It’s critical that everybody in your organisation understands the loyalty ladder and how it helps to build better, more profitable business.
The first rung on the loyalty ladder is “suspects.” Suspects are people within your sphere of influence; in other words, people in reasonable proximity to your business who could possibly have a need for your product or service but most certainly don’t know about you. What you don’t know is whether they are in the market now or in the near future for what you’ve got.
So you need to push them up to the next rung of the loyalty ladder to “prospect.” Prospects are people who need or want what you have (and they are qualified prospects if they have the authority to make a purchase decision and can afford to pay for it). The way you turn suspects into prospects is through the traditional marketing approach. You can advertise for them, get them through effective promotion or attract them using public relations.
There is another way that is even more important that people often overlook and that’s word of mouth referral. If you’re smart you’ll get between 80 and 92% of your new prospects from word of mouth referrals.
Once your marketing proves effective you take your prospects to the next rung of the loyalty ladder and make them “customers.” Customers are people who purchase from you or use your services— once. Now for most businesses this is where the whole process finishes— sell them something, ignore them and never see them again. If you’re doing that you are missing out on an avalanche of profits from your business and that is to get one-time customers to come back again and again. By doing so you push them to the next rung and they become “clients.”
You see the difference between a customer and a client is that a client keeps on coming back. Your sacred mission in business, no matter what your business, what your product or your purchase cycle, is to turn one time buyers into repeat purchasers. Every member of the team should understand that really profitable business starts with getting people to come back.
If you do this well, by looking after them, staying in touch with them regularly and building the relationship they’ll become “friends” of your business. Its not unknown for friends to pop in and say “hello,” send you a Christmas card or invite you to family or business functions. People on the friends rung are great because they start to influence other people to your business. Some of them will climb to the next rung of the loyalty ladder and become “advocates.”
Advocates are people who actively refer people to your business. They are the people who generate word of mouth recommendations or third party endorsements. They are by far the most wonderful assets any business can have. (Remember, 80-92% of your business can come from this source.)
It’s then but a small climb for them to reach the top rung of the loyalty ladder and become “evangelists.” An evangelist is a person who recommends your business as the first port of call to solve any problem— whether you have the capability or not. They have the attitude that “if you don’t know the answer you’ll know somebody who does” and they believe other people should know about you too.
It’s very simple to turn suspects into raving evangelists. All it requires is a recognition that it can be done, the will to do so and the system to make it happen. Most importantly it’s a mindset— a mindset you and your team must have. Once you have that mindset and you’ve got the systems and the committed team in place to help people climb the loyalty ladder then you will soon retire to your ultimate desirable destination— those wonderful beaches of the world where life is absolutely fantastic!
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