Reward Programs: Are they Effective for Creating Engaged Customers?

Most Americans are members of at least one loyalty program, if not several. Whether they carry around a R.E.I. dividend, a key chain tab for their grocery store, or a card for their airline, Americans love to get a little something extra for their patronage—and loyalty programs claim to give it to them. The American love for loyalty programs is strong, even in the recession. As loyalty research firm COLLOQUY’s Rick Ferguson put it, “Despite the recession, more consumers across all demographic segments are participating in rewards programs than ever before.” In fact, COLLOQUY found a 25% increase in American loyalty program memberships since 2006. So, reward programs are popular, but are they effective from a business perspective?

The effectiveness of loyalty programs may be defined in several ways, but we’ll look specifically at how loyalty programs affect Customer Engagement. Engaged customers have a positive emotional connection to a brand, they are loyal, passionate advocates for a company. Engaged customers will go out of their way to do business with you. We focus on customer engagement because we have found that Customer Engagement is a predictor of overall business success. Companies with more engaged customers see higher profit margins, more loyal customers, and even happier employees. For us, then, the real question is how loyalty programs impact customer engagement.

From a customer engagement perspective, rewards programs are not automatically successful. Many companies hope their loyalty programs will increase sales, help gather customer data, and entice customers into trying new products. However, none of these outcomes guarantee higher customer engagement.

You can see the rest of the article at Creating Engaged Customers

How Long-Term Customers Benefit Your Company

If today’s revolutionary business leaders were to outline a declaration of their dictums for business success, would they claim that all customers are created equal? I doubt it. Just like parents, business leaders can’t help but notice that each customer is unique. And although they might not admit it, most business leaders acknowledge that long-term customers are treated differently than new customers. Why? Because long-term customers bring certain unique benefits to any organization.

First, long-term customers represent a stable form of dependable revenue, even if their individual purchases are small. Most companies get two-thirds of their sales from current customers, in fact. For instance, according to A Complaint is a Gift, by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller, “Domino’s Pizza calculates that over just a 10-year period, regular customers are worth about $5,000 [each].”

Still, it can be difficult to see how much base profit long-term customers provide in the long run. To think beyond each individual sale, consider the following formula: Multiply the customer’s average purchase by the number of purchases they make per year, and then multiply for five, ten, or twenty years. For instance, if you run a dry-cleaning business, a customer might only pay $25 per week. However, if we translate that to a yearly expenditure, we see that this customer purchases $1,200 of cleaning per year. In five years, that one customer would bring in $6,000 of business.

For the full article see Customer Engagement News

Schlesinger Associates: Real-Time Feedback from CEM Solution Helps Company Stay on Top

American inventor Charles Kettering once said, “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” This maxim is as relevant to business success as it is to invention. Business growth is often fueled by customers who clearly, honestly report problems. We might tack on an addendum for business: A problem immediately relayed is often more easily resolved. In an ideal world, managers would know about each customer complaint mere moments after it had been lodged. To appreciate how such real-time feedback can impact customer engagement, let’s review a case study: Schlesinger Associates.

PeopleMetrics’ CEM solution helps them do so, first by capturing real-time feedback from clients who have recently visited a Schlesinger Associates office. About 100 such customer surveys are completed each month. If a customer indicates that they were dissatisfied with an aspect of their experience, a Recover Alert is sent to the facility manager and the CEO. Each Recover Alert contains information about the customer’s concerns, as well as a compilation of all survey responses. This information empowers Schlesinger Associates managers to quickly, efficiently resolve customers’ complaints.

For the full article see Customer Engagement News

Earn More Business From Current Clients: 4 tips for up-selling and cross-selling existing accounts

As we recently discussed, long-term customers provide many financial benefits to your company. In fact, strengthening current accounts is one of the most effective methods of boosting profits. Recruiting new clients usually costs a pretty penny, so many world-class organizations focus on increasing up-selling and cross-selling to current customers instead. Unfortunately, many salespeople avoid these techniques because they are afraid that suggesting additional products or services could scare off customers. However, as long as you follow a few basic strategies, as outlined below, you can successfully cross-sell and up-sell to your current customers.

1. Identify the Roles of Individuals in the Buying Process. The administrative assistant may actually put in the order, but he or she doesn’t set the budget for office supplies. Get to know the different roles in your clients’ buying hierarchy. Understanding your clients’ buying hierarchy, will help you pinpoint where you should spend your cross-selling and up-selling efforts. Don’t be afraid to ask your contact who is involved in decisions.

For the rest of the steps see Customer Engagement News

Why Acting on Employee Suggestions Boost Employee and Customer Engagement

In his timeless work How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), Dale Carnegie traces all human motivation to one sensation: feeling important. Quoting American philosopher John Dewey, Carnegie emphasizes “that the deepest urge in human nature is ‘the desire to be important.’” Flash forward to 2009, when the most innovative business leaders are applying Carnegie’s dictum to the workplace through Employee Engagement Management. More than just an “HR buzzword,” Employee Engagement Management is a leadership approach that values each employee’s well being and input, with the understanding that passionate, engaged employees are more productive. This article will explain why gathering and implementing employee suggestions is an effective technique for improving both employee and customer engagement.