The one list your business doesn’t want to be on

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There are many “top” lists and “worst of” lists, but ending up on the Customer Service Hall of Shame list may be the last list that any business wants to appear on.

As usual 3 of the top 5 offenders are cable/satellite providers while businesses from the financial industry and telecomm round out the top. Most of the reasons these companies are consistently ranked worst in customer satisfaction are well within their control. However, in many instances customer dissatisfaction is tied to issues that the company is not quite responsible for but also may not be handling well.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure”

The only way for businesses to achieve and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction is through expertly designed survey research. Through surveys organizations are able to understand what drives satisfaction and understand what is fixable and what concerns may need to be mitigated because of issues out of their hands.

It’s out of our control

We think that a company sticking its head in the sand over issues out of their hands is simply a missed opportunity.

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Whether it’s 4-6 hour appointment times, and lack of competitive options in the TV provider industry, or government regulations like those found in financial service market many businesses have customers dissatisfied with issues that may be completely or partially out of their hands.

Showing your customers you care even about issues that are out of your hands provides opportunity to mitigate those concerns and come up with ways to offset those complaints. If you think that out of the realm of control issues aren’t a big deal look no further than the rate customers are “cutting the cord” when it comes to cable in favor of online options and how many different banking options are available to consumers.

We can control it

The controllable metrics by which customer satisfaction are measured are the easiest ones to form strategies around improving.

These areas usually include things like employee courtesy and knowledge, wait times, problem resolution, clear billing practices, delivering on promises, etc. As you can see by this list each of these items controllable and most importantly fixable. Once these issues are identified steps can be taken to improve or even overhaul processes and strategies.

Understanding what drives customer satisfaction on issues that are controllable gives organizations the power to effect the change necessary to increase profitability through customer retention, loyalty, and lifetime value.

But it’s the industry standard!

As we all know certain industries are known for behavior that would be inexcusable in any other situation. To us, this is a massive opportunity for a company willing to not accept the status quo.

Imagine the 1 business out of a hundred that doesn’t accept treating its customers by industry standards and instead wows them. As opposed to believing this is the way its always been done and consumers don’t mind, they find out what causes dissatisfaction and they attack it.

Exceeding the standards set forth by the consumer, not the industry, is the way to monumental success. An organization that decides to go above and beyond what the industry has set forth is poised to gain massive market share and turn the competition upside down.

Uncontrollable, Controllable, or Standard

Whether it’s your organizations fault or not, satisfaction metrics have to be consistently measured and strategies need to be expertly formed to mitigate concerns, improve satisfaction, and rise above industry standards.

Big Buck Research & Analytics partners with clients big and small to understand customer concerns when it comes to issues both controllable and those that are out of a company’s hands. We identify the drivers behind customer satisfaction then jointly strategize with our clients to increase satisfaction, measure it over time and put in place the necessary steps to ensure long term success.

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Customer Service Hall of Shame Article from Yahoo http://finance.yahoo.com/news/customer-hall-shame-151103637.html

 

 

Why measure customer satisfaction?

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Most, if not all companies measure customer satisfaction in one way or another. The question is why do they do it? The easy answer is because they want to make sure their customers are happy enough to buy from them again and besides, everyone else is doing it!

There’s got to be more to it right? Let’s take a look beyond the obvious answers and really see why companies measure customer satisfaction.

Why oh why?

If we look at the best customer satisfaction programs they are lead by businesses that put the customer first. Customer centric organizations view satisfaction measurement as a means rather than an end. It’s a vital piece that goes towards continuous improvement and part of the toolbox in gaining a total picture of customers.

Here is our list of why businesses should be constantly monitoring satisfaction, and what can be gained from doing so:

  • Efficiency
    When a business understands how satisfied its customers are and why, they can focus time and resources in the most efficient manner.
  • Reliability
    The only real way to get to customers true feelings is through independent anonymous surveys. Without surveying a customer base it has been found that only 4% of dissatisfied  customers will complain. The rest never complain and most likely won’t do business with that company again.
  • Loyalty
    Customer satisfaction is the best indicator of how likely a customer will make a purchase in the future. Ensuring that a client is satisfied with every point of interaction is a process that leads to loyalty down the road.

