In the conditions of high competition between producers of goods and services, the consumer becomes a key figure, and such a concept as loyalty is coming to the fore, which contributes to sales growth, the formation of a positive image of the enterprise, and an increase in its competitiveness.

Is customer loyalty a fashion brand or a real basis for success?

The researchers were able to prove that a new buyer costs the company several times more than one that has already made a purchase and is ready to continue cooperation - and because of its loyalty.

In marketing, customer loyalty is loyalty, commitment to a particular company, brand, product. The first attempts to achieve such an attitude on the part of buyers were made almost a hundred years ago in the United States. However, this process flourished in developed countries in the last decades of the 20th century.

Western marketers linked customer loyalty with the company's customer focus, rightly believing that these are two sides of the same coin. Customer retention programs were built to meet the specific needs of the target groups - and this led to the desired result: the share of loyal customers grew, the company's profit increased.

In the 21st century, loyalty marketing began to gain popularity among Russian manufacturing and trading companies. This was due to a change in the economic situation in the country: the domestic industry began to work, the real incomes of the population increased, and effective demand increased. And so, focusing on Western experience, Russian enterprises began to implement ready-made programs that have proven themselves in developed countries. But not all of them reached the final goal and a significant increase in customer loyalty was not always observed.

The lack of impact from these programs is not due to their inefficiency. The reasons lie in a different plane: companies did not study their consumers, did not understand their priorities when making purchases, and did not motivate staff to provide quality customer service.

Portrait of a loyal customer

The company in its activities should focus on the target audience - those people who will be interested in the offered goods or services. However, only some customers can become loyal customers. Their main features are:

• satisfaction with cooperation / purchases;
• friendly attitude to the company, to its products;
• creating a positive image of the organization in a private conversation or in social networks;
• regular purchases;
• loyalty to the company when competitors with similar offers appear.

From these criteria, the conclusion suggests itself: a regular customer is one who periodically makes purchases in the company; Loyal is a customer who receives satisfaction from regular purchases in this company. Consistency has rational roots and is based on the convenient location of the store/company, low prices, constant discounts, and high quality of goods. Customer loyalty is his behavior associated with an emotional component. It arises as a reaction to friendly and prompt service, quick problem solving, attention to the needs of the buyer.

Loyalty formation factors

Potential buyers want to see a set of certain characteristics in the offered products - high quality, a wide range of possibilities for its use, novelty, optimal price, etc. In addition, they expect a positive attitude from the company towards themselves and their problems associated with the acquisition and consumption of goods.

The task of management is to study the needs, requests that affect customer loyalty. This will determine the main factors that contribute to the formation of customer loyalty. Practical experience shows that these factors include:

• the company's priorities in the field of quality;
• breadth of assortment;
• the possibility of ordering (manufacturing) goods that are not in the catalog;
• positive experience of interaction between the client and the personnel of the enterprise when placing an order;
• flexible system of discounts and bonuses;
• related services demanded by the buyer (delivery, including free; setup, installation of complex equipment; packaging or processing of products, etc.);
• success, fame of the company, its participation in projects.

This is not a complete list of loyalty factors, as buyers differ in their ideas about the ideal seller or manufacturer. To understand the priorities of customers, it is advisable to periodically conduct opinion polls in the target group. Only in this case it is possible to understand what is most important for the buyer - discounts, assortment features, additional services or the nature of the relationship in the chain "buyer - employee of the company".

Loyalty indicators

Buyer loyalty to a particular company can be measured using a variety of techniques. The main indicator of customer loyalty is the NPS (Net Promoter Score) index, which was proposed only at the beginning of the 21st century.

Its essence lies in the fact that the client must decide how much he trusts the company, brand or product, how confident he is in them, in order to recommend to his best friends and close relatives. The answer is selected from the least likely recommendation (1 point) to the highest probability (10 points).

The customer loyalty index allows you to highlight three:

• critic/ill-wisher - a dissatisfied client who leaves bad reviews (the probability of recommending to close people is from 1 to 6 points);
• neutral - the buyer is satisfied with the cooperation, but generally does not show recommendatory activity (from 7 to 8 points);
• loyal client (also called a promoter) - a satisfied client who recommends the organization to his relatives and friends (from 9 to 10 points).

NPS - customer loyalty is calculated as the share of promoters in the total number of respondents.

Another, no less important, indicator of customer loyalty is the level of their outflow. It is equal to the ratio of buyers who have refused cooperation (purchases) to the total number of customers for the year. The repeat purchase rate is calculated based on the number of times a particular brand is purchased per 10 total purchases.

Levels and stages of customer loyalty formation

Marketers distinguish three ascending levels of loyalty, namely: satisfaction with the purchase, commitment to a particular brand, formation partnerships client and organization.

The formation of consumer loyalty implies the following stages of customer loyalty development:

1. Focusing the attention of potential buyers through advertising on the company's products or services.
2. Accompanying a new client from the moment of purchase, using discount systems.
3. Work with regular customers based on the creation of additional emotional value associated with repeated contacts. Signs of attention, small presents are important. You should find out the reasons for the persistence.
4. Maintaining a high quality of products and services by the company, studying and satisfying the needs of the buyer in order to transfer him into the category of adherents.

At the first stage, the buyer learns about the existence of a product (service) with desired characteristics, and it also creates a product image. If it is positive, then a purchase is made. For the emergence of loyalty, it is necessary to meet the acquired expectations.

The second and third stages are marked by the fact that they lay and consolidate the idea of ​​the organization and its relationship to customers. The fourth unites, cements everything positive that was offered to the client earlier.

Basic approaches to building customer loyalty

There are several basic approaches that allow you to form a loyal customer. The most common are the following:

• stimulation of consumption, aimed at constantly studying the demand of target buyers and developing proposals that can best meet it;
• differentiation of the offer, which allows creating a unique value for the client for a product or service and standing out from competitors, for example, through the use of new technologies;
• identifying buyers who can be the most loyal, and building long-term cooperation programs with them;
• erecting high switching barriers through loyalty programs.

These approaches are interconnected with each other. So, the most perfect loyalty program will not work if the buyer is offered products that are not interesting to him, that are not in demand for him. When a brand stands out among similar ones, differing in quality, special useful properties, then the number of its adherents will only grow.

Loyalty programs

The loyalty program is a combination of various marketing activities. It allows you to stimulate the commitment of the buyer to both the company itself and its products, declared values ​​of life. This leads not only to repeat purchases, but also to maintaining a positive image of the organization by the consumer.

The most common are bonus programs that make it possible to receive points when making a purchase. When a certain amount of them is accumulated, they are exchanged for some commodity of the corresponding value. Some advanced foreign companies award points for a healthy lifestyle, its promotion in social networks based on personal example.

Sometimes the amount of purchases is taken into account; when it reaches a predetermined threshold, it will entitle you to free shipping, participation in a win-win lottery, priority access to new products, an increase in discount percentages, etc.

Instead of a conclusion: the main rules for creating a loyal customer

The main indicator of customer loyalty is their loyalty to the enterprise, brand. Therefore, when developing measures for its formation, it is necessary to take into account the following simple rules:

• the offered product or service must fully comply with the buyer's idea of ​​their quality, characteristics, and benefits;
• the behavior of the staff must be customer-oriented - friendly, helpful, aimed at solving the problems of the buyer;
• you should choose a loyalty program that provides both material benefits from regular purchases (saving money) and moral satisfaction from purchased goods and services (a prestigious brand is a quality standard; purchasing products from a company that cares about the protection environment etc.).

