Customer loyalty starts with employee loyalty. If the online or bricks and mortar transaction isn’t memorable then they won’t tell their friends (a very important thing that I’ll cover in my last point).  You can imagine how many people I told about @groundespresso putting my name on their Cinnamon Swirls! 

Or how about the Apple store that reopened, ran after the little girl who’d saved her pocket money and treated her like a princess. She’ll be talking about that for years to come.  Wow experiences can span generations.

Ensure that every customer has a personal identification number. In every mail out, email marketing, transaction, loyalty card, uVoucher coupon make sure that the customer number can be recorded.  Once you have the recency, frequency and value then you can start to segment the top performing customers from the ones that need some work.

Also don’t be afraid to cut off the customers that no longer come back to you.  The important thing is to monitor the ones who are interacting with your brand. 

If you don’t have a customer database then you need to start, now. uVoucher provides a basic customer relationship management (CRM) system in all editions for free.  All your coupons and mailings go direct to that specific customer.  If a coupon has their name on it the chances of a positive response is higher.  

If you don’t think this is important then keep this in mind, Tesco are now concentrating not on a basic Clubcard offering but one that goes to the core of the customer and attempts to know them the best they can.  For the long term you need to do the same. 

If you own the data you can make better decisions. While the likes of Facebook and Twitter are great for maintaining a social feedback loop with your customers (assuming they are actually your customers, not just “likes”), it’s only part of the loop. You don’t own the data that they have on your customers, they do. Find ways to harvest and store the information. 

It’s not all about Big Data, even we know a thing or two about that, if you have quality data you can create quality outcomes for your customers.  If you have stock that will lose value today then you need to react in zero time, you know the domain and your customers, you know when’s best to strike with the offer. With quality data you can target the customers with an increased chance of spending. 

Run your own net promoter score system (NPS) and ask this question to your employees, “On a scale of 0-10 would you recommend us as a place to work?”.  Also ask your customers the same, “On a scale of 0 – 10 would you recommend our product/store/brand?”.

Retailers can start doing the above for free by using uVoucher Free edition.  You can signup at http://www.uvoucher.co.uk/pricing.jsp