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  • Comparison
    By continually monitoring satisfaction, businesses are able to compare results over time to competitors, against industry standards, by locations and understand what works and what doesn’t. This is called benchmarking and must be done to ensure long term success.
  • Increase Retention/Reduce Churn
    The number one reason for churn is not price, it’s poor customer service. By measuring and tracking customer satisfaction organizations can put new processes in place to increase the overall quality of customer satisfaction.
  • Cost Effective
    It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one. Therefore ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction lowers acquisition costs and frees up resources once spent on customer acquisition.

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  • Increase Lifetime Value
    Satisfied customers stay with businesses longer purchasing more from that business. What may not be obvious to many organizations is what the difference between “satisfied” and “very satisfied” can mean for their business: Xerox found that customers who rated them a 5 instead of a 4 on a 5-point satisfaction scale were SIX TIMES more likely to buy more products! The Harvard Business Review is quoted as saying “The gulf between satisfied customers and completely satisfied customers can swallow a business.”

The Bottom Line

Whether your business has millions of customers or hundreds, keeping a vigilant watch over customer satisfaction means the difference between success and failure. The top companies operate from a customer centric point of view knowing that customer satisfaction research provides an integral piece to the profitability, efficiency and overall fate of their organizations.

If you have questions about your current customer satisfaction strategies or are curious about implementation, give Big Buck Research & Analytics a call. We build research tools, gather results, and team with our clients to strategize in order to meet needs and build long term very satisfied customer bases.

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Read 75 customer service facts and quotes http://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/

Read Measuring and Managing Customer Satisfaction  http://www.qualitydigest.com/magazine/2000/sep/article/measuring-and-managing-customer-satisfaction.html#

The myth that baseball believed since it’s inception

01-5-baseball-myths-take-me-out-ballgame-670 We are constantly thinking about how we can improve our firm and better help our clients achieve their goals. Often we find concepts that can be directly applied to the business world and leveraged to assist our clients in material that has nothing to do with business.

Recently we took a look at an article that one of our team members read over a year ago from Grantland.com. The author decided to look at whether a first pitch strike to a batter had as big of an impact as everyone assumed it did (non-business related, right?).


For those that aren’t baseball fans here is a brief rundown of the idea:

It has been assumed that the first pitch was the most important pitch of the entire at bat. The thought has been that by getting 1 strike instead of a “ball” on the first pitch of an at bat, the result of the outcome dramatically tips in favor of the pitcher. If the first pitch is a ball, then it is believed that the batter has a distinct advantage. This has been a hard “fact” in baseball since people started hitting a ball with a bat.


The problem with this long held belief is that no one ever bothered to look at the data to see if it was true. After analyzing the statistics, author Joe Lemire found that this edict that every team in baseball had followed for more than a century was “more mythical than material.”

How does this apply to business?

It struck us while reading this article that just like baseball teams, many organization leaders we meet with operate on long held beliefs that have never been tested or analyzed. Beliefs that can slow growth, cause stagnation, or even worse start an unrecoverable decline. We’re not suggesting that you throw out concepts like hard work and integrity that built your business, but if you haven’t tested your strategies and notions, what potential “myths” are you running on?

Maybe myth is a strong word for the notions that many businesses operate from, but without knowing what your customers care about, how your business is perceived to be different from the competition, and if you’re meeting expectations; how can you truly dispel “myths” that are wasting your business’ time, and resources. Finding the answers to questions like these are what enables a business to focus on reality and move past the competition.

Just think about all of those baseball teams believing in the same thing…what if your business actually moved past belief and KNEW the answers, how far ahead of the game would that put your organization? How much more focused would your time and resources be? What kind of advantage over the competition would you have?

