My_Name_Is_Charlene_Little

Building Customer Loyalty 1 u06a1 Charlene Little Littlecvo830@yahoo. BUS 3004 Developing a Business Perspective November 14, 2010 Introduction Building Customer Loyalty is very important to any company depending on the customer’s retention to stay in business. Without customer’s the business couldn’t expand. This learner recommends businesses to create strategies to retain and maintain customer’s by building the loyalty of the customer. Building customer loyalty takes communication, proper employee training, employee loyalty, incentives, as well as great customer service. There has been question of how customer loyalty will assist the company’s remaining in business' Why is employee training deemed to be relevant to the building of customer loyalty, also how any company can be certain this will help' This paper will address the specific need to build customer loyalty. This learner will provide information confirming why good customer relationships are imperative to the increase of productivity and profit. This reading will demonstrate the importance of proper employee training, as well as some of the tactics proven to be successful in obtaining customer loyalty. “The products or services that you provide are only meaningful in the context of your customer's objectives. What you do is intended to achieve financial or strategic objectives, or fulfill a need. Understand and communicate your value from the perspective of the customer”(Mehrmann, 2010). Educate employees of changes that may affect the customer requirements and perceived value so they can adjust. How gaining customer loyalty can also assist in retaining existing customers as well as obtaining new customers. What are the concepts of customer loyalty' This 2 researched information will examine the strategies and effects of building customer loyalty. Building Customer Loyalty In today’s business world the consumer should be at the top of the list when it comes to pleasing. Most companies profit depends on selling their product no matter what it is. But who do they sell it to, the consumer. In this case it is more often necessary to appease the customer, therefore build a sound relationship between the customer and the company. Businesses want the customer to continue to return which is one reason why building loyalty with the customer is important. According to research building loyalty with the customer is a very valuable asset in the competitive business world today (Graham, 1996). What is Loyalty' Loyalty is unselfish beliefs in the company or its product, which will make the customer want to continue to buy. Loyalty is a sound commitment to patronize the service or product this will cause reoccurring behavior above the influences and marketing efforts of the other companies. Loyalty is not a new concept; it has been in practice for centuries. Loyalists report both high satisfaction and high loyalty. These customers are, in essence, an extension of your sales force because they spread positive word-of-mouth publicity. Loyalists also typically increase their spending more rapidly than other customers in your customer base. “Understand, serve, and protect these customers and focus on developing communities for (and with) them” (Close, 2006). Today’s marketers have the need to increase profits with the loyal customer. To gain such loyalty the employee must know what it takes to get the job done. One of the most consistent ways to build customer loyalty is to make sure that your employees are properly trained. Training is an element that can assist in a way that will affect both the company and the customer in either a positive or negative manner. When the employee 3 is properly trained it gives them the tools to feel empowered. Educating them will give the employee a sense of loyalty which they will pass on to the customer. This is done by giving excellent customer service. It is very important to the employee providing customer service to be well aware of what they are doing. If the employee has to guess because of lack of training it may cause frustration, and also leave room for mistakes. This could pass negative feelings towards the customer. Therefore the customer will lack getting the best service, which may cause them not to return. “For customers, price isn't the only determining factor for where they choose to do business. They will spend a bit more money if they like the customer service at a particular business. However they’ll look elsewhere if customer service is routinely off the mark” (Bobinski 2010). For example, a customer goes to a fast food restaurant; the employee is frustrated and acting as if it is a problem waiting for the customer to decide what they want. The employee is making them feel as if they are the problem which makes the customer becomes uncomfortable, this passes the feeling of frustration on to the customer and now they don’t want to spend money there. Other customers are watching this and the customer decided to walk out and spend their money elsewhere. The company has lost a customer, possibly more depending on the other customer’s view of what they just witnessed. This is an example of poor customer service for whatever reason, but customers don’t want to stand for it. This is why it is necessary to use wise tactics to train your employees and be sure they are in line with company policy. Some tactics that have been proven to be a positive method of employee training is to listen to the customer. According to research, listening to the customer will assist in making the customer comfortable, by feeling they matter (Lowder, 1996). Listening to the customer will allow the employee to educate themselves as to what the customers need may be. If the 4 employee is sure of what the issue is there is no need guess or jump to conclusions. (Lowder, 1996) “Many of you have seen research that proves our eyes work better than our ears... that we remember more of what we see than what we