This approach will bring results in the form of a noticeable layer of loyal customers who can increase the organization's profits and strengthen its positive image.

Customer loyalty indexNPS (NetpromoterScore, net support index) - This is an easy-to-calculate metric aimed at assessing the loyalty of a company's customers or buyers of a product. It is believed that the NPS index is closely correlated with the company's revenues and a company with a high NPS score tends to grow much faster than its competitors. This indicator is based on the assumption that customer loyalty to the company consists of:

• Willingness to make repeat purchases
• Positive attitude towards upselling (buying additional accessories)
• Recommendations of the company in the circle of their acquaintances and friends
• Honest and open feedback about the company's products and services

The NPS index is considered by many foreign and domestic experts to be one of the best indicators of loyalty to a company or product. The standard approach to measuring the consumer loyalty index usually consists of several stages. At the first stage, immediately after making a purchase, buyers are invited to participate in a small survey and are asked next question:

The answer to this question is given on a ten-point scale, where the minimum score of 0 means “Categorically I will not recommend under any circumstances”, and the maximum of 10 points corresponds to “I will definitely recommend”. Based on the ratings collected, all buyers are divided into three categories:

• Those who put 9 or 10 points are supporters (promoters, promoters). This category of people is loyal to a company or product and with a probability of more than 90% will recommend the company or product to other people, as well as make repeat purchases. "Promoters" are often "overwhelmed" by the quality of the products and/or services they provide, which exceeded their wildest expectations, so they are willing to actively recommend them.

• Those who gave a score of 7-8 points are neutral buyers (neutrals). This category of people is quite supportive of the company or product, but the likelihood that these people will consistently recommend the company or product is much lower than the category of promoters. In addition, representatives of this category can easily prefer competitors if there is a discount or offered to them. better conditions to make a purchase.

• Those who rated 0-6 points are critics (detractors, detractors). Representatives of this category are dissatisfied with the company and are unlikely to ever use its services again. And those who put the lowest scores can go as far as writing negative reviews on the Internet or in a complaint book. Given the availability of information on the Internet, criticism and negativity from this category can cause significant reputational damage to the company, negatively affecting sales and demotivating its employees. Active Internet users can deliver special troubles to the company, who, by their actions, can “drive away” many from the company. potential clients, replicating the negative on company review sites, social networks, blogs and product aggregator sites.

The final step is to carry out the calculation, the NPS calculation formula is as follows:

For example, we collected only 100 reviews from our customers, of which 5 reviews were received from "critics" (0-6 points), 10 reviews were received from "neutrals" (7-8 points) and the remaining 85 reviews came from "promoters". ”, who gave us high marks of 9-10 points. From 85, we subtract 5, 100 by 100 falls under the reduction, and we get a total NPS value of 80. The indicator can be from -100 (extremely low value, when all buyers are "critics"), up to 100, when all buyers are " promoters."

In addition to the main question, one or more clarifying questions can also be asked, for example, “Why did you give this particular rating? Please answer in as much detail as possible and preferably give an example. Or, depending on the scores, one or another clarifying question is asked. For example, if the buyer put 9 or 10 points, then he is invited to additionally answer the question “What did you particularly like ...”, and those who rated 0-8 points are asked the question “What do you think should be improved ...”. In some cases, NPS research can be conducted to assess the loyalty of business partners and even among their own employees, who are asked the question “Will you recommend working in our company to your acquaintances, friends?”

How to correctly interpret the resulting calculationNPS?

How to collect customer reviews?

How to keep the NPS at a high level?

NPS

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NPS and why

The history of the creation of the techniqueNetpromoterScore

How to correctly interpret the resulting NPS calculation

Knowing the NPS indicator clearly demonstrates the “reputational weight” of the company in the eyes of customers, and the calculation of this metric is a good indicator from the category of “are we all right”? Thus, ease of calculation, fast data collection speed and comparability with the main players in the industry are the main advantages. this method. The general rule of the NPS methodology is: "The indicator must not be negative".

A positive value of the indicator indicates that the share of supporters of the company's "promoters" exceeds the number of "critics", therefore, there is a certain potential for a natural growth of the client base solely due to customer loyalty, in the very case when a satisfied client brings another client.

A zero or negative indicator indicates that the number of "critics" prevails over the number of "promoters", and this, in turn, is a clear signal that there is no potential for growth in the client base and even a possible outflow of buyers due to the company's low rating.

Because metrics NPS loyalty quite simple in calculations and understandable to everyone, it can be taken as a benchmark as a generally accepted standard and used as a comparison with the performance of other companies in the same industry, catching up with the leaders or increasing the gap from competitors. An NPS index of about 50 and above is considered good. Some experts believe that at this level, you can even do without advertising, because. the client base grows by itself, but this is not the case in all cases. If the index is significantly less than 50, then this is not a reason to panic. For example, if your company's index is only 20, but on average competitors in the industry have even less (10 and below), then in this case your index will be high compared to competitors.

NPS studies conducted for various corporate business segments show that different industries may have their own norms (so-called reference values) of customer loyalty. For example, among Western companies, digital retail may have a figure of 30 or more, and in the banking sector from 10. For airlines, this figure is at the level of 15, and for grocery retailers, about 49. different countries these figures may also differ. Therefore, it would be logical not to compare the performance of companies operating in different markets.

It should be noted that the index needs to be updated periodically. Recalculation of the index is usually recommended to be done no more than once a quarter and no less than once a year.

How to collect customer reviews

A modern way to collect customer feedback at points of sale or service offices is to use mobile devices, in particular tablets, which are optimally suited to the size of the display and can be compactly located, for example, at the checkout. The NPS survey uses specially designed applications that display response options on the tablet screen and save data on the selected ratings. A tablet with a running survey can be placed in a special stand with a theft-proof holder on a short or long “leg” for convenient location in the room.

Some companies (especially in banking and insurance) keep cards with colored "smiley faces" at the customer service counters. The green smiley is taken by "promoters" satisfied with the service, "yellow" - by neutral customers, "red" - by dissatisfied "critics". Customers are invited to drop the cards taken into a special box at the exit.

To collect reviews in an online store, special plug-ins are usually used, if some well-known “boxed” CMS acts as the “engine” of the online store, or the refinement is carried out by the company’s full-time specialists. It is also possible to use third-party web services that offer the installation of an NPS counter on the company's website and provide the functionality of conducting surveys to collect feedback along with the provision of final reporting. The disadvantages of self-collection of feedback through the site include the potential for incorrect design of the survey form, which can be implemented in the form of an annoying “pop-under” banner that pops up when entering the site, which users can instinctively “shrug off”, mistaking it for advertising and immediately closing, often without even reading what they are asked to do.

