How Loyal Are You to Your Customers?

If you could become a Harlequin heroine for a day, which would you choose?

• A medieval bride?
• A fierce cowgirl?
• A Greek tycoon’s fiancé?
• An FBI agent?

This is just one of the many questions Harlequin readers can answer to earn points in the romance publisher’s loyalty program, operated by Stellar Loyalty.

It’s also a great example of one of the most important but often overlooked functions of any customer loyalty program, which is to gain a better and better understanding of the different needs and desires of individual customers.

Time and again, companies install customer databases, CRM software, and loyalty programs to generate repeat business, cross-selling and up-selling from existing customers. But when these tools are aimed simply at generating added business they are less effective and needlessly wasteful. And you really shouldn’t have to buy your customers’ loyalty, anyway.

The problem is that most companies are looking at the “customer loyalty” issue through the wrong end of the telescope.

If the only reason you install customer tracking and rewards programs is to sell more stuff, you’ll probably fail.

But if you install these systems to better understand each individual customer’s needs, you’ll probably sell more stuff.

Rather than trying to make your customers more loyal to you, think about what it would mean if you were to become more loyal to your customers. If you were more loyal to your customers, you’d be genuinely interested in learning more about what they want from you. You’d try to help them get their problems solved. You’d make their customer experience as frictionless as possible. And you’d crave to know them more individually, in order to treat each customer even more personally.

So rather than simply trying to buy loyalty from your customers, use the information in your CRM system and the points and prizes in your loyalty program to engage your customers in more detailed, informative conversations and interactions. Ask questions and conduct surveys, promote contests and games, create special events.

If you were as loyal to your customers as you want them to be to you, then you’d leave no stone unturned to find out what they really want, in order to give it to them.   

And then, guess what? You'd almost certainly sell more stuff.