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Sameness Is Killing Customer Loyalty
Learn the quickest way to overcome this appalling trend,
and have your customers compelled to do business with you and only you.
Sameness is killing the home furnishings industry. Consumers cannot tell one retailer apart from another. This is drastically affecting consumer loyalty. It is interesting to note that customer loyalty has been on a slippery slope downward since 1988. During that year, 48 percent of consumers said they were “loyal” to only one store. Today, that number has dropped to 21 percent. I hope you are awake by now! THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM.
Part of that same study, 89 percent of the customers who call themselves “loyal”, said they would definitely shop that same store first…Don’t get too excited… 85 percent of that same group of customers said that the second and third options all looked the Same. That is jolting. It is one of the main reasons the home furnishings industry is in turmoil. You might think that it is a good thing. Let me just clarify,
It’s Not.
The consumer is only returning to do business with your store because he or she cannot differentiate your store from the second or third option.
All that has to happen is someone to come along and differentiate themselves just enough to steal your customer, potentially for life. Think about all the money you lose by not keeping a customer for life. It’s thousands of dollars.
Take a step back and look at the home furnishings industry for a moment. The traditional way to do business has changed. The family owned business that has been around for 50 years, with fancy logos and cute jingles is no longer working. Big box retailers are camping around the corner, stealing your customers, and selling lower quality and lower items. Imports and the Internet have also caused the industry into a tailspin.
What does this mean? It means that if you want to strive and thrive today, it is imperative that you learn and implement ways drive customers into your store. You MUST learn not to be the same.
The way to do this is using the powerful strategies of emotional direct response marketing to compel your customers to do business with you and Only You.
This way you will truly differentiate yourself from your competition.
Learn The One Simple Way To
Infuse Cash Into Your Retail Store!
Luckily the “traffic” guys are here to save the day. One of the quickest ways to infuse cash into your retail store is by targeting your current and past customer base. It is appalling to me how many home furnishings retailers are not doing this. If you cannot differentiate yourself and compel your customer to do business with you above any and all other options regardless of price, you will lose customers.
Some have not even targeted their past customers once and they have been in business for over 10 years. If you have been fortunate to stay in business for that long without effectively targeting your current and past customers, keep reading the rest of this article.
In past articles and in the toolkit we provide, I talk about working more ON your business than IN your business. If you cannot sit down right now and list out 20 different ways that “truly” separate yourself from the competition, I would start to worry. Your number one priority as a business owner is to make money, and that happens through constantly bringing new and past paying customers in your door. You are the marketer behind your business, not a just a retailer of home furnishings.
If you do a good job at collecting your customer’s data and have a decent customer list built up, you are light years ahead of many retailers. However, this is like sitting on a goldmine and never mining for the gold. The first thing you should do if you have a customer list is to work on building a marketing campaign to bring in your current customers.
It is important to identify how often a customer returns to buy from you. Let’s say it’s 14 months. Now you can segment your list for those customers in the past five years that have not returned. They could have moved or simply you have not Given them a compelling reason to return.
For example, my wife and I went to one of our favorite restaurants this evening. Each time I go in, I ask them how is business. And they always reply that it could be better. I absolutely love this restaurant and the food. We always go back even though they do a horrible job at marketing to their current customer base (I am truly a loyal customer).
However, another family that lives close to us in our neighborhood spent over $3000 last year at this restaurant but they have not returned once this year. Why? Because they found a new restaurant that markets to them better. My favorite restaurant has lost $3000 a year because they don’t collect their customer’s data and constantly market to them. Customers are fickle and they quickly forget and change their habits.
It is Imperative that
You constantly remind your
customer that you are in business.
Next you start testing marketing pieces using emotional direct response marketing to compel them to return. Give them a reason to only choose YOU. Start today to look for ways to differentiate your company so you don’t look the same. Be different in your offer, your guarantee, and your advertising. Truly differentiate yourself. Then you will have customers staying loyal to you for life, constantly spending their money with You. The CD I’ve sent with the newsletter will help you do it.
So start today to segment your customer list and create a campaign to market to your current customers. If you don’t have a list, start to collect their data and build one. This is the fastest way, if done correctly, to infuse fast cash into your business.
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