Tips on maximising your customer loyalty

Johannesburg, South Africa  (08 Oct. 2008)  –  We are reaping the benefits of the industrial and technology revolutions, and are marching our way towards the next wave of change, the client revolution.

This was the view echoed by Andrew Clare, MD of Reliance and global customer intelligence guru at a recent breakfast hosted by SAS Institute. Clare highlighted the need for organisations to develop and unpack true customer value through the realisation of the importance of the customer, in order to remain competitive in today's market.

According to Clare: “Clients are your businesses greatest asset, without them no one would pay your salary.”

While most businesses work on the 80/20 rule whereby 20% of your customers bring in 80% of your profit, when you really look at it in terms of a 50/50 split, 50% of your customers bring in 115% of your profit which results in the remaining 50% diminishing your profits by 15%.

“What is often the reason for a business's demise is that they simply do not realise this aspect, clients are a market space and not a destination. There is a real need to create better relationships with your customers and to know them better.”

With a wealth of knowledge and experience in the customer intelligence space and having worked with a number of blue-chip companies, helping them to better understand their customers, Clare also emphasised how a business should go out of its way for clients. While your staff can only go out of their way for your business if they are emotionally and physically engaged in the business, the same can be said for customers.

“Most companies today have the wrong idea between people and technology as to which should come first in order to achieve business success in a declining global market,” adds Clare.

It is against this backdrop that Clare believes there is a need to put your customers first and grow the relationships between clients and corporations up to a trust-based relationship level.

“At the end of the day, customer intelligence is about giving your clients what they want. Very few businesses have meetings about how to make their clients successful and yet this should be the focus of any business,” says Mandie Esterhuyse, Customer Intelligence at SAS Institute. Following in a series of business focused events, the next customer intelligence business breakfast will be on 14 October and will play host to international speaker Gary Cokins at the Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg.

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