Big Buck Research & Analytics takes an objective outside look at our clients’ situations and provides actionable recommendations based on real analysis of hard data. Maybe it’s time you talked with a 3rd party to make sure you’re not operating on a myth or untested belief that’s holding your organization back.

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To read more about the myth of the first strike: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/debunking-mlb-first-pitch-strike-myth/

What is “the next level” for your business?

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Often we hear business owners and stakeholders talk about “taking their business to the next level” or their business needs to “take the next step.” They’re ubiquitous phrases that have different meanings to each person that says them yet they all mean progress. How it’s achieved and what needs to be done to get there is what remains.

What happens more often than not is that business leaders have the nagging feeling that there is untapped potential for their organization, they’re just not sure how to capitalize on it. It doesn’t have to mean that a company is stuck at a certain hurdle or is failing. Even if things are going well, taking a business to the next level means moving forward and increasing growth through whichever means can be improved upon.

3 key steps

87,200,000 That’s the number of results you’ll get if you type “take your business to the next level” in to Google. Maybe you have the time to sort through those articles and find out which one speaks to your particular need, but most likely you don’t. We don’t know anyone who has that time so here are 3 basic components we have identified that every business can use to begin to solve the complex question of “how do we get to the next level?”

  1. Define the next level
    Almost always the next level means an increase in revenue/profits, but for your organization maybe it means something else. The important thing is that the next level is defined in concrete terms and numbers.
  2. Research, Analyze, Strategize
    Once you know how the next level is defined throw out any and all assumptions about how to reach it. Research and gather data from all areas of business including management, employees, customers, marketing, website, social media, and any other areas that are pertinent to how your organization operates. All of these produce mountains of information and data that can yield significant areas of opportunity. Now you’re ready to strategize and capitalize on any area(s) that need improving.
  3. Test & Measure
    It’s vital to continually test and measure the strategy against Key Performance Indicators. By gathering data and information progress towards that next level can be monitored and measured. Improvements can be made and some new areas of opportunity may be found.

Although these are very basic key steps that any business can use to start the process, we feel that it’s important to consider working with an independent 3rd party firm. Hiring an outside party can bring new insights to your organization and shed light on opportunities without bias or assumption. Too often businesses make decisions based off of gut instincts or tainted data and instead of taking their business to the next level, they’re scrambling to stay above water.

Next-Level

It may mean a different thing to your business than it does to the business next door. But in the minds of Big Buck Research & Analytics, what isn’t different is the way of getting to that next level. It’s achieved through defined goals, scientific impartial research & data analysis, strategies based squarely from those results, and continual gathering and assessment of information.

If you find your organization guessing at what will propel it to the next level, or trying old strategies only to find yourself having to overcome the same hurdles again and again, call us. Everyday Big Buck Research & Analytics helps clients uncover untapped areas for growth so they can take that next step to reach that next level, and put hurdles in the rearview for good.

 

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Run your nonprofit like a business

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In order to achieve their goals, nonprofit organizations today more than ever must operate with a for profit outlook. Without bottom-line driven business strategies in place, organizations run the risk of failing to meet their stated objectives and helping those that need their assistance. 

Through our work on nonprofit boards and as independent 3rd party partners, Big Buck Research & Analytics has identified a clear path to success for nonprofits: it’s achieved through sound market research, analysis of data, and most importantly a leveraging of the insights gained. We view nonprofit groups in many of the same ways we view for profit organizations. Donors aren’t all that different than customers and whether you’re for-profit or nonprofit, time and money must be spent wisely.

Succeeding in business

Businesses know that success is dependent on their ability to gain and keep customers. Operating under this premise, these enterprises get to know their customer base inside and out. Companies use survey tools and customer data to identify characteristics of customers based on needs, sensitivities, preferences, habits, and demographics. This allows them to intelligently target efforts to retain existing customers, as well as make efficient prospecting efforts in attaining more consumers.

