{"id":333,"date":"2015-04-27T16:25:41","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T16:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/csm210469\/?p=333"},"modified":"2022-10-21T15:37:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T15:37:20","slug":"true-success-equals-loyal-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/true-success-equals-loyal-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"True Success Equals Loyal Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you pat yourself on the back because you have so many satisfied customers? Well, having satisfied customers may not be good enough.<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Customer\n

In today’s tough economic times true success will be measured by the number of “loyal” customers you have.<\/p>\n

Sure, every company, salesman, and consultant wants satisfied customers, but can or should you do better than that? Should you have loyal customers?<\/p>\n

What’s the difference? Satisfied customers are still willing to listen to your competitors, but loyal customers think you are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Loyal customers see you are a partner not a vendor. You may even become their primary business adviser. As their adviser you are the first one called when a challenge must be overcome.<\/p>\n

You develop loyal customers by continually asking your satisfied customers if there’s anything else you can do for them. And once you have a loyal customer, make them part of your team by asking them to refer you to their friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n

Never stop courting your loyal customers. Repeat customers should make up 75% of your customer base.<\/p>\n

How to dazzle your customer base<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1. Go out of your way for loyal customers. Do them a favor. Locate a hard to find item or, if your staff is tied up, do the work yourself.<\/p>\n

2. Under promise and over deliver. Do they need it in two weeks? Give it to them in one.<\/p>\n

3. Offer your best customers a benefit they didn’t even know existed. Did they miss a special offer? Give them a discount anyway.<\/p>\n

4. Follow up, especially after a big order or a major project. Are they satisfied, or is there something else you can do for them?<\/p>\n

5. Above all, be honest. Don’t oversell goods or services. Show them you have their best interests at heart, and you’ll have a customer for life.<\/p>\n

Keeping Loyal Customers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider this, it costs six times more to sell something to a new customer than to an existing one. Follow these steps to keep your loyal customer base.<\/p>\n

1. Within two days of making a sale, send your customers a thank you note.<\/p>\n

2. Thirty days later, send another note or call to find out if the customer has any questions.<\/p>\n

3. Within 90 days, send buyers another note telling them about related products or services.<\/p>\n

4. After nine months, ask for the names of three people you can add to your mailing list.<\/p>\n

5. On the one year anniversary of the sale, send a card, perhaps with a discount included.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dennis Sommer<\/a> is a widely respected and world renowned authority on sales, business development and leadership performance improvement. He is a leading adviser, author, and speaker providing clients with practical strategies that improve personal and organization performance. He has held numerous consulting, sales, and leadership level positions with Accenture, Jo-Ann Stores, and CA, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis Sommer provides 5 ways to dazzle your customer base and create customer loyalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36014,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/36014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}