StartArticlesEncourage loyalty to your brand: your company's results will thank you

Encourage loyalty to your brand: your company's results will thank you

Regardless of the market, the size of the company and the many realities: the impact of reputation and customer loyalty yields greater and better sales, as does the aggregation of value in premium products and services aimed at the segment most loyal to brands and companies.

A company that wants to have loyal customers must understand loyalty internally from top to bottom – even the doorman who welcomes visitors with courtesy. Reputational benefits extend loyalty to all audiences: clients, suppliers, credit and investment institutions, the press, resellers, service providers, and so on.

There is no doubt that loyal customers are more profitable.

Firstly, they exempt companies and brands from the enormous effort of outreach to attract those who have not yet adopted their products and services. Secondly, because they have the potential to consume more and better than others, increasing results in volume and profitability.

Everyone knows this too: loyal customers often become true ambassadors, expanding the reach of publicity about brands and companies in an organic and qualified way – especially in times of social media primacy, where recommendations or good ratings are essential for consumers' purchasing decisions.

That's where the famous reputation comes in.

Companies with a good reputation sell more, make better deals, and have greater chances of success in negotiations. Salespeople from reputable companies spend less time in waiting rooms, are received with greater attention, and find it easier to talk to the various people who, in one way or another, may play an important role at some point in the sales process, document reception, or issue resolution.

No one chooses a brand, product or service whose reputation is compromised.

The point is that to have a good reputation you need to be careful in many areas, since reputation is built over a lifetime, piece by piece, like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle in which one of them – perhaps the most subtle – is a reflection of the quality of the relationship with clients and other audiences.

Imagine a customer who is extremely satisfied with their purchase. The research prior to the acquisition showed a legion of worshipers. The sales and payment process you encountered was smooth, often with friendly, polite, and helpful professionals along the way. On-time delivery added an extra point of satisfaction. The use of the product, however, raised some doubt and the customer was led to contact, let's say, technical support, where he encountered bad-tempered or impatient attendants; there you go: more than enough reason to impact his appreciation for the transaction.

There's no use in the seller being skilled in relationship if on the other end the customer encounters cold, indifferent, and unfeeling service. Since all these processes have reputational impact, just one weak point falling can cause the brand, product, service, or company to lose points and perhaps be disregarded in a future acquisition.

This also occurs internally with employees, exposed to a countless number of relationships. Buyers, financiers, and many other audiences go through the same process. The tone of the relationship should come from the top, from the corporate leadership, and flow downward to the doorman who greets visitors cordially.

Ready-made packages – magical solutions

When talking about relationship marketing, magical proposals for solutions often emerge, expressed in programs, many of which are perhaps inspired by the old pizza shop model, “buy 10 and get one free”.

When this type of program was new, this model could still work, but there has been a brutal evolution and such programs have become a business in themselves. The segment of companies specialized in the supply and exchange of points (or miles) accumulated with each purchase for products, services, and airline tickets, gathered under the Brazilian Association of Loyalty Market CompaniesABEMF), showed that its revenue reached R$5.2 billion in the first quarter of this year, 7.6% higher than in the same period of the previous year.

The issue is that although programs of this type are a perfect fit for companies with tens of millions of customers, such as airlines and cards (where most of the companies specialized in the segment originated), they are inevitably not suitable for companies with different characteristics, especially in the b-to-b area.

Each case is unique; there are no identical companies with the same realities, so relationship programs must be tailored. A pharmaceutical industry has market characteristics that are little related to a pole factory or another of hinges.

Personalization

Without personalization, there is no way to talk about relationship marketing, whose practical application is not limited to well-planned moves, but depends on broad planning and a lot of discipline and contributes to the company as a whole being well-regarded and, with that, helping the relationship do its part in building reputation.

The infinite resources provided by information technology offer countless alternatives for programs where personalization is present and the impact is guaranteed. But the use of these resources is not always necessary or appropriate.

An interesting example is a labor leasing consultancy that, among other well-studied activities, used to read the day's newspapers to gather facts related to its clients or the market in which they operated. Once this was done, a personal note was sent greeting the director of the client company. Another, a luxury car dealer, who sent a simple pencil – yes, a good quality pencil, but still just a simple pencil – to high-income buyers with a note saying "let's write beautiful stories together with your new Porsche."

Of course, in the digital world, where there is an abundance of data about customers, today, with many of the barriers of technological costs having been removed, there is practically no reason not to use it to personalize the relationship, in addition to good purchasing recommendations.

Practice good relationships and encourage loyalty as one of the reputation pillars. The company's results will be appreciated.

Claudia Bouman
Claudia Boumanhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiabouman/
Claudia Bouman is a brand reputation specialist and partner at Percepta Business Reputation. Master's in Communication, postgraduate in Marketing from ESPM and Florida International University, with over 25 years of experience in the market, mainly working in Planning, Marketing, and Communication across various types of companies. Professor and Lecturer for undergraduate and graduate courses. She is a co-author of the book: A Professional for 2020 – B4 Publishing.
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