Knowing their customers isn’t enough for the top companies in the world, they also ensure customers are more than just satisfied. Successful businesses aim to meet the needs of their consumers, and stay abreast of customers’ changing attitudes and behaviors so that they are able to consistently rise to meet them.

Succeeding with a nonprofit

Nonprofit organizations start and end with donors. In order for a nonprofit group to succeed over the long-term, they must keep existing donors, ensure goals are being met, and ensure a steady flow of incoming contributions. We have a simple list of questions that must be answered in order for a nonprofit group to have sustained growth and sustained success. The list is broken down in to 2 groups, one that focuses on your “customers” or donors, and the second focuses on your nonprofit organization as a whole.

Donors:

  • How many do we have and who are they?
  • Who are our most valuable contributors? Do they have similar traits?
  • What’s going on with our lapsed donors?
  • What did our donors think of the last fundraising event?
  • Do our benefactors understand where their money goes?
  • What issues do they care about?

By understanding donor information your group is able to efficiently target new people that are most likely to contribute, re-engage lapsed donors, develop donors into long-time contributors, increase donor satisfaction, and meet benefactors’ concerns.

The Nonprofit Organization:

  • Is our group making the impact we want to?
  • Are their others in need of aid?
  • How aware is the general public of our group?
  • What is the perception of our group by both donors and non-donors?

The information gleaned from these questions allows your organization to focus on key strategies to develop awareness, increase positive opinions, ensure that those in need are being helped by the groups efforts, and target new areas of aid that are needed.

The purpose

Big Buck Research & Analytics is not out to change nonprofit groups in to greed driven monsters void of all goodwill, instead we want to ensure that they’re run in the most efficient way possible. By doing this, money and time are saved and organizations impact the causes they support in the most significant way possible.

Give us a call today, our first hand experience gives us insight in to the concerns that nonprofits have both financial and otherwise. We’d love to help you better serve the ones you help.

 

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How’s your loyalty program? (part 3 of 3)

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After looking at the impact of loyalty programs (pt1), and the variety of them (pt2) today we wrap up our series by looking at the following:

  • What is true loyalty?
  • The difference between successful and unsuccessful loyalty programs.
  • How to implement a strategy to launch a successful loyalty program.
  • How Big Buck Research & Analytics looks at loyalty.
  • 3 Key stats.

True Loyalty

It’s more than buying 10 terrible sandwiches in order to receive the reward of eating an eleventh terrible sandwich for free. It’s more than spending hundreds of dollars accumulating points at your favorite grocer in order to save a few cents on gasoline. True loyalty gives the customer a deep connection to the brand based off trust and shared values with the company. When a customer feels true loyalty they resist the temptation to shop elsewhere despite cheaper options or incentives because they feel connected to a brand or company.

Successful v. Unsuccessful

The most common reasons we see that cause loyalty programs to be unsuccessful are businesses doesn’t understand their customers and they don’t know how to capture relevant data or what to do with it. Whether it’s offering free items that the customers don’t care about, having a complicated system to earn rewards, or having unattainable benefits. The typical loyalty program creates no loyalty at all. In fact, it can turn consumers away.

Successful loyalty programs have a few common themes all starting with the business understanding its customers. After they truly know their customers the loyalty program offers value to the customer beyond discounts or freebies, it uses customer data to engage the consumers as individuals, and it creates a win-win for the customers.

Key Strategies

Before setting out to launch or revamp a loyalty program it’s vital to know what problem is trying to be solved. Maybe your customers don’t shop with your business as much as you’d like, you need to get news out about a new product, or perhaps you’d like your customers to share more about your business on social media.

Next find out who your customers are, how they use your product/service, what they think of it, when they use it, and what really matters to them inside and outside of your business. It’s important to dive deep in understanding your customers, a complete 360 view of your consumers is vital.

Finally determine how you will define the success of your loyalty program and how will you measure that success. Without having measurable and trackable indicators there is no way to determine the progress towards succeeding on your defined goal.

