experienced crisis in the relationship between the seller and the client does not destroy loyalty, but sometimes strengthens it. For this use:

• - gift, concession;
• - daily calls from the operator informing the client about the production situation;
• - a call from the sales director with a personal apology;
• - other forms of apology and gratitude for the willingness to wait.

Resisting competitive pressure (tempting offers).

At the same time, the company should not remain an indifferent observer, but take steps to establish a balance between the profitability of both proposals. From love to hate one step. It will be very difficult to retain and return a loyal customer who has been offended by inattention.

Degree of customer satisfaction.

1. Completely satisfied. We do not intend to look for alternative suppliers.
2. Satisfied. Continue to cooperate, but look for alternative suppliers or make occasional purchases from others.
3. Neutral. They don't care who they buy from.
4. Unsatisfied, dissatisfied. Buy out of necessity or under duress. They would love to change the supplier, but there is simply none.
5. Completely unsatisfied, dissatisfied customers. They continue to use the product, but are actively looking for another supplier, openly scolding you, and vow to leave at the first opportunity.

You need to determine the % of each category in 100% of all clients.

"Wrong" clients.

Quality is very often not the main reason for low customer satisfaction. Exist“wrong” consumers whom the company is unable to satisfy profitably. Their values ​​and needs do not match the properties of your product. Such clients need to be identified quickly and resources not wasted on them.

You need to work with clients whose values ​​are similar to the values ​​of your product, i.e. the “right” customers and avoid wasting resources on the rest, the “wrong” ones, whose values ​​do not coincide with the values ​​of your product.

You need to sell to the “right” customers - this generates income.

When purchasing a product, a client buys values ​​and opportunities. If the seller does not know what values ​​his product represents, then in fact he does not know what he is charging the client for. He may not even understand why clients are paying for it.

A way to identify “wrong” clients:

In one column you need to write down the values ​​that your product reflects, starting with the most important.

The other contains the values ​​of your “right” clients.

This way you will identify customers whose values ​​are similar to those of your product and avoid the rest. For one, the environmental friendliness of the product is of paramount importance and he is primarily willing to pay for it, for another - the cheapness of the product, for the third - saving time,for the fourth - a domestic manufacturer, for the fifth - following fashion, reliability, prestige, convenience, etc. Different people have different values, different evaluation criteria, different stereotypes.

Often the seller, without trying to find out the buyer’s values ​​and criteria, immediately begins to agitate him for his product, and he may not need these qualities of the product.

You should know the values ​​that your product symbolizes and know

values ​​of your clients, you should find out this at the very beginning of interaction with the client, so as not to grovel in vain.

- Why did you choose this particular...?

- Would you like to consider other options?

- Perhaps this could suit you (explain why).

Reasons for losing clients:

1. Low level of interaction with the client – ​​68%.
2. Various unidentified reasons – 14%.
3. The best offer from competitors is only 9%.
4. Change in business scope – 5%.
5. Transfer of business to another region – 3%.
6. Bankruptcy – 1%.

Errors in customer policy give rise to company disloyalty. Therefore, you need to care about the quality of established relationships with customers. A salesperson will not be able to retain valuable customers if he does not know the symptoms of emerging disloyalty and does not know how to measure it. A dissatisfied and offended client turns into an anti-advertising agitator among his circle. He may even wage aggressive counter-propaganda. The company may not immediately feel the consequences of such anti-advertising; it increases its danger and significantly multiplies the risks; rehabilitation leads to significant additional costs. Winning a new client costs 4-5 times more than retaining an old one.

One of the common ways to monitor customer attitudes towards a company is to conduct surveys. From simple interviews and questionnaires to expensive research involving agencies.

Main questions:

How do you evaluate the level of service, quality of services, goods?

How likely are you to use our services again?

The main goal of the loyalty program is to retain as many customers as possible.

20% of customers bring 80% of profits. And these are regular customers. Increasing their number is one of the important tasks of any business, especially relevant in times of crisis. For this purpose, organizations often use various loyalty programs, offering bonuses, discounts and other benefits.

