 |
|||
|
|
It's time to invest. Developing your most valuable asset during tough economic times Comment on this newsletter at yastrow.com I still remember learning the definition of an asset in school: An asset is something from which your business will derive future benefit. So, in these tough economic times, where many forces are conspiring to hurt your business, it seems to make sense that we should take stock of our most valuable business assets. After all, it is our assets that will help us thrive in upcoming tough times. What are your most valuable business assets? Your machinery? Your buildings? Your cash? Your workforce? Sure, all of these are valuable, but I want to encourage you to consider another asset that is not only more valuable, but probably offers the most untapped potential of any of your other assets: The loyalty your customers have for you. Customer loyalty is the most valuable asset you have. At this very moment – right now! - your competitors are working aggressively to steal your customers. Your ability to weather this economic storm and, even more, to thrive in this economic storm, depends directly on your ability to nurture your customer relationships to the point where your customers wouldn’t think of leaving you for a better offer from a competitor. A customer who is truly loyal to you wants to be more, not less, involved with you. This is True Loyalty, where your customers are not only loyal to your deals, offers and promotions but, instead, are loyal to their relationship with you. Recognizing the value of your customer loyalty asset is only the first step. The most important next-step is doing something to maximize the value of this asset. Most companies pay lip service to the value of customer relationships and true customer loyalty. But most don’t do nearly enough to optimize this asset. Customer loyalty is not optimized by discounting prices or offering your customers rewards just because they have conducted transactions with you. In fact, promotional deals, although often useful, influence customers to focus on the wrong reasons for buying from you. Instead of buying because of the relationship, they buy because of the deal. Many of our current economic woes were created by bad investment decisions – sub-prime mortgages, loans to unqualified buyers, purchases of overpriced stocks, etc. The best way for you to thrive in these times is by making a series of smart investments in your most important asset: The customer loyalty that comes from strong, sustainable “We” relationships. Take Notice Think of a purchase you made over the last week from a store where you have been many times before. Did the store seem to value and recognize your long-term loyalty as a valuable business asset, or did they only focus on the value of the current transaction? What about other recent experiences you’ve had as a customer? Is your long-term loyalty recognized and valued? Do these businesses seem to value their relationship with you as much or more as they value the assets on their balance sheets? How do you compare? Now, let’s look at your business. Think about the conversations your company has been having about strategies to weather the coming economic storm. How many ideas have revolved around investing in improving customer relationships in order to create profit-inducing customer loyalty? Have these ideas been drowned out by talk of cutbacks, layoffs and reduced sales and marketing expense? Moreover, how much untapped latent profit is there in your existing customer relationships? Are you getting even a fraction of the potential customer loyalty you could be getting? What will your customers do when a competitor tries to entice them with rich promotional offers or prices lower than yours? Will they stick (loyally) with you or drop you to save a few bucks? Try this After making the assessments in the “How do your compare?” section above, make two lists of customers or groups of customers: 1. Those customers who have the most loyalty to you… these are the relationships you need to nurture and protect because they will be the most valuable, and most stabilizing, in rough economic waters. 2. Those customers with the most potential for improved loyalty… these are the customer relationships that are bursting with untapped latent profit, just waiting for your attention and relationship-building encounters to feed them and promote their growth. Next, put investments in these relationships at the top of your action plan for dealing with the crappy economy. Sure, you need to cut costs and limit other investments, but DO NOT sacrifice investments in customer relationships that produce True Loyalty. These investments are the key to your future success.
|
 |
Join
the conversation: Read More: Turning Customer Loyalty Upside Down
Buy Steve's new book, We: The Ideal Customer Relationship In
We, you will learn: We is both a manifesto and a how-to guide that will change the way you interact with customers ... and change the way your customers think about you.
Download your free ebook, Encounters: The Building Blocks of We Relationships Get More Steve See this newsletter in your browser Read newsletters from the archive Read Steve's first book, Brand Harmony, to understand the building blocks of True Loyalty...
|
  |
|||
© 2008 Steve Yastrow. All rights reserved. |
 |
||
How to create relationship-building encounters, instead of relationship-eroding
transactions 