Our view

As noted, one of the most important first steps to having a successful loyalty program is knowing who your customers are and what motivates them. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as asking “Who are you? What do you want?” The only way to get to the root of what your customers value and what drives their decisions is by conducting skilled market research. Through market research a picture emerges of who customers are, what they like/dislike, how they use your product, and what motivates them beyond giveaways or discounts (which erode your margins and yield no true loyalty) Diving deep in getting to know customers allows a business to construct a lasting loyalty program around what their customers truly value. To stay ahead of the curve and in tune with your customer base market research must be ongoing this way as perceptions and desires change, your program can adapt and achieve lasting success.

After surveying your customers and launching the loyalty program the next step is collecting and analyzing data. Without data, your program is destined for the growing dusty heap of forgotten loyalty cards in your customers drawer. Big Buck Research & Analytics views data as the rocket fuel behind long term successful loyalty programs. Once the program is designed around your consumers collecting data is simple. Basic data comes through the sign up process, but significant and usable data comes as they continue to shop with your company while using the loyalty program. Each time loyalty program members interact with your business a snapshot of that customer and their data is produced. This allows businesses to identify individual customers then measure and understand their behavior. The data can be leveraged for many things such as increasing customer frequency, ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction, targeting profitable prospects, increasing marketing ROI, and reducing customer churn. But we believe that in order to build true loyalty it must be used for the customers benefit first. Analyzing the data with the customer in mind first gives the business the opportunity to give their consumers a more meaningful experience. Because the customer is first, they have the feeling that not only do they matter to the business, but the business understands them as individuals. This is where a connection and true loyalty starts to form.

We’ll leave you with a few stats:

  • 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs.
  • 80% feel that brands do not recognize them as individuals.
  • 35% of customers say that the communications they receive from their favorite brands is relevant.

To us these stats reveal massive opportunities for organizations to capitalize on. In order to overcome fleeting loyalty businesses must make sure their programs are designed around the customer and engage them in meaningful ways that inspire a real connection. Because Big Buck Research & Analytics provides both market research and database analytics we are uniquely positioned to be a single source partner to our clients’ looking to implement or improve loyalty programs. It doesn’t matter what your budget is, what your business goals are, or what type of program you want to implement. What matters is the expertise Big Buck Research & Analytics brings in identifying the pulse of your customer base and the knowledge we have in leveraging data to benefit our clients and their customers.

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Nearly 25% Of iTunes users are listening to U2 ?

A staggering statistic to be sure. No offense to U2, but we wondered if we were that out of touch with pop music. After some very simple review we found the problem is this statistic doesn’t tell the whole story. In fact it’s misleading, inaccurate, and deceptive.

In this study it was revealed that more iPhone users listen to U2 (23%) than Taylor Swift (2nd on the list at 11%) and Katy Perry (3rd on the list at 8%) COMBINED! Are warning bells going off for any of you?

The issue we have with this study starts here:

As part of the release of Apple’s iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, U2’s album Songs of Innocence was automatically added to every iTunes account in the world. How many iTunes accounts are there? It’s a tough number to find, but the total sales of iPad as of late 2014: 225 million and iPhone as of March 2015: 700 million.

Here’s another whopper, 95% of iTunes users listened to one or more of the tracks from the album! Again, let’s remember, the album was automatically uploaded to every single iTunes account in the world without notification or user permission. As of 2012, the average iTunes library consisted of 7,160 songs. Do you think there is any chance that users may have clicked the song wondering how it got there? Maybe while listening to their library on shuffle one of the songs was auto selected at some point before A) they knew it was on their phone and B) because initially Apple made it near impossible to delete from libraries it remained there for some period of time?

