Customer Loyalty

Time after time in discussing potential CRM technologies with clients, the issue of customer loyalty is brought forth. Clients want to make sure that their customers keep coming back. Depending on the type of relationship, one bad transaction can lose a customer.  When the process of  sales and service is discussed, ask how many layers of onion are between you and your customer. How does it taste?

The good news is that today there are more technologies than ever to get closer to the customer. These range from traditional customer care to social media. Depending on the product or service you could easily and cheaply implement: Video,  Twitter, User Comments, Photos, Slideshare Presentations, Facebook/LinkedIn, etc. Check out My Starbucks Idea built on the Salesforce.com Force Platform. They have received more than 60,000 unsolicited customer posts! Some great ideas have come from their own customers like the “Splash Stick”. They encourage ideas, feedback and even criticism! Plus, it has generated outside press and awesome word of mouth. You cannot ask for better customer loyalty.

Now maybe your business is not on every corner and might not be all that “sexy”. You still have customers, you still have relationships, they still have ideas, they still provide feedback, and they still provide criticism. The trick is to find the right medium to get you close to the customer. Then loyalty will grow.