There are also "telephone", "email" and "sms" methods for collecting customer feedback, if a contact database is available. “Ringing” customers is usually carried out by call center operators some time after the customer has made a purchase or provided a service to him. IVR (Interactive Voice Response) pre-recorded voice message systems are also used, which can carry on a dialogue with the buyer without the participation of an operator. These methods are often practiced by large online stores and mobile operators, because. they own the contact information of their customers. The disadvantages of collecting feedback via e-mail and by phone include the fact that a “critic” can simply refuse to participate in the survey, having received a questionnaire on his email (or hanging up the call) due to dislike for the company or product, so he will simply drop out of the total respondents. In the same way, a letter that accidentally falls under the spam filter on the email of a promoter client will exclude him from the total number of respondents. Thus, technical overlays and incorrect contact information can seriously affect the final calculations.

In addition to using the above methods, some companies further extend the functionality of their CRM systems to solve tasks like data collection and NPS calculation. True, it is worth noting that not all “boxed” CRM systems can be modified in this way without the help of key developers.

How to keep the scoreNPS at a high level

We will look at how to set up a feedback collection system and systematically, at the proper level, control NPS using the example of one of our customers, who is one of the leaders in digital retail in Russia, operating on the market for more than 15 years. Hundreds of the company's stores operate in almost all regions of the country, offering customers the widest range of digital and household appliances from well-known brands of leading world manufacturers.

We launched a system for collecting reviews on mobile devices for calculating NPS in the company as part of a project for a quality control system for a chain of stores called Retailika. The implementation of the Retailika cloud service was aimed at enabling the company's employees to quickly perform any type of on-site and cross-checks in all stores of the company's network using electronic checklists on their own mobile devices, thereby identifying possible flaws in work, violations and deviations from accepted corporate standards.

The quick reaction of the management to the information received on violations in real time, the systematic identification and elimination of shortcomings, the constant work on errors was aimed at creating an ideally built interaction with customers, control of the display of goods, cleanliness and tidiness, general order, which, as a result, is extremely positive affects sales and NPS growth.

Many of our clients note that due to the systematic conduct of checks on electronic checklists, sales consultants begin to demonstrate thorough knowledge of their job duties over time, because each repeated check is a kind of training, filigree honing compliance with company standards and the ability to maximize yourself a potential buyer, leading him to make a purchase. And each satisfied customer is highly likely to return for shopping again and will advise the company to his friends. And if we return to the formula for calculating the customer loyalty index, which says that the more “supporters” (promoters) we have in the numerator and the fewer “critics” we have, the higher the final NPS will be and the longer it will be maintained at a decent level. level.

Eliminating possible violations when working with clients through self-checks and systematic improvement of the processes built in the company, based on the use of innovative methods and technologies, has a significant positive impact on Company NPS.

Our solution for collecting feedback for the NPS study compares favorably with other solutions in that the work is carried out in a single information space with the company's quality control service. The customer feedback collection system is not a separate mobile application, but the same application of the Retailika quality control system, but with a special interface in which each review made by the buyer is a separate “check” according to the NPS checklist, which automatically closes after the survey is completed and re-created automatically to receive feedback from the next client.

Another distinguishing factor is that the mobile application of the service works on any modern smartphones and tablets that operate under operating systems Android or iOS, so our customers didn't have to buy exotic "devices" of certain models or be limited to using mobile devices of only one platform. To collect feedback, tablets can be temporarily used during any limited period of surveys, being released later for other tasks. Also, in addition to the “main” question “How likely is it that you will recommend purchases from our company…”, we have included a number of additional questions in the feedback collection system that are displayed on the tablet screen depending on the points scored. For example, if a buyer is a "promoter" and gives a score of 9 or 10, they will be shown the following question like this:

And if the buyer turned out to be a "critic" or "neutral", estimating the work of the store at 0-6 or 7-8 points, respectively, then he will be asked to answer another question:

It is worth noting that the “core” NPS question takes scores as an answer, and the above “clarifying” questions take a value from a given list of criteria for the attractiveness or disadvantages of the store in the eyes of buyers as an answer. As we mentioned above, a survey in our Retailika system is a checklist with a special interface, which is created in the same way as the rest of the "standard" checklists using the checklist constructor. The checklist constructor allows you to create checklists of any complexity with various types ratings (Yes/No, Scale Score, List Value, Numeric Value, etc.)

All collected information from NPS surveys and other “standard checks” of stores (which are performed by employees on their mobile devices) is automatically accumulated in a single database and immediately becomes available in reports to managers. The advantage of this approach when calculating NPS is that the survey results of each customer immediately fall into a single database and, accordingly, into reports, and the NPS index is recalculated in real time on the fly. While other methods of data collection require first to carry out the stage of collecting information, and then the stage of additional processing, before providing the final result on them.

Additional maintenance measuresNPS

In addition to systematic “working on yourself” through self-checks using electronic checklists on mobile devices, as described above, there are many additional ways that positively affect the level of NPS. This may be the introduction of standard discount loyalty programs with various discounts, bonuses, sales. discount cards with the "cashback" function, when up to 5% of the purchase price is returned back to the card and can be used to cover the next purchase or even cashed out. Online stores, by analogy with cashback cards, can use the so-called. loyalty bonuses, accruing a percentage of the order value to the personal account of the user account, which can be spent on the next purchase. “Referral systems” are widely used, when a buyer who has made a purchase in an online store for the first time receives a personal referral code, which he distributes among other buyers as a discount code and encourages them to make a purchase, he receives bonuses to his account. It will not be superfluous to issue and distribute gift cards and certificates, as is done, for example, by the companies Eldorado, Sportmaster, Letual.

The so-called. "coalition programs", when companies cooperate, giving a discount on purchases from those who are part of the "coalition". For example, when buying a product, the buyer can receive a discount if he pays with the cards of the bank that serves the company from which the purchase is made. This is beneficial for all participants involved in the purchase process - both the bank and the company, together with the buyer, who ultimately receives his discount.

An important role is played by a competently built pricing policy using competitor price monitoring services and providing discounts and special conditions to VIP clients. All of these methods also affect the NPS score.

Economic and emotional customer loyalty

The above methods of motivating and retaining customers, based on bonuses and discounts, undoubtedly work and encourage buyers to make repeat purchases. But do they actually make them loyal in the fullest sense of the word? If the company is only working on improving its bonus system and pricing policy, ignoring everything else or acting according to the residual principle, then in this case loyalty is based only on economic factors in the form of an acceptable favorable prices, which the buyer is ready to pay for a product or service, or receiving additional preferences in the form of bonuses and discounts. If it is impossible to implement a bonus pricing policy to maintain economic loyalty during a crisis in the company itself or in the economy as a whole, the relationship between the company and the buyer, based solely on economic loyalty, can be easily destroyed and the client will go to competitors, or stop making purchases, waiting for the "difficult days" to pass. This is because, apart from relatively favorable prices, the buyer is no longer tied to the company.

It can be assumed that it is enough to bind a client to himself with some unique product that simply has nowhere else to purchase. However, as world practice shows, no matter how technically complex the product is, sooner or later the same Chinese will copy it, unless it is a rocket engine or a fifth-generation fighter.

You can emotionally (strongly) bind a client to yourself only by providing a high-quality service in which there is no room for error and where streamlined technological and business processes are combined in the right proportions, multiplied by the high competence of the company's employees who comply with the prescribed internal standards and rules from "A" to "I". All internal mechanisms of the company work "like clockwork" and gears are well lubricated and fitted to each other. All this together creates that very unique atmosphere of a “cool company”, in which the client feels as comfortable and “protected” as possible, and in which that very strong connection is established in the form of “emotional loyalty”.

