Loyalty programmes specialist The Logic Group has found that although nearly half of all adults are signed up to loyalty schemes they don’t take part in them. Is anyone surprised?
Loyalty is a currency that a retailer has to earn through customer service and care. Customer loyalty is spent every time the store is out of stock, it takes too long to get through the checkout or you have to return a defective product.
I’m fabulously loyal to Tesco because they care about me as a customer. My return on the money I spend with them is 4%* – match that, bankers! They are generous with their money off vouchers, sending me things that I usually appreciate such as money off vouchers for fresh fruit instead of crisps because that’s what I buy. They give me vouchers for 5p off my petrol and they let me return anything if I change my mind about it. Okay, they might be an evil monolithic corporation but they’re so convenient and such good value. Even when I spent two years without a club card they didn’t forget me, emailing me every quarter and matching up my online shopping account so I still earned points.
Amazon never give me anything for nothing but they do care about me (in a database-powered sort of way) and talk to me nearly every day. I still shop with them and they’re my first port of call for nearly everything.
My Nectar card never worked that well. I don’t even care enough to remember why. I haven’t heard from them in eons, although I would have started using the card if they’d sent me a new one. They don’t even email me, which is a shame because they used to give me cool vouchers I could use at my favourite clothes store. I don’t know if they even count me as a member any more. They don’t care about me.
It’s not the money or the gifts that bring loyalty. It’s the love shown. 34% of people in the survey said good customer service would motivate them to spend more whilst said bad customer service was the top reason why brands lose loyalty.
Show your customers some love. Keep the channels of communication open and make sure you listen twice as much as you talk. If it’s too much work to keep up your mailing list or loyalty programme then for goodness sake! outsource it. Don’t throw your customers away.