Meet Olga, she has a small women's clothing store. Olga agrees with all of the above and also wants more regular customers. But it seems to her that a loyalty program is very expensive, complicated and only feasible for large companies.

Loyalty program? What is this anyway? I just want to attract regular customers and am ready to give them some discounts. How can I organize all this?

Let's try to help her.

1. Format selection

First of all, you need to choose the format of our loyalty program. There are two types of such programs: discount and bonus. Discounts involve providing a discount expressed as a percentage. In bonus programs, buyers receive virtual points (bonuses), which can be exchanged for a gift or for the same discount. Bonus programs are a little more complicated to implement, but they are more flexible and easier to end early if there is no .

Olga does not want to simply provide discounts; she is interested in the option of a bonus program, when she can set both the number of bonuses and their cost.

Also, all loyalty programs can be divided into cumulative and fixed. In cumulative discounts, the amount of discounts (bonuses) increases along with the amount of purchases. Fixed ones imply a constant discount amount. Savings are definitely preferable, but more difficult, since you have to solve the problem of identifying the client and recording the amount of his purchases.

2. Implementation of the loyalty program

The most commonly used is the issuance of discount or bonus cards. Cards are magnetic and barcode. In addition to the cards themselves, you will need equipment to read them: a magnetic card scanner or a barcode scanner. The scanner is connected to a computer on which specialized software is installed, for example 1C. To the costs should be added the payment for the services of a specialist to set up the system.

tuthelens/Depositphotos.com

Advantages of plastic cards: automation of the process of client identification and bonus accrual, storage of client information in a convenient form. If the average check is small and/or the flow of clients is large, then this is the best option. But it is not suitable for Olga, since it involves significant expenses for her budget.

The next way to identify a client is by using some unique code. For example, phone number or last name. In this case, the seller manually searches for a buyer in the database and awards him bonuses (or makes a discount). The database itself can be stored in various formats. In its simplest form it is . The advantage is the minimum startup costs, but the main disadvantage is the time spent on the seller. This system is convenient for a client who does not need to carry a card with him. As a result, discounts and bonuses will be used more often.

You can do without personalization. For example, the Magnit supermarket chain periodically organizes promotions during which customers are given stickers. If you collect a certain number of stickers, you get a discount or a gift.

To save on printing costs, you can print coupons instead of stickers and distribute them to customers. The buyer who has accumulated and presented the required number of coupons receives a discount (gift).

Another version of this system was practiced by the Yves Rocher company: regular customers were given cards on which stamps were placed indicating the number of purchases.

Bonuses are not tied to a specific client: coupons and stickers can be transferred to anyone. But Olga believes that this is not scary for her. The apparent advantage of a depersonalized loyalty program is that there is no need to maintain a customer base. It is apparent because Magnit does not need such a base, but Olga would like to keep in touch with her customers, and she needs their contacts.

3. Improving program effectiveness

The purpose of a loyalty program is not to thank you for a purchase, but to encourage you to make a new one. Therefore, program participants need to be periodically reminded about the store, bonuses and discounts. When registering a client in the program, you need to find out his phone number and email address and try to obtain consent to receive information materials. Modern services will help you keep customers up to date with the latest arrivals, promotions and other news.

Psychological studies show that people are more willing to participate in programs where discounts and bonuses are given on the first purchase when a card is issued.

It is also known that proactive, active consent increases the chances of participation. It is advisable that the client write at least “I agree to participate” on the application form and sign it. Moreover, by law you must obtain permission to process personal data.

All good things come to an end. You can immediately limit the duration of the loyalty program, for example, to a year. By introducing temporary restrictions on discounts and bonuses, you achieve two goals at once. The first is to reduce program costs. Secondly, time pressure can encourage people to make additional purchases in order to have time to use the accumulated bonuses. Although some such restrictions, on the contrary, will be put off.

After reading everything we wrote here, Olga decided to give out coupons, since she doesn’t want to install a computer for the seller yet. Now she just has to decide how much she will give out these coupons for and what customers will exchange them for. But this is a purely individual decision.

If you have experience implementing a loyalty program for, write about it in the comments. We promise that Olga will read them.