Indian Talent, Global Content
|
Indian Talent, Global Content |
New and Improved: May 2012
Just Launched - New eStore selling travel guides, editing courses, ebooks and special offers |
Six Ways in Building Customer Loyalty
“A customer has bought my product. So what is the big deal about customer loyalty?” you ask. Well, a one-time purchase does not translate into a lifetime purchase decision. Did you know that it costs six times more to gain a new customer than to retain an existing one? Wondering how this can be achieved? Read on. 1. SERVICE NETWORK The mantra for marketing professionals is service, service and more service! That’s right! One of the best ways of ensuring your customers keep coming back to you is providing impeccable service. This includes everything from service at the point of sale to after-sales service, which builds a lasting relationship with the customer. Most manufacturers of white goods understand relationship marketing like no one else. The peculiarity lies in the product itself, where it might need to be serviced long after it is bought. Moreover, the purchase might have taken place somewhere different from where the service is required. Companies like Eureka Forbes and Whirlpool pride themselves on superb customer service satisfaction levels. They manufacture a wide range of durables which can be serviced at various locations throughout the country. Remember, the customer is smart. He will judge your company even on small things like whether the salesperson reached in time. If he is late, the customer will never trust any claims of “zero error” quality made by you. So, watch out for service, the buzzword of the industry. 2. QUALITY CONTROL “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” was the tagline for ‘Head and Shoulders’ shampoo years ago. Impeccable service too cannot save you if you do not deliver a good quality product each and every time. This is true especially for restaurants, where the food served has to be of the same quality time and again to keep customers coming back to you. Here, quality is conveyed via word-of-mouth. One bad experience is enough to ruin the impression forever. Another good way of assuring customers value the quality of your product is to get an outside agency or someone else to endorse the results. For instance, Colgate Toothpaste continually reminds the customer that it is endorsed by IDA, the Indian Dental Association and it is the brand trusted by most dentists. HLL gets customers to talk about their “Pond’s Age Miracle” range of cosmetics and Dove soaps in their television ads, to endorse the quality of their products. That is also the psyche behind prompting a customer to try out the product. If a Vim Bar is a good dishwashing bar for Mrs X, a housewife, it has to be good for you too! If others say that your product is good, it’s gotta be good! 3. CONSTANT INNOVATION “Once a customer, always a customer”, is no longer true in these days of fluctuating brand usage. Customers now have more choices than before and are more willing to try out new brands. This fickle-minded buying warrants a constant focus on the changing mindset of the customer. The brand too has to change with customer tastes. Nestle India does it best with its brand of Maggi food products. They now have variants for their instant noodles like ‘Dal Atta Noodles’ and ‘Rice Noodle Mania’. Their competitors in the food segment, HLL (Hindustan Lever Limited, now called Hindustan Unilever Limited) tickled the Indian palate by making multiple variants of the traditional Tomato Ketchup in flavors like mint, tamarind and chilli. Amul, which has a strong presence in the ice-cream segment, sensed the need to keep the health-conscious customer in its kitty by adding the new Probiotic range of sugar free ice-creams! Kellogg’s Chocos are now available in a new flavour – Chocos Toffee to keep the children happy and dedicated! Innovation is the name of the game and timing is everything! 4. DIVERSIFICATION INTO SIMILAR PRODUCT LINES If a customer feels that Dove Soap is the best for her skin, why not make her think the same way about shampoos as well? That’s exactly why the brand name has now been extended to shampoos in the Indian market. Stretch the loyalty and benefits associated with a brand to include other similar products. Lotus Herbals, for instance, makes chemical-free skincare products like creams, lotions and sunscreens. It has a strong base of happy customers because of its USP - ‘herbal ingredients’. Now, it has also launched its ‘herbal’ range of cosmetics on the shelves. So the same customers have a choice of using herbal preparations for their lipsticks and eye shadows as well. Chances are, they will be only too eager to try them out! Even when it comes to food products, brand loyalties can be stretched further. Knorr Soups, manufactured by HLL, extended their “instant soup powder” mixes to include “instant make-a-meal” powders for Chinese recipes. They now offer instant Chinese Manchurian, Hot & Sour, Chilli and other preparations for a quick meal at home. Amul too capitalized on its distribution network to deliver different products to its customers. They started from milk and now provide butter, ghee, cheese and even ice-creams. 5. STRONG DISTRIBUTION CHAINS If I want to buy a product, it must simply be available. For fast moving consumer items, it means availability at the nearest grocer. From personal experience, I can tell you how important this is. I like Nestle’s Munch chocolate a lot, but many a time I end up coming home with a Cadbury’s Perk in hand, due to unavailability of the other brand. Perk tastes just as good, and pretty soon I ended up asking for Perk at the local grocery shop instead of Munch. This shows how just availability or lack of it can affect the customer’s brand choices forever. For a long period Amul faced a similar problem with its products. Originating from Gujarat, the availability of its products was restricted to the home state and a few neighboring ones. Consciously, after a lot of effort Amul successfully expanded its distribution chains throughout the country. An effective media campaign helped pass this advantage on to the customers. If you want people to keep buying your brands, make sure the grocery store around the corner stocks it. 6. REINFORCE THE DECISION Lastly, after people have tried your product, tell them that they have made the right decision. What better example to give you than the Pepsi ad which said, “Yehi hee hai right choice baby, aha!” You will have customers hanging on to you forever. The human mind looks for signals to reinforce the decision made by it, to tell itself that yes, you were correct! It’s no wonder then that the L’Oreal ad shows Aishwarya Rai spouting the phrase “Because you’re worth it! Customer loyalty towards your brand can give you the advantage of decreased cost of advertising. You can also increase the price of your brand to capitalize on the same. So, go ahead and take the plunge into the world of brand loyalty! Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.
>> Read more articles written by Chillibreeze writers:1. Articles related to Content and Outsourcing
|
Premium Services
Products Must Reads...
Upgrade Your Writing |
Copyright 2004 - 2011 Chillibreeze Solutions Pvt. Ltd. |
