Move your clients up The Ladder of Loyalty

Following my recent articles on Grading Your Customers and Maximising Client Retention I wanted to share with you how important it is to move your clients up The Ladder of Loyalty.

The concept is to categorise every name in your Prospect and Customer database into levels according to their loyalty to your business.

You start with SUSPECTS which are businesses that fit into your target market. Any name that you obtain through marketing that fits your criteria, enters the Ladder of Loyalty at the SUSPECT level.

Once the SUSPECT becomes interested in your product or service and makes an enquiry, you move the business up to the PROSPECT level. If they make a purchase from you, they become a SHOPPER, because they haven’t yet determined that you are a supplier that they want to do business with again.

It’s important for you to get them to buy from you again as quickly as possible after the first purchase as this should lead to them becoming a CUSTOMER. Once the CUSTOMER becomes a consistent buyer of your products and services, you may begin offering incentives and privileges to them so that they become MEMBERS and no longer look elsewhere for competitive products or services. MEMBERS do business with you because of the relationship and trust that you have developed.

An ADVOCATE is where your MEMBERS begin selling for you through testimonials and referrals. An ADVOCATE becomes a RAVING FAN when he/she cannot stop selling for you. Anytime a RAVING FAN is out in the community they are promoting you to everyone about how wonderful you are.

Here are some important questions:

How many RAVING FANS do you have in your customer base? What would happen to your business if you moved everyone in your database up one level?

Massive profits do not occur by bringing more SUSPECTS or PROSPECTS into your database, but by moving MEMBERS to ADVOCATES and then to RAVING FANS.