A vivid example of the formation of emotional loyalty is the American shoe company Zappos, whose employees, wanting to please their customers as much as possible, could consult on the phone for 5 hours without a break for a hesitant buyer who could not decide which shoes suit him. In his book Delivering Happiness, Zappos founder Tony Shay recounted how, as a joke, he called his company's support service and, in a drunken altered voice, tried to find out where he could order pizza. Within five minutes, he had contacts for several nearby pizzerias. No less informative in terms of the formation of emotional loyalty is the story of the formation of Carl Sewell's car dealership, described by him in the famous bestseller "Customers for Life".

Criticism of the effectiveness of the indicatorNPS

Despite the simplicity and effectiveness of the NPS index, there are a number of weighty arguments aimed at criticizing this metric. It has already been mentioned above about the need to divide loyalty into economic (weak) and emotional (strong). The indicator is also often criticized for linking loyalty only to probable desire recommend but not firm intention make a specific action (purchase), repeat purchase or make a repeat visit to the point of sale. The very form of posing the question, when the buyer is asked to evaluate probability,"Psychologically" relieves him of further responsibility for the seriousness of his intentions. At the same time, important facts from the company’s point of view, such as the presence / absence of purchases from competitors, the presence / absence of criticism of the company or product, “turning a blind eye” to minor flaws and shortcomings in work, etc. are not taken into account.

The buyer may be an ardent supporter (promoter) of a company or product, but this does not mean at all that he has never bought anything (and will not buy in the future) from competitors, or that he cannot criticize the work of the company (product quality) at the same time. In addition, one must take into account the factor that a person by nature is a poor predictor of his own future, and what he promises now (I will or will not recommend) does not mean at all that after some time factors that cause him to change his decision or opinion. As the saying goes, "man proposes, but God disposes."

It should be noted that loyalty and satisfaction buyers are not always directly proportionally interconnected and often do not go, as they say "nostril to nostril". Although, it would seem, the more satisfied the client, the more loyal he is and vice versa. It is clear that a dissatisfied customer is unlikely to be loyal, however, there are situations when a satisfied customer will not be loyal within the framework of the NPS methodology. For example, when buying a new car of a brand, 90% of buyers are quite satisfied with their purchase, but according to statistics, only 40% of them will show loyalty and re-buy the same car model. Therefore, customer satisfaction and loyalty in some cases should be considered separately.

A lot of important information is lost if you ask the buyer only one “main question”, and this clarifying information is also extremely important for the systematic work on improving the level of customer loyalty, because how else can you find out what exactly the consumer is dissatisfied with if he rated 9 points? Why not 10? Why was one point deducted? That is why the standard NPS survey should be expanded with a number of additional clarifying questions in order to get to the root of the problems. In addition, when conducting surveys, it is necessary to ensure the maximum “sparseness” of respondents (“fans” and ordinary buyers) and sometimes take into account additional factors that can distort real estimates. For example, the start of sales of a new model of a popular smartphone generates a temporary rush demand, fueled by which the most devoted “fans”, who are ready to rate “11 out of 10” without looking, sweep away everything that is from the shelves of company stores with a hurricane. But after some time, when the raised hype and "hype" subsides, and buyers with a "sober view of the world" come to the store, "real" reviews and points will go from them in surveys.

Additionally, it is worth considering the factor of when exactly the review is taken, because the positive from interacting with the company tends to naturally decline over time. In some cases, even the onset of disappointment or indifference in the client is possible, which ultimately directly affects the calculated loyalty indicator. For example, a review from a buyer who purchases something from a company for the first time is taken in the store immediately after buying a new monitor. If everything went smoothly, a polite consultant, an attractive affordable price, a discount, no dead pixels on the monitor display during testing, and a satisfied customer, being under the influence positive emotions in anticipation of the joy of owning a new thing, puts the company at the exit of the store with a score of 10 points. After a week of operation, it suddenly turns out that there are "lights" at the corners of the monitor, which are visible only in complete darkness from a certain angle of view, which is a manufacturer's defect. No fault of the company that sold this product this is not the case, and she is ready to fully fulfill her warranty obligations up to the return of money, but the buyer will be clearly disappointed, because the goods were sold to him in the company's store (they are to blame, not the manufacturer!) And he will at least have to spend time on return the product, wait for it to be repaired or replaced, or even look for another monitor again. And if at that moment the buyer receives a call from the call center for a survey for NPS analysis, the buyer’s assessment under the influence of negative emotions may turn out to be completely different than the 10 points that he gave immediately after the purchase in the store a week ago. Although the store in terms of sales and work with the client worked as clearly as possible, deserving the initially set 10 points. It should be noted that the buyer's assessment may change again if the company went to meet him halfway and solved his problem with defective goods as painlessly as possible. As we can see, the timing of collecting feedback in some cases can make significant adjustments to the estimates.

Some experts rightly point to the existing “distortions” in the logic of dividing buyers into unequal groups, since even within the same group of “critics”, the loyalty of a customer who scores 0 may differ significantly from the loyalty of a customer who scores 6. The NPS formula prescribes to completely "throw overboard" neutrals, thereby losing very valuable information. There are studies indicating that a customer who scores 6 and is not inclined to recommend a company and buy something from it "offline" is highly likely to make a purchase from the same company on the website "online". For example, a company has stores that are inconveniently located for a particular customer in terms of transport accessibility, or in which the work of employees is poorly organized and queues are observed even with a small crowd of people. But with all this, a very convenient order from the site is organized and there is a fast delivery of goods to your home. The company's website is well-designed, has a beautiful functional design, the product search is successfully implemented, painstaking work has been done to improve the usability. A “critic”, who once “burned himself” buying goods offline (in a store), but “tasted” orders through the site, receiving goods by courier delivery, easily turns into a “promoter” online. Therefore, the NPS index often has to be calculated for each “touchpoint” of the client company separately, which will be discussed in the next subsection of this article, which describes “advanced techniques”.

The NPS metric may not be suitable for everyone, because. there are companies or even entire industries on the market in which buyers do not have the desire to recommend the company or its products to everyone, even if they are one hundred percent "promoters" in body and soul. For example, it is unlikely that a normal person would recommend toilet paper to all his acquaintances and friends, based on his daily pleasant tactile sensations after going to the toilet. However, following the algorithm for calculating NPS, it must be written in "neutrals". For this reason, a low index does not mean that a company has serious problems with customer loyalty if it brings a specific product to the market or operates in an industry where people do not tend to make recommendations.

Advanced techniques for using and enhancingNPS

Taking into account the above criticism about some "one-sidedness" of the NPS indicator, many companies perform calculations for different "points of contact" with the client, resulting in the final total NPS rating, which is formed from the calculation of separately collected indicators, each of which may have a certain "weight coefficient ", for example:

• The customer has just made a purchase at the point of sale
• The buyer revisited the company's point of sale
• The buyer continues to use the product after the specified period
• The buyer has contacted the technical support service
• The buyer went to the company's website
• The buyer made a purchase on the site
• The buyer left his feedback on the Internet or in the book of complaints and suggestions, etc.