hear“. Listening can be very powerful it’s one of the more positive attributes to training the employee. Another effective point is the ability to resolve customer issues quickly, and accurately. This gives the customer a sense of security with the company they are dealing with. Wal-Mart which is known to be a fortune 500 company was built by Sam Walton. This successful business owner believes there is only one boss, which is the customer. When looking at the growth of the business, one might be incline to agree, if the customer decide to go elsewhere to spend their money then there is no Wal-Mart. Therefore there are no employees needed looks like the boss (customers) has fired everyone. According to this article your level of loyalty will show for itself (Gitomer, 2007). “Loyalty is easily measured. Just look at your repeat business. Satisfaction is also easily measured just look at the customers you lost” (Gitomer, 2007). It has also been a proven fact that yes there are loyal customers. When a customer is happy with the service given the will usually return. Also retaining your existing customers is another effect of building loyalty with the customer. Existing customers are just as important as the gain of new customer’s. In most cases they are the individuals who by word of mouth assist the company in gaining new customers. It is both the existing and new customers which assist in the increase of productivity and profit. (Siemieniako & Rundle-Thiele & Urban2010) “Understanding loyalty from a customer viewpoint may offer additional insights for marketers seeking to maintain and/or build customer loyalty“. If the customer feels that they are getting the services they were expecting due to the consistency they’re used to it keeps them coming back. 5 This is the effect of good employee training. These are a couple of the most important factors to building customer loyalty, as well as obtaining and retaining customers. The only downside is disappointing a customer who has been loyal to the company. This could cause a negative chain of effects such as losing the customer as well as the customer spreading bad reviews against the company. Which is again why employee training is necessary to prevent this issue. Conclusion This research has not only proven that it is imperative to build customer loyalty, also the results are detrimental to the growth of the company. Building Customer Loyalty contributes to positive relationships between the customer and company. This relationship could increase production as well as profit. It is also fact that proper training of the employee will make the customer happy and add to the building of a loyal relationship. Not only will this keep the customers coming back, it will also give the employee a sense of worth. “No company can secure customer loyalty until they have secured employee loyalty”(Gitomer, 2007). Customers appreciate consistency, and word of mouth will bring new customers to the business. Employees feel empowered through the knowledge of the training received, and therefore will not have to second guess a decision made. This has proven to give the customer a sense of security also. The meaning of loyalty as well as the behavioral results it will cause has been shown in this reading. The strategies used to build and increase customer loyalty has proven to create positive results. Results are customer retention, as well as increase of revenue and production. Good customer service is a very positive effect of employee training. Tactics used have shown that obtaining new customers has also been an effect of good customer service and the loyalty of the existing 6 customer’s. With everyone in their proper places, asserting the knowledge given the company can and will be a success. Everyone has been a customer; customers know what they want from the business where they’re purchasing or gaining any service from. The information retrieved has been most helpful in achieving all comparison needed to prove the topic and problem statement, this information has been verified through many accredited professionals. Building and retaining customer loyalty in any business that requires customer’s to survive, will find that it is imperative to build customer loyalty. When a customer feel you have their best interest at heart it gives them comfort which also builds a sense of loyalty. When customers allow financial institutions to handle their money, they need to feel they can trust that company. Loyalty of the company is important to gaining loyalty in return from the customer. The company can’t benefit from the loss of its customers this will cause loss of revenue and possibly even the fall of the business. Without the customer there is no business, without business there is no profit, and without profit there is no company. 7 References Bobinski, D. (March 03, 2010) Customer service or disservice Retrieve from internet November 16, 2010 www.management-issues.com Close, W. (2006) How to Measure and Increase Customer Loyalty Retrieve from the internet November 18, 2010 www.scribd.com/doc/23808136/. Gitomer, J. (Dec. 14, 2007) Is it customer satisfaction you’re after no Retrieve from internet' November 10, 2010 www.thebusinessjournal.com pg. 12 Graham, J. 1996. Author gives recommendations for building customer loyalty. Hudson Valley Business Journal 7, no. 4: 20. Regional Business News Retrieved Nov. 6, 2010. Lowder, C. (1996). Customer communications: Building lasting customer loyalty. Executive Speeches, 11(2), 23. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier November 10, 2010. Mehrmann, J. (1999-2010) Advertising, Sales and Management Building customer loyalty Retrieved November 2, 2010 from internet www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/build-customer-loyalty.htm Siemieniako, D., Rundle-Thiele, S., & Urban, W. (2010). Understanding loyalty from a customer's perspective. Journal of Customer Behavior, 9(3), 283-298. Doi:10.1362/147539210X533197