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“This is fantastic news. If these figures suggest that these songs still matter to people, then we’re knocked out…” — Bono (lead singer of U2)

Sorry Bono, all that these figures suggest is horribly flawed findings. Because the company behind the research didn’t dig deeper we’ll never know real results. However, it’s ridiculous to go in to this study knowing that the album was automatically uploaded to all iTunes accounts and not ask the respondents broader questions. Asking users if they actually chose to listen to a song by U2 would be one elementary way of getting to the real statistics. Two other simple questions: Did you know it was on your phone? Do you know how to delete the album?

If it seems like we’re a little upset about this study it’s because we are. We take the decisions our clients make from our findings very seriously. Problems arise when organizations (or in this case a band) find a statistic that is favorable to them and they decide not to dig any deeper. Big Buck Research & Analytics prides itself on seeing the whole picture and not accepting results at face value. We know businesses can’t afford to make decisions based off of flawed logic so we provide them real recommendations based off of the complete truth.

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How’s your loyalty program? (part 2)

In our introduction to loyalty programs last week, we looked at stats from Bond Brand Loyalty that show how important loyalty programs have become to loyalty-program-cardsbusinesses.

70% of consumers modify when and where they shop to maximize points. 33% of customers would not be loyal to a brand if it were not for a loyalty program.

This week we take a look at various types of loyalty programs and 2 examples of how companies use them.


Punch Card: This is the most basic form of loyalty that rewards customers with “punches” on a ticket real or virtual.

Spending Based: A direct form of loyalty tying dollars spent by the consumer to discounts or rewards.

Points Based: This system is based on accumulation. For every x amount of dollars spent the consumer gains x amount of points. When the customer reaches a specific threshold the points can be cashed in for a discount or free item.

Tiered: An approach based on segmenting customers in to tiers based upon spending habits, or frequency of interaction with the business. Each tier has more benefits/perks than the one previous thus encouraging an increase in customer frequency/spending amount.

Visit Program: This system is solely based on the amount of times a consumer visits the physical location of a business. This is useful for physical locations such as theme parks.

Gift Cards: Not traditionally thought of as loyalty programs, we certainly think they are. It’s been shown that consumers are more than twice as likely to pay full price when using a gift card. Additionally, when the card is redeemed it has been shown that customers generally spend more than what the gift card is worth.

Non Monetary Program: This plan rewards its customer base with non-cash, non-point related methods. Think of this as tapping in to your customers’ ideals and values.

Our favorite example of a non-monetary loyalty program is Toms Shoes. When Toms sells a pair of shoes, a new pair of shoes is given to an impoverished child, and when Toms sells a pair of eyewear part of the profit is used to save or restore the eyesight for people in developing countries. In 2015, TOMS Bag Collection was launched to help address the need for advancements in maternal health by providing training for skilled birth attendants and distributing birth kits.

Partnership: A strategic program that partners with another business with same values or has complimentary offerings.

Gamification: This is the most recent form of customer loyalty. It is based on earning badges, competition, achieving goals, leveling up, and community. Examples of these games can be found online from companies that encourage users to sign up, take quizzes, play product related games, watch videos, chat with other members etc.  The rewards can be as simple as virtual “badges” that can be shared on social media for mere bragging rights, or turned in for special perks or offers from the business.

Coffee giant Starbucks gave custom Foursquare badges to people who checked in at multiple locations and offered discounts to people who checked in most frequently at an individual store. The brand used gamification tactics to enhance the Starbuck’s experience and to boost sales as well. Players register for My Reward through an application. Every time they purchase a Starbucks product, they accumulate stars (which actually look like cups that are graphically filled in). But the game does not stop here. There are three “levels” depending on the degree of user loyalty. More frequent visits to a Starbucks store is awarded through an upgraded level. Examples of benefits include: an extra cup of coffee, a birthday gift or even offers designed specially for the customer.

Upfront fee for VIP: A system that charges the consumer to be part of a group of customers that receive perks and benefits that are highly desired. The most well known form of this type of loyalty program is Amazon’s Prime membership.


We’ve seen the importance of loyalty and the variety of the programs that businesses use. Next week we’ll put it all together. Join us to find out what it takes to have a successful loyalty program and what it can mean for your business.