Above, we have already mentioned that in addition to the main question, you should ask an additional “clarifying” question “Why did you give this particular rating? Please answer in as much detail as possible and preferably give an example. Or, depending on the scores, "What did you especially like ..." or "What needs to be improved ...". Using additional clarifying questions will allow you to collect more useful information about the client and his attitude towards the company, and the client will be forced to take his evaluation of the company's work more seriously. Some experts recommend expanding the survey to 5 or even 8 additional questions.

The NPS survey can be applied not only to the company's clients, but also to its own employees, who are asked the question "What is the probability that you will recommend a job in our company to your acquaintances and friends?" In addition, questions are asked clarifying what exactly attracts or repels employees in the company (the level of salary, the atmosphere in the team, adequate management, work space, etc.) This question will allow you to assess the loyalty of your own employees in relation to the company, the level of loyalty to which in some cases, it can be an unpleasant surprise for managers. Also, the survey can be conducted among the partners of the company, who are asked the question "What is the probability that you will recommend cooperation with our company to your business partners?".

As a measurement of loyalty, many companies use not only NPS, but also a number of other metrics - ASCI (American Customer Satisfaction Index), CES (Consumer Effort Evaluation), CXi (Consumer Experience Index), CSat (Customer Satisfaction), RAPid, and, on in our opinion, the most interesting one is WoMI. WoMI (Word of Mouth Index) - the word of mouth index is a refinement of the NPS methodology. The authors of WoMI argue that the NPS index artificially inflates the number of “critics” who are ready to actually discourage other people from buying from a company or its products. The WoMI metric proposes to adjust the number of real “critics” by adding an additional question to the NPS survey “What is the probability that you will dissuade your acquaintances and friends from shopping in our company? The creators of this technique believe that this will identify "fake critics" who fell into the category 0-6 on the standard NPS question, but also responded with low scores on the WoMI survey (0-6), in fact refusing to dissuade other people from cooperating with company. Thus, the WoMI index adds another category of buyers who are intermediate between "critics" and "neutrals", not recommending a company or product, but also not discouraging others from interacting with a company or product.

Some companies, not being able to obtain statistics on the level of NPS from competitors in the "open access", independently calculate these indicators among their customers, adding to the NPS survey to the main question a tricky question about the competitor's company - "What is the probability that you would prefer a purchase in our company buying from another company? If the respondents on this question give a score of 9-10 points, it doesn’t matter if they are “critics”, “neutrals” or “promoters”, an additional clarifying question is asked in order to find out which competitor is in question. The statistics collected in such a simple way allows you to roughly “estimate” the NPS rating of the closest competitors.

In addition to using different customer loyalty research metrics and introducing various bonus systems, which we have already mentioned above, another additional “advanced technique” for increasing NPS is the widespread use of innovative software products and services that are massively created in recent times not only abroad, but also in our country. We will dwell on this in more detail.

In addition to scheduled NPS surveys, which collect data using mobile devices, phone calls and email, companies can use systems to analyze “natural feedback” from the Internet. Natural reviews come from the buyers themselves on their own initiative, they can be both sharply negative and extremely positive. Review analysis systems collect information on an ongoing basis from aggregator sites for goods and services (Yandex Market, price.ru), social networks, blogs, forums, video content sites for reviews or references to a particular company or product. The collected information is combined into a single whole, giving an “information squeeze” at the output, which shows the “reputational weight” of the company and can be automatically interpreted using machine learning algorithms, including as part of the Net Promoter Score calculation. At the same time, especially "advanced" systems allow you to determine who left this or that review, a real person or a "paid bot", which operates as part of an unleashed campaign to denigrate a competitor. Thus, “bots” can be thrown out of the NPS calculation, and at the same time, the company will additionally receive a signal about an information attack against it through “stuffing”. Having received operational information about potential threats and reputational risks, the company can respond in a timely manner and take action, preventing a drop in the level of customer loyalty and maintaining its NPS level.

Other software products include "intelligent assistants" - artificial intelligence programs that can conduct rather complex dialogues with a company website visitor around the clock, in the absence of a human consultant. These can be various recommender systems that make useful tips and recommendations to the buyer during the purchase. These can also be quality control systems for the company’s work, like our cloud service RITEILIKA, in which, with the help of systematic self-checks using electronic checklists, you can qualitatively improve compliance with the company’s standards and positively influence the alignment efficient processes interaction between the company and the client.

If a company has an industry average NPS rating, then the higher it tries to raise and maintain it, the more effort it will have to spend. And this means that in the arsenal of such a company should be all possible tools to achieve this goal.

Who actively uses the loyalty indexNPS and why

Net Promoter Score is widely used by many companies around the world, from small start-ups to huge multinational corporations. ease of calculation, fast data collection speed, direct correlation with income and comparability with major industry players are the main advantages of this method. All these advantages make it possible to widely use this metric as one of the assessments of a company's movement in the right direction. Based on this metric, important management decisions are often made, KPI is calculated, entire areas are opened or closed, bonuses are paid or “cut off”.

Many companies use the metric because NPS tracking will allow you to quickly identify imbalances and “skews” in the company-client relationship. And the high level of competition, when in Western markets the client has a huge choice of where to leave his money, and the ever-increasing cost of attracting a new client, lead to the fact that a quick reaction to abnormal fluctuations in this indicator to a lower side can not only “level the situation ”, but also in some cases to return the business back from the “point of no return”. A company's current earnings can be a universal indicator of its overall "success" in the market, but this indicator can be a poor indicator of future growth, especially when the NPS index has plummeted for any reason. In the modern world, taking into account the almost complete accessibility of the Internet to the population, information is spreading rapidly and any “blunders” in customer relations by well-known companies can lead to grandiose scandals that, savoring and replicating in the yellow press and various Internet tabloids, bring significant financial and reputational losses.

Among Western companies, NPS is used almost everywhere, in Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Zappos, Dell, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Costco and tens of thousands of other lesser-known companies, becoming in a certain way a kind of “de facto standard”. Amazon for example, has an NPS of about 70, and Apple - 72, Costco - 77, but the little-known financial and investment company USAA in Russia has an indicator of 87.

On the Russian market the methodology for calculating the customer loyalty index has also been successfully adopted and is contained in the arsenal of many well-known companies operating in the field of retail, insurance, telecommunications, banking services, restaurants and hotel business, air and rail transportation. Among them are MTS, MegaFon, Beeline, Ingosstrakh, Rosgosstrakh, Alfa-Bank, Aeroflot, etc.

The history of the creation of the techniqueNetpromoterScore

This technique was developed by American marketer Frederick F. Reichheld, who is the author of the bestseller The Ultimate Question. Fred Reicheld is widely known in the business world for his innovative approach to customer loyalty. The methodology for calculating the net support index under his authorship was first published in 2003 on the pages of the Harvard Business Review. With the goal of identifying which metrics had the most impact on customer loyalty, Reicheld processed and analyzed a gigantic amount of collected data from over four hundred companies, concluding that the most strongly associated with loyalty was the willingness of customers to recommend a company or product to their friends and relatives. and acquaintances.

