Ignite the Hidden Powers of Your Existing Customers

As small business owners, we’re all concerned with winning new customers. After all, a constant influx of new customers will make our business grow. However, some of us are guilty of overlooking the important role our current customers could be playing in the expansion of our business.

Are you treating your customers like the very special people they are? Your existing customers are like superheroes with latent powers within them that could help your revenues explode in record time. If only we knew the secret to releasing those powers, we’d have an army behind us, launching our business beyond our wildest dream of success. (And you thought your customers were just average Joes and Janes!)

Your customers have the power to help you grow in two very important ways. First, they are consumers with money to spend. Are they going to spend more of it with you, or with someone else? Second, they have their own networks — co-workers, family, golf buddies, fellow volunteers, neighbors, classmates. And they have the ability to communicate with those networks. How quickly would your business grow if your customers chose to go out into the world and spread the word about you, like cheerleaders?

As business owners, we have a power of our very own — the power to stir and mobilize an army of fanatically loyal customers. The “how” is as uncomplicated as it gets: make your existing customers feel special.

When it comes to igniting your customers’ inner cheerleaders, the impact of “loyalty rewards” can’t be beat. Loyalty reward gifts that remind your customers just how important they are to you. Gifts can be big and splashy. For example, we know some service providers who send a gift basket to each new client who signs up. We met a divorce mediation attorney who gives some of her clients a book on talking to their children about divorce.

Baskets and books can be lovely of course, but they’re not appropriate for every type of small business. Loyalty rewards don’t always have to be material gifts. They can be anything your customer values. Some customers will only feel comfortable with a thank you note, and you will usually sense who they are. Still others would enjoy a small token of our appreciation. Perhaps you can offer a free product or service, or a generous discount.

Some types of businesses enjoy ongoing success using articles, news clippings, and special reports as an “education reward” for their customers. Information is a competitive advantage and most of your customers will not have time for research. They’ll be grateful to get the information and will think of you when they use it!

Regardless of what kind of loyalty rewards you choose to send, it’s important to focus on being consistent in showing your appreciation. Your constant and thoughtful attention will create a cycle of appreciation that customers can reciprocate with referrals galore.

A truly successful loyalty program requires a loyalty calendar. This is something each small business should develop in-house to serve its individual needs. Whenever you work out a schedule for issuing loyalty rewards, you will quickly identify dozens of opportunities to touch base with our customers.

For example:

• • First year anniversary of doing business together
• • New Year’s
• • Valentine’s Day
• • Thanksgiving
• • Labor Day
• • December holidays
• • Birthday

Once you lay out a loyalty rewards calendar, you can arrange your gifts ahead of time and have them ready to send on the appropriate dates — that way, they get to your customer before the respective occasion. Having a calendar also makes it easy to delegate the entire program to an employee. They simply reference the calendar on a regular basis and send out the appropriate message and gift.

For some customers, you may need to go beyond loyalty and offer extra perks. You might call these “royalty rewards” because you add a bit extra to the normal loyalty reward for these special customers. For example, if you send out a gift basket to all of your customers on the one-year anniversary of your business relationship, you might consider sending along a gift card as well for extra-special customers, along with a hand-written note thanking them for their business and, if applicable, their referrals to the business. This is a powerful technique. Why? Because guaranteed, not many of our competitors are taking the time to connect with their customers this way.

Rewarding our customers with consistent, valuable gifts goes a long way towards retaining their business, inspiring them to spend more with us, and turning them into the kind of fans who’ll tell everyone they know about us.

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Originally published at connectedaccountants.com.au on October 29, 2014.