Customer Loyalty Ladder

To have a great business, you should consider a customer loyalty ladder.  The ultimate aim then is to develop evangelists for your business, but where do you start?

In the first instance, a viewer is someone in the market place who could buy from you but is currently not a prospect or a customer.  

Prospects are people who are not yet customers but who have shown some sort of interest in the products or services offered by your business.  They might have responded to advertising or may have requested a quotation.  The greatest cost every business has is attracting prospects and then getting them to take the next step to become customers.

Customers are people who buy from your business once, but you shouldn’t stop your marketing/promotional activities once someone becomes a customer.  In fact, you have only just started because you need to utilise systems, staff attitudes or your business’ knowledge to take customers to the next level.  

Clients are people who buy from your business more than once, so you need to continue to promote and market your business to them – show them you care!  

Member – a member is a client who has dealt with your business a number of times who you then offer a “loyalty card” or offer “other inducements” to make them feel they are an important component to your business.

Advocates – Advocates are different to members because, when asked, they will recommend your business.  Advocates need to be people who are well recognised by your team as being people who are prepared to be pro-active to viewers and prospects, in their support of your business.  

Evangelists – the highest level of customer recognition is where an advocate becomes an evangelist.  An evangelist openly promotes your business through things they say to other people, comments they make on your website, facebook and blogs.  To develop an evangelist in your business, you need to make communications very easy and encourage members to become advocates and then to become evangelists for your business.

The team needs to understand that the first sale to a customer is the beginning of a relationship which will hopefully culminate in a customer becoming an evangelist for your business.  

Then you have a loyalty ladder.