Nobody disputes the importance of customer loyalty, but the question often arises, how to measure it? Is loyalty measurable or is it an ideal to strive for? If an organization has not run a loyalty program, can anything be measured? How not to drown in the flow of information on customer loyalty and start measuring the results of your work?
The article below summarizes the key loyalty metrics that can be measured in every organization.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - customer lifetime value

CLV is one of the fundamental indicators applicable to any business. First of all, it makes us understand whether it is worth doing loyalty management in an organization at all. The client came, paid for the purchase and left. Is it valuable to us? If we count CLV, then we can answer this question, because it may turn out that such a customer makes purchases three times a year and stays with us for three to five years. Considering the profit that we receive from such customers throughout the entire time of interaction with them, and not for one purchase, the answer to the need for loyalty management will be “YES!”
CLV is well suited for measuring loyalty, as it takes into account the real indicators of interaction with the client - how much he buys and how long the cooperation with him lasts. Nothing superfluous, just a measurable financial result.
While CLV won't tell you how loyal your company's customer is right now, it will measure the success of your long-term loyalty efforts. If you calculate CLV not for the entire customer base, but for customer segments, you can achieve even more noticeable results by varying the costs of the loyalty program for different customer segments, because knowing the lifetime value of customers from different segments, you can make decisions about how to manage customer loyalty based on clear, measurable data, don't overspend on rewarding low-yield customers and invest more in building long-term customer loyalty with high lifetime value!
Several formulas can be used to calculate CLV, we recommend using the simplest one:

CLV = t × c × ƒ,

where t- duration of interaction with the client, c - average cost of purchases of the client during the interaction, ƒ - the frequency of purchases per unit of time.

Repeat Customer Rate - share of repeat customers

While customer lifetime value is an excellent metric for tracking how loyalty has changed over time, repeat buyers provide a measure of the current value of the state of affairs. Repeat Buyer Share is the percentage of buyers who make repeat purchases from you.
A repeat purchase is not yet a measure of loyalty per se, but studies show that if a customer makes three purchases from you, the likelihood of subsequent purchases increases by 54%!
The share of repeat customers is calculated quite simply:

The RCR reflects Current state customer loyalty to your business, but unlike customer lifetime value, it does not measure the financial impact of your loyalty work. Measuring and analyzing both CLV and RCR will allow you to have more accurate data on your customer loyalty.

While the previous two indicators were objective data collected from accounting systems, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is measured based on customer surveys and shows the subjective assessment of customers of their experience with the company. The NPS indicator is one of the most well-known in the assessment of loyalty and it can be measured even if your accounting system does not provide for fixing other indicators for working with customers, for this it is enough to introduce the practice of conducting customer surveys in the company.
The NPS scoring involves a customer survey with one simple question, "How likely are you to recommend us to your friends and family?" in which customers are asked to select one of the ratings on a scale of 1 to 10, where 0 is the least likely, 9 the most confident.

Customers who answered 8-9, we refer to " promoters", who chose ratings 0-5 - to " detractors", and between them remain" passive" - Satisfied, but devoid of enthusiasm, customers who can either become "promoters" or "ill-wishers" or go to competitors.
The NPS indicator reflects the actual state of loyalty of your company's customers, because. the previous two measures fail to separate true loyalty from forced loyalty or low price loyalty.

The NPS study should be included in the overall communication system with the client, because. a study with only one NPS question can be skewed.
Ideal scores of 100% are almost impossible to achieve. For example, Apple in 2013 had NPS = 76% - and this is a good result of a strong brand.

Redemption Rate (RR) - redemption rate of the reward

This indicator measures how your customers are engaged in your loyalty program, understand its terms and use the benefits you provide. The Redemption Rate is measured if your company has already launched a loyalty program. In essence, the Redemption Rate is the percentage of accrued bonuses that were used to pay for subsequent purchases.

If members earn bonuses but never spend them, then they cannot be classified as loyal and our loyalty program does not reach the goal of such customers. A Redemption Rate below 20% indicates that the loyalty program is not working the way you would like.

16.01.2012

Client loyalty. How to get it?

After the economic crisis, the market has changed dramatically in the direction of a customer-oriented business: competition is too high in almost any niche, the client has become too spoiled. The struggle for its buyer goes on at all levels of the passage of the product from the manufacturer to the consumer. In traditional business, the so-called “product approach” is most often used, when the main business processes fit into the framework of a three-stage promotion of a product or service to the final consumer: product creation, sale to a distributor or end customer, and after-sales relations (warranty service, cross-selling and etc.)

However, customer preferences change quite quickly and today it is not enough just to monitor the mood of your target audience and influence the tastes and opinions of the consumer with the help of expensive marketing.

What is customer loyalty

A pleasant word for any businessman "loyalty"(loyal - faithful) is translated from French as "loyalty", "loyalty". Wikipedia gives the following definition of consumer loyalty: “customer loyalty trademark motivated by a well-established habit of buying the same product, product or using the same service, insensitivity to the price of the product, rejection of the alternative.

That is loyal client - a person or company who has a positive attitude towards the product of some manufacturer, brand, brand, which is not so easy to "recruit" direct competitors, promising mountains of gold. Customer loyalty is formed not suddenly and not immediately. Improving the quality and level of customer service are the main, but not the only factors in the formation of consumer loyalty.

Main constituents components creation consumer loyalty programs considered to be product understandable and accepted by the client, the consumer himself, his preferences, and staff, capable of becoming a key link in the "client-company" communication system, to implement the developed program.

Levels of customer loyalty

Marketers around the world make up a lot of customer loyalty grading systems, dividing them into types, types, analyzing and deriving practical benefits from the materials received. Traditionally, customer relationship marketing divides consumer loyalty as perceived, emotional (relationship to the product and company) and behavioral (possibility of re-purchase). behavioral type Loyalty is measured using metrics to monitor the behavior of buyers when choosing a product. Emotional Loyalty of customers is expressed in their degree of awareness about the product of a particular manufacturer, the strengths and weaknesses of the product and, most importantly, about what specific need or problem this product can solve.

Emotional loyalty plays a major role in the customer-seller relationship, since the purchase of any product or service is based on some kind of emotion. In 90% of cases, customers become disloyal to the company due to emotional dissatisfaction. Selling in such a way that a pleasant aftertaste of the purchase remains is a real art.

At the stage of satisfaction , at the first level, the client receives a special aftertaste with a plus sign after purchasing a product or service, but still continues to compare products and at any time can give preference to similar products of competitors. This is a period of market monitoring by the consumer, who is receptive to positive experience, but still reacts violently to a negative result. It is impossible to control the mood of such a client how it is impossible to calculate in advance his preferences. This level of client loyalty is very fragile and depends on a whole factor of conditions: the age and social status of the client, his psychotype, market fluctuations, etc.

To move a customer from the first level of satisfaction from a purchase to a higher one, instilling a culture of consumption and forming loyalty to the brand and company, it is necessary a clear sequence of actions. You can consolidate the first positive experience with a client by arousing a special interest in the product, building personal relationships with it at the level "seller buyer".

At the stage of building loyalty to the brand the client is offered a choice of several interesting promotions, a comparative analysis with competitors and the opportunity to communicate in non-standard situations, when a commodity producer takes on the solution of some specific consumer problems. That is, active proactive work is carried out, when a comparison of a product or service is always in favor of a particular brand, when the proposed product not only corresponds to the competitive one, but is many times better. The consumer has no alternative, he is “forced” to choose the promoted product as unique and of high quality.

