NEW: Loyal customers deserve recognition

• Published date: 12 December 2022
• Publication title: The Sunday Mail

'Loyal customers, they don't just come back, they don't simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you' - Shep Hyken

A great marketing effort is only considered 'great' when customers are happy with the experience they receive from the service provider(s).

Such happy customers will willingly pull out their wallets and do business; if this is not the end result, then the efforts come to naught.

Every corporate success story has a common denominator, and that is the customer.

You may run the most talked-about campaign, with the biggest budget and be visible everywhere. But all that effort may count for nothing if your customers do not give you a seal of approval.

This approval is shown by their positive responsiveness to your marketing efforts.

As we navigate the last month of 2022, there are customers who have stood by your organisation during the highs and the lows of the year.

These customers deserve a Bell's because they have invested their trust in your brands, and have shown great loyalty.

But how do you appreciate them, when you do not recognise them?

It is crucial to be able to identify the customers who have been faithful to the brand, so that when it is time for acknowledgements you honour the right ones.

To this extent, there are several ways you can use to determine who your most loyal customers are.

Here are some of those ways:

1. Number of Purchases

An organisation can do a trend analysis on the number of times a customer has purchased its products or services.

Information like this is easy to obtain when you have a system that captures the customers' data whenever they make a purchase with the organisation.

The system must be able to match the purchase with the purchaser, whenever a transaction is completed.

In the event of a review of the purchase history, one can simply log on to the customer file name and a statement of their purchase history will come out.

One can simply check the number of purchases that were done at a certain period, and the value of those purchases.

Frequent buyers, or those that buy large quantities, are likely to be loyal customers.

2. Referrals

Loyal customers are particularly known for being their service providers' 'mobile billboards'.

Normally, people become loyal when they are happy and satisfied with the customer experience received from brands, over a certain period of time.

If they consistently receive good customer experiences, they are naturally compelled to refer other like-minded prospective...