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How’s your loyalty program?

130903_$BOX_LoyaltyCards_jpg_CROP_rectangle3-large  Whether it’s cheaper gas, free shipping, or discount coupons we all know the rewards we get as consumers from loyalty programs. The question is, what impact do loyalty programs have on the business? If recent findings from Bond Brand Loyalty are any indication, the impact of a successful program can be substantial.

  • 70% of consumers modify when and where they shop to maximize points. 
  • 33% of customers would not be loyal to a brand if it were not for a loyalty program.
  • 12% – 15% of customers are loyal to a single retailer, generating between 55%70% of company sales.
  • Loyalty programs have been found to be more important than overall price to consumers.

If your business doesn’t have a loyalty program, or your existing plan is failing it’s time to look at what a successful one can do for you. In the next few weeks we’ll have a series looking at the ins and outs of loyalty programs. We’ll also showcase a few strategies that we’ve used to help clients develop customer spending, increase customer retention, and leverage the data gained from loyalty programs.

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Are your customers successful?

“Customer success is where 90% of the revenue is” – Jason Lemkin

  • What is customer success?
  • How about an example?
  • How do you know if your customers are successful?
  • What does it mean for your company?

You’ve done the hard part, you’ve got the customer to buy your product or service, but what was the outcome? Did it fulfil the need that they had? Will they continue to use it? Did they feel like they were successful?

Customer success can be looked at as ensuring customers are on-boarded well, get the desired outcome from a product, continue to use that product, and over time are willing to pay more for enhancements or purchase additional products.

“if somebody is paying you $10 a month for your product, that’s great. You want them to pay $10 a month for as long as possible. But wouldn’t it be even better if they paid you $10, then $12, then $15, then $20 a month? That’s what we are working towards in customer success.”  – Lincoln Murphy

It doesn’t matter if you own a gym, provide tax advice, or sell business software. The outcome of the sales interaction must leave the customer feeling successful and it has to be ongoing. Let’s say you join a gym and right after you sign the contract they say “good luck!” and you’re left to your own devices. Maybe you lose a few pounds quickly, but just as quickly you plateau. Once the pounds stop coming off, you stop going as often and eventually quit that gym and find another place to work out or give up completely. The experience could have been vastly different if the gym had been invested in your success and understood what that would mean to their profits. In this scenario when you signed up, they showed you around the gym, provided instruction on how to use the equipment, and maybe offered a free session with a personal trainer. Fast forward a few months, you love this gym and the success you’ve had. Through market research, the gym knows that as their customers continue to be members they desire more than just typical workouts. They offer paid classes on nutrition, kickboxing, personal training sessions, even yoga and because you have had good success with them you don’t mind paying for additional services. Soon you’re a lifetime member and huge advocate for the gym. The best part for them is that you’re spending more than you did when you joined and you’re providing free word of mouth advertising to anyone that will listen!

To know what makes your customers feel successful, ASK THEM!

There are a few problems with the statement above. First, you have to know what to ask and how to ask them in order to understand what truly makes them successful. If it were only as simple as, “what do you want our product to do for you?” every company would do that and be hugely successful. For various psychological reasons people don’t accurately express their true desires when asked such direct questions. It’s also important to think about who you ask; only asking very happy customers or very unhappy customers will slant your results in the wrong direction. Another significant point is people’s reluctance to give candid answers to questions that are posed by the company directly. Hiring an independent 3rd party research firm that knows the science and psychology of surveying a customer base is vital to ensuring the accuracy of a customer success initiative.

Whether you’re selling gym memberships or widgets customer success has significant implications to the bottom line of a business. Big Buck Research & Analytics works closely with our clients to not only find out if their customers’ are successful, but how can the level of success be improved and where are opportunities for growth. Call us today to find out how customer success impacts your customer acquisition costs, churn rate, the lifetime value of your customers, and how taking the right steps towards customer success equals business success.