This is how the consumer moves to the second level of customer loyalty - brand loyalty. This stage is characterized by loyalty to the chosen brand, when the consumer is not going to change it to competitive analogues. At this stage of building a relationship with a client you should not bother him and bother him with offers. However, the development of customer loyalty should always be monitored: brand loyalty is not a reason to relax, since there is always a danger of losing a customer due to the skillful strategies of competitors. This level of loyalty requires enhanced analysis of customer sentiment, fluctuations and changes. Company marketers should conduct strategic planning and in-depth study of the reasons for such brand loyalty, enhancing these characteristics.

However, loyalty to the brand is still passive, the client begins to respect the brand, only allowing himself to be loved. Therefore, it is important at this stage of the relationship with the client move on to personal relationships, mutually beneficial mutual acquaintance, which in the future, ideally, will grow into a partnership - the highest degree of customer loyalty.

partnership implies not just “courtship”, but a real “legal marriage” with a client, when the consumer becomes a like-minded, ally, helping to promote the product on the market, to improve it. This is the most active stage of the relationship, when the client begins to advise in which direction the company should move, how to improve the structure, monitors the actions of competitors and becomes a kind of “co-owner” of the business.

The task of each company is to form customer loyalty, quickly transferring the main group of its consumers into partners, keeping their attention. Such relationships help the company become a market leader, create a product that society needs and increase its profits.

In the struggle for the “hand and heart” of the client, it is necessary to observe tact, measure and demonstrate highest culture . Examples to follow in building relationships with their customers are world market leaders - the Dutch company selling prefabricated furniture IKEA, the world's largest online store Amazon.com, oil company Lukoil and others.

Customer Loyalty and Retention Activities

We will take as a basis the highest quality and uniqueness of the product on the market, that is, by default, the product or service to which consumer loyalty is formed has certain advantages and features that are of interest to a potential client. Wherein the price is not an element of retention and formation of customer loyalty. It has been proven that with the appropriate quality of the product and / or service, justified expectations, the client is ready to pay more. A disloyal, hesitant customer who receives a discount from a competitor will "betray" the company without regret. Wherein "discount drug" - not the best program for stable business capable of destroying even solid veteran enterprises.

The traditional measures for building customer loyalty are considered to be a high level of service, customer incentive programs, a “fair price” for a product, studying customer satisfaction, receiving feedback, and staff training.

The most common customer loyalty programs in many business areas are bonus events , payment cards with discounts, premium privileges and so on. Not a single event for the formation of consumer loyalty is possible without an information array - customer databases , which contains confidential information about each consumer (name, contact information, age, gender, social status, hobbies, preferences, purchase history, etc.).

Any loyalty building event begins with answers to the following questions:

Who is our client?

What are his needs?

What problems does our product solve?

How does our company keep in touch with him?

Next, a specific loyalty program is developed that can attract the attention of the client and keep him in the company. For example, Russian retail chains give their customers accumulative bonus cards, with a short duration of action, thus tying them to stores. The client begins to play the "game" with the retailer, collecting points, accumulating bonuses when making purchases.

After a specific program has been implemented, a thorough analysis matching the level of expectations from the event to the actual attraction of new customers.

Customer Feedback

When a consumer likes something, he takes it for granted, as a pleasure. If the client is outraged by something, he will write a long complaint, tell his environment about it and thus “take away” potential customers from the company. Feedback from customers is one of the most important components of building customer loyalty. , because it gives food for thought both to the company that provided the service or sold the product, and to the client. After the money for the purchase has been credited to the account or to the cashier, client needs support, he must be sure that he took the right step, that he did not waste his time and finances in vain. The task of the company's staff is to ask after some time whether everything suits the purchase, whether there are any complaints, claims.

For the client, this can mean only one thing: he is understood, cared for, loved. For a company, receiving feedback is an opportunity to improve, to quickly make a decision to correct an error. The ancients wisely remarked: "It doesn't matter how many times you fall, it matters how many times you get up." A sane client will always be able to assess the degree of empathy, note the speed of response to his complaint or negative feedback, and remain loyal to such a company.

Feedback easily solves two important tasks: communicative and informational. Receiving information from the client, it is easy to track his expectations and needs, the level of their satisfaction after purchasing the company's product. The communicative task is solved by the very fact of feedback: the client is heard, not left alone with the problem that has arisen. That's why Feedback with customers is one of the most effective ways to build consumer loyalty.

A business that is not going to think about building customer loyalty events is doomed to near death. Today, the client, and only the client, votes for every business with their hard-earned money. The concept of "consumer loyalty" is slowly beginning to transform into a higher quality, acquiring the status relationship capital. Behind this term is not the distant future, but our today. It is important not to miss in the bustle of business the most important, the most valuable thing in the company - your client, His Majesty the Consumer, for the sake of which any business is started, without exception.

The dream of any entrepreneur is to increase the number of sales of goods or services offered to the consumer. In order to achieve a result, a businessman needs to answer two fundamental questions for himself: and how to win regular customers.

The answer to the first question is not as difficult as it seems. Usually, a business owner sets the goal of optimizing the business after opening his own business (sales outlet, salon, workshop, and so on). Therefore, we are only talking about the selection of goods within a deterministic assortment, which greatly simplifies the task.

A simple example can be given to support the thesis. Choosing to his taste, the entrepreneur decided to stop at the opening of a clothing and footwear store for children. It is quite logical that in this case, the basic assortment will include exactly items of clothing and a variety of shoes for children and teenagers, but not snowmobiles, winter tires or, for example, elite wine. The business owner can fill his outlet goods of different brands and price categories, without going beyond the boundaries of a predetermined assortment - otherwise the store simply will not be able to satisfy the needs of the target audience, which means it will be unprofitable.

The second question has recently become more and more relevant; the reason for this is the extremely intensified competition and, in large cities, an excess shopping centers and stores offering similar or identical products to the customer under different conditions. Of course, according to the theory of probability, customers will make purchases in each of the available stores, but the entrepreneur is not interested in the fundamental possibility of selling a product, but in a favorable distribution of the total number of sales.

This can be achieved in two ways:

• increase in the overall flow of customers;
• development of a base of regular (loyal) customers.

The achievement of the first goal is for the most part the implementation of large-scale advertising campaigns, covering the largest possible percentage of the target audience. Such actions will inevitably be costly: the business owner will have to pay for competent, placement of advertising materials in newspapers, on television, radio, on the Internet, and also, ideally, for the creation and promotion of relevant groups on social networks (SMM).

Oddly enough, you can cut costs by working on the second task in parallel. After all, a loyal client will most likely recommend the institution he likes to friends and acquaintances, acting as an advertising agent of his own free will and completely free of charge. So, by investing in loyalty programs for customers, the entrepreneur will achieve two goals at once. Nevertheless, one should not completely forget about traditional advertising campaigns: even a large number of regular customers does not guarantee a stable and constant increase in client flow.

Customer loyalty is...

There is no single definition of customer loyalty. Signs of loyalty include:

1. Willingness time after time to apply for a product or service to a chosen entrepreneur.
2. Higher frequency of purchases and/or referrals compared to the average customer.
3. The desire to use additional services and participate in promotions held by him (for example, to receive or purchase a loyalty card).
4. Increased resistance to offers from other entrepreneurs.
5. Willingness to make small sacrifices (wait for delivery, overpay a little) in order to receive a service or purchase goods from a favorite seller.
6. Emotional attachment to the institution / brand: the buyer recommends them to his friends and acquaintances, writes real reviews on social networks and websites, including leveling negative feedback dissatisfied or "custom" customers.

