Rewarding your loyal customers....

Many of the most successful businesses reward their most loyal customers in some way....

An example is the frequent flier program that airlines use.... The program is a big success that helps airlines to reward their most loyal customers with free plane flights. (The cost to airlines is low, because they limit how you can use your frequent flier points so that you only take up seats that probably would have been empty anyway....)

Another example is I've tried to make the profiles feature on this forum a "thank you" to those who regularly post and visit here. That's so you can share an introduction to yourself and also leave your link to your web site....

(If you want to create a profile, click on the "Create a Profile" link near the top of the main forum page.... After you've created a profile, this link turns into "Edit Your Profile".... To view other people's profiles, click on "View User Profiles". Be sure to check out their web sites!)

What are some other good ways to reward your most loyal customers, that you have used or that you have seen or heard of?

Knowing about more of these will be an insipiration for creating greater success!

Thanks.... :)

- Dien

Hi Dien --

Depending on how your relationship with your customers you can do many things.

When I owned a cleaning business (The Squeaky Cleaners) we made the majority of our money from apartments. So our main contact would be the apartment managers who many times were women. To reward them for helping us we would do little things like - send some flowers over, have a nice lunch delivered in, etc. It wasn't much but it was big to them. Most of their day was spent trying to sell new tenants or deal with problems from the existing tenants. So we made it a point to try and brighten their day some.

Overall I think the biggest thing you can do is be interested in your clients. Find out about them, know what they like, what they don't like, what excites them, etc. Then you can do little things that make all the difference. With this knowledge whatever you do will be seen as special just for that person - and it will be.

Example - when I was an entertainer I would often work out of a nice restaurant. As people would come back over time I would learn their names and their families names, and little things about them - interests they had and such. So when they wanted to go out with friends where do you think they went? The restaurant down the street or our place. When you walked into our place I greeted you by name - so good to see you - how's things going etc. You're a celebrity and everybody knows you. Recognition being a reward in itself and that cost us nothing. (Of course we understood who *didn't* want recognition as well)

On a broader scale the personal approach becomes a bit impractical. If you sell to many customers and don't have face to face interaction with them for instance. Through our newsletter we sell pocket flashlights. In the next few weeks we'll be releasing our book on CD-ROM. As a reward to our loyal pocket flashlight customers we'll be sending them a free copy. At the same time we'll be telling our other customers and potential customers how to become a loyal customer and receive the book free.

So there a few thoughts off the top of my head.

Hope that helps.

-- Dan Butler

> Many of the most successful businesses
> reward their most loyal customers in some
> way....

> An example is the frequent flier program
> that airlines use.... The program is a big
> success that helps airlines to reward their
> most loyal customers with free plane
> flights. (The cost to airlines is low,
> because they limit how you can use your
> frequent flier points so that you only take
> up seats that probably would have been empty
> anyway....)

> Another example is I've tried to make the
> profiles feature on this forum a "thank
> you" to those who regularly post and
> visit here. That's so you can share an
> introduction to yourself and also leave your
> link to your web site....

> (If you want to create a profile, click on
> the "Create a Profile" link near
> the top of the main forum page.... After
> you've created a profile, this link turns
> into "Edit Your Profile".... To
> view other people's profiles, click on
> "View User Profiles". Be sure to
> check out their web sites!)

> What are some other good ways to reward your
> most loyal customers, that you have used or
> that you have seen or heard of?

> Knowing about more of these will be an
> insipiration for creating greater success!

> Thanks.... :)

> - Dien




Don't leave home without this in your pocket...

Thanks Dan!

Those are great ideas....

I think rewarding your loyal customers is very underused yet powerful thing to do. It has a lot of potential to help make a business a success....

Many businesspeople go to a lot of trouble to attract NEW customers, by giving them added incentives and so on.... But then they do nothing extra for their loyal customers. However, it's the loyal customers that generally make a business a success....

I'm exploring these ideas myself, because I think it makes a lot of sense to do the best you can for your loyal customers....

By the way, this is what Gordon does too.... Those who join the Mailorder/Internet Study Group will find themselves well rewarded.... :)

Thanks Dan, that was great advice.... :)

- Dien