consumer behavior - Uncensored Voice Of Marketing

What creates customer loyalty in an instant?

Service. The type of service that you give your customers determines whether they will look for a new provider or stick with you. How is your customer service?

I know, this all sounds so basic so what’s the point? In the last week, I have experienced fantastic service and I’ve experienced service that made me so frustrated I wanted to throw up.

You see in today’s economy customer satisfaction is not enough - it’s all about the loyalty you build with your customers.

Recipient of Great Customer Service and Care

I had to take my car into be serviced, because the dreaded service engine soon light came on. I was in an accident 2 months ago and my fear was it was accident related. I schedule the appointment and arrived at the dealership. They ran diagnostics on the car and told me it looked like they would need to do a smoke test, rather than make me wait they reset the light told me I’d be fine and just call them when it came back on and we would arrange the service. They would also make arrangements with the body shop that fixed it, since it seemed to be accident related, to make sure I did not have to pay out of pocket to have it repaired. The light came back on 3 days later. They scheduled a time for me to bring the car in and would give me a loaner so I wouldn’t have to drive a rental car. I’m not a snob, but come on a BMW is not a Ford Focus. I dropped the car off on the designated day and my service advisor said that he’d call me later that day when the car was ready. He called at about 3:00 PM in the afternoon and told me they would not be done that day – but he had good news the cause of the “service engine soon” light would be covered under warranty. He called the next morning at 9:00 a.m. to tell me the car could be picked up. I arrived the pick up my car, it has been washed, cleaned and ready to go. There was no wait, it was as easy as exchanging the loaner car for my car, signing the paper work and driving back to the office.

Truth is the BMW dealership makes me want to always own a BMW. They’ve earned my loyalty. They always take care of me and make things easy for me and my schedule. Every time I leave the dealership I’m proud of my car because they deliver it in tip-top shape and looking beautiful. They simply go out of their way to create a fantastic customer experience.

Ready for my bad experience?

I purchase software all the time to stay on top of the trends and make sure that I’m being as efficient as I can be. I purchased a software item recently and it did not work according to what was advertised. I needed the software to complete a project and since it did not work I had to find another solution. This caused me to have to purchase another product. I wrote the first company regarding my disappointment, was answered 72 hours later with suggestions on fixing the problem. How many of you could wait 72 hours to solve a problem? I couldn’t which is why I had to purchase the second software product. I asked for a refund, explained the issue and the time sensitivity for a solution and I was told I would not get a refund – that was not their policy. I will not purchase another software product from them, I will not refer their products to any one and more than likely I’ll detour any one from purchasing from them. They’ve not only lost any chance at creating loyalty with a customer, but they’ve created the worst case scenario which is negative word-of-mouth marketing.

What can you do to improve your service and create customer loyalty?

Go out of your way and create an experience with each and every customer. Make them feel special not like a number. Do you need a little added proof that it’s worth it. Consider the benefits that come with loyal customers:

Repeat purchases
Increase the volume of what they purchase from you
They will buy across your product lines
They will excitedly refer people to you
Your competition won’t be able to snag them
They will always give you the benefit of the doubt even when something goes wrong

Do you have a story to share about your loyalty to a specific company? I’d love to hear it.

I’m always amazed at how many companies spend money marketing, but don’t measure the results. When you don’t measure and analyze the results, you might as well throw money out the door. The measurement of marketing efforts will help you in seeing what messages attract new consumers to purchase your products. It allows you to see what methods in marketing work and which ones don’t.

My famous line to businesses is “If you aren’t measuring, you are not marketing.” It really is that simple. Monitoring your marketing spend does not have to be difficult. For example consider the following options:

Marketing online? Use website analytics that show you what traffic is visiting your website and where they are coming from. This will show you what search terms they are searching for and finding you. You can also use this information to gauge whether or not you need to write more information on a specific topic, service or product. Online analytics provide you with real-time data – this is invaluable to any business that is spending money to market using the internet.

Marketing using television commercials? The first thing you must identify is your call to action. Are you driving them to a website url or are you asking them to call you? Perhaps it’s both. If you are driving them to a url, make sure you use a designated url that has analytics installed. This will help you gauge the online response of your commercial. If you are asking them to call you, use a specific telephone number so you can gauge how many telephone inquiries you get and how many of those inquiries result in a sale.

Marketing using a radio spot? This is a little more difficult, first of all if you are driving them to a url again make sure it is a designated url specific to the radio promotion. The same is true if you are asking them to call. You again want to make sure that you are using a designated telephone number that you can use to measure incoming calls.

These are just some of the examples and methods you can use to measure your marketing efforts. By understanding what marketing is working you can allocate more money to those methods and diminsh the money you are spending on methods that are not working for you.

Key to Creating Loyalty

Measuring Your Marketing

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