In conditions modern market it is important for an entrepreneur to understand that one passage and formation of a primary attachment is not enough: the mood of even a loyal customer can change quite quickly due to many factors.

For example, a loyal customer will be willing to put up with a slight delay in the delivery of a product they like - approximately 25-30% of the expected time. If an item should be delivered within 14 days, a loyal customer will wait 18-20 days without much dissatisfaction. However, if the waiting period exceeds 1-2 months, and this happens on an ongoing basis, the regular customer will almost certainly be lost.

The same situation is with the cost of goods. A loyal buyer is ready, for the sake of the special conditions offered by the seller, to overpay a certain amount (it is impossible to name the exact percentage in this case), but within reasonable limits. A product for 20,000 rubles, if its price in another store is 10,000 rubles, will not be purchased even by the most regular customer.

It is especially important to maintain the quality of products or services. A variety of loyalty programs are used to develop a base of regular customers.

The loyalty program is...

A loyalty program is a set of activities aimed at creating a stable emotional and behavioral attachment of a client to a brand / retail outlet / establishment.

There are three main types of programs:

1. Bonus loyalty program. For each purchase, the client receives bonuses in the form of points, points, and so on, in order to exchange them for a real purchase or service in the future.
2. Discount program. A regular customer receives a document (usually a plastic discount card) giving the right to further purchase goods (any or from a limited list) at a discount.
3. Accumulative program. In contrast to the bonus, the client receives an additional product or service (for example, free shipping) when the total amount of his previous purchases reaches a certain mark.

Increasing customer loyalty can be achieved without the involvement of professional marketers: now on the Internet you can find many examples of successful programs and, applying them to a specific situation, achieve success.

This is especially true for small settlements with relatively low levels of competition (and sometimes even a complete lack of it). For example, when deciding, an entrepreneur should first of all pay attention to unoccupied or underemployed niches - in particular, computer equipment. In the conditions of a small settlement, all the more remote from the regional center, such a store, with the likely absence of competition, will be in demand among young people and middle-aged people who do not want to spend time traveling to a big city.

The situation is more complicated in large cities, in which any new institution is doomed to compete with existing ones. In such a situation, simply copying a loyalty system that has worked for a third party for customers will not be enough, and it is best for an entrepreneur to resort to the services of a marketer, advertising manager and other specialists.

Stages of becoming a loyal customer

The buyer will not become loyal after the first purchase, not to mention a simple visit to the establishment. The formation of customer loyalty occurs in several stages:

1. First visit.
2. One-time purchase.
3. Repurchase.
4. Attachment to the store.
5. Loyalty.

Single visit

A variety of factors can encourage a potential buyer to visit:

• targeted advertising;
• recommendations of relatives or friends;
• simple curiosity.

Having visited the store and familiarized with the assortment, the visitor can come to one of three decisions:

• buy nothing;
• buy something, but later;
• buy the product you like right now.

In the latter case, it is already possible to start talking about the formation of loyalty, but no guarantees can be given. The buyer may not like the quality of the purchased product (or service) or service. In addition, the location (too far from home or in an inhospitable area), opening hours, or other factors may be unacceptable to him. In the end, the client can be poached by competitors - for example, more low prices or attractive offers.

In other words, you can start fighting for customer loyalty already with the first purchase, but you should not rely on it. Advertising brochures, online mailings, offers to participate in discount promotions for newcomers, and so on can serve as campaign materials.

Returning client

After a customer has purchased a product or service and was satisfied with the quality of the purchase and service, he is about 25% likely to think about visiting the store again. Having returned and made a purchase again, the buyer moves on to the third stage of loyalty formation.

Returning customer

Gradually, a person ceases to purchase relevant goods or services from competitors, giving preference to his favorite institution. Such a customer is called a returning customer and, as statistics show, makes purchases 45% more often than first-time visitors.

Loyal customer

This term refers to a buyer who is emotionally and behaviorally attached to a particular brand or store, ready to defend it, objecting to critics, and recommend it to relatives and friends. At this stage, the formation of loyalty can be considered complete, but there is still no need to relax: a gradual deterioration in the quality of goods and services or, for example, the emergence of competitors with a more attractive offer can lead to an outflow of not only one-time customers, but also regular customers.

Loyalty programs for customers - examples

For example, we can consider two loyalty programs - successful and unsuccessful:

• In the first case, an entrepreneur, when opening a new store, launches a wide range of advertising campaign. After the formation of a steady flow, it proceeds to weed out regular customers, offering visitors a bonus loyalty program that allows, upon accumulating a certain number of points, to receive one unit of a mid-price product for free or for a small surcharge. The overwhelming majority of clients will decide to participate in the program, but at the same time, a minority will purposefully accumulate points (in this case, it is impossible to name the exact percentage, it depends on many factors). Having accumulated them and received the promised goods, the client will not only receive moral satisfaction from the purchase and service, but will also want to participate in the promotion again, and therefore, will make even more purchases. For customers who have collected the required number of points more than twice, the entrepreneur provides an additional discount without reducing the number of accumulated points. In this way, he will finally endear himself to the consumer, and he will bring new potentially loyal customers.
• An unsuccessful option for a loyalty program is to conduct a bonus promotion, but with restrictions on the range of goods sold or offered as a bonus (for example, an entrepreneur will try to sell unclaimed or low-quality products). Unnecessary goods simply will not sell out; Moreover, customers will not want to exchange honestly earned points for it. Another unfortunate example is the bar raised too high: if, in order to receive the simplest bonus, a client needs to buy goods for several tens of thousands of rubles, he will most likely simply consider participation in such a promotion inappropriate.

How to develop your loyalty program for customers?

Independent development of a loyalty program includes several basic steps:

1. Demand study. Before forming an offer, the entrepreneur needs to find out exactly what the buyer wants from him. For example, if the store sells children's clothing, it would be logical to arrange seasonal discounts on the summer clothes, swimwear and school uniforms.
2. Select the program format. The entrepreneur decides whether it will be bonus program, the participant of which, having accumulated the required number of points, will be able to exchange them for goods from a pre-compiled list, a discount one, the participant of which will be able to receive a discount on the purchased products, or some other type.
3. Specification of conditions. The business owner determines which products can be received under the promotion, the amount of points required to receive one or another item, or the gradation of discounts depending on arbitrary factors (total amount of purchases, time spent with the client).
4. Delivering information to the target audience. For this purpose, advertising activities are carried out in the media and on the Internet, banners are hung up, mailing lists are carried out in social networks and other actions are taken that correspond to the financial capabilities and needs of the entrepreneur.
5. Carrying out promotions and further retention of customers. It is important for an entrepreneur to fulfill all the promises given to him: to provide discounts, accrue bonuses and allow them to be realized. Otherwise, even the once positive brand reputation will be quickly lost, as will loyal customers. It is possible to restore the shaken situation in the future, but it will take a lot of time and require considerable financial investments.

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As you can see, the general principles of developing a loyalty program are quite simple and can be easily implemented by any business owner. All that is required of an entrepreneur is to correctly determine the direction of movement and conscientiously fulfill the obligations assumed. In this case (even with a relatively modest offer for a loyalty program), the flow of grateful customers will be ensured, and with it the long-awaited increase in sales.

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