What makes a loyalty customer? You the business owner do… you who manages your business in a way that makes your customer the main focus of your efforts… with perhaps the exception of your focus on staff who actually provide that high level of service.

Why are Loyal Customers such an asset to your business? Not only do they become a regular source of repeat business, but they also encourage their friends and others to become your customers as well. That’s all no-cost marketing for you, also known as word-of-mouth promotion.

Get into the mind of your customer

A loyal customer recognises the value of what you do or provide for them to meet their needs or solve their problems in your field. Generally it’s not the bland statements carelessly thrown around of providing “Service, Price and Quality”…

Research has shown that what customers like, and what brings them back to your business time and again, is a consistent level of (preferably high) performance with a predictable experience at each visit.

The closer your service or product is to the actual person or their intimate surroundings, the more important it is that your customer receives the service they expect. If you have attended a regular body service… hairdresser, manicurist, podiatrist, even a dentist… and each visit results in a different way of attending to you, it can be quite unsettling.

Even visits to motels can disappoint! Your first visit is enjoyable with some extras included, but your following visits see some or none of the extras, and even some of the basics come and go. What message does this give you… that you are not appreciated, and it’s too much bother for the owner to provide a consistently good standard of service.

How the Pareto Principle affects your business

The business that extends loyalty to its customers will as a general rule find that their loyalty is reciprocated by discerning and principled customers. These loyal (and profitable) customers then make up the Pareto Principle (80/20) 20% of your customers who do and should receive the most attention and effort to nurture their further custom.

When customers talk… do you listen?

Another benefit of developing and nurturing loyalty customers is that they will often be prepared to give you honest answers and input to your business regarding performance fluctuations and improvements. Such comments are the most valuable you can receive, because for a customer to go to those lengths it means they care about your success… almost surrogate owners!

Never reject any loyal customer who is prepared to speak to you about such matters… or they will never offer again. Treat them as the valuable asset they indeed are… if you can’t appreciate that you should probably not be a business owner!

“Sell a service… I’m a XXXXX, what have I got to sell?”

So you have a service business and you are developing your print material. Now is the time to adjust your perception of what it is your business can offer your clients or customers… to make selling easier for you and more beneficial for them.

Here’s how to make a shift in your thinking…

The key word to investigate is “PACKAGE”. What is it about your particular business, or your industry that you can develop into a “package” of service components, and then promote in print as a “product”?

For your “package” or “product” to be attractive to your clients it MUST address the problem(s) they have that your product will fix or remove. So you can see that you have to look past the tasks you actually perform in your job, and instead think in “customer talk”.

When you or your copywriter set out to write your advertisements, sales information, and similar printed material you can now include in your headlines “This is your problem that I am going to fix”.

Is this your type of business?

For example… a computer repair shop could say “Computer downtime costs you sales and customers… our service package prevents these disasters by…” Then detail the package you have designed to perform the tasks that prevent their pain.

Isn’t that more effective than just saying “We fix computers”, or worse, “Bill Bloggs Computer Service”? When you take the easy path you are in effect saying… “when your computer breaks and you are tearing your hair out because of lost sales, then give us a call and we’ll show up in a day or two!”

Or do you provide a professional service like this?

How about the situation if you are an accountant? Do you operate in the “see you next year Bob” mode so that your clients see you as a cost and not a benefit to them? Once a year at tax time is what they expect from you? They can go broke in that 12 months!

Not many SME business owners are competent finance managers. What they really need is a package of your services to monitor their cash flow, profit and loss figures, and to get some sound advice on balancing their expenditure to get better profit from their labours.

Build those functions into a package and advertise… “Stop your profits bleeding away… our business monitoring system keeps your bank balance healthy”.



Now you get the idea… go over your operations and see what functions you can combine into a package or product that is profitable for you and is a life saver for your clients. Then you have the ideal headline to put into print and drive your business to greater profits.

So you want to run some print advertising, either in the newspaper or by means of flyers from your favourite printer…

So often the business owner gives the advertising department or local printer a few details and leaves it up to them to come up with a “pretty” advert or design. My best advice to you is… DON’T DO THAT… because the result is usually a waste of your money in terms of getting results! There are media and printers who do know how to produce good advertising, but if you don’t want to use a professional, then unless you do your homework on your local printers you risk ending up with ineffective (hence expensive) advertising.

So what are some of the DON’Ts you should avoid?

Unless your business is a household name, DON’T make your business name the principal feature of your ad – if your copy is of sufficient interest to the reader they will look for your name. Instead, use that space for compelling words such as a targeted headline or strong body copy.



DON’T assume the reader knows your business or what it can do for them. If you employed a salesperson who only grunted a handful of words at each customer I suspect you would be less than happy with them. Make your adverts sell like a competent salesperson.



DON’T use technical or specialist jargon unless you specifically target buyers who immediately know what they are reading about. Prime offenders are car sales and computer sales…Granny wants a computer to surf a little and email friends… all the specifications you list mean squat to her!



DON’T make the reader guess what to do next. Tell them what you expect them to do… visit, phone, email, send in a coupon… because if you don’t tell them chances are they will do… you guessed it… NOTHING!



DON’T neglect to give the reader as many options as possible to be able to contact you… and make sure there is someone knowledgeable available to be contacted! Balance their needs and skills with the best options for you… a phone number or two, street address if appropriate, fax number, email address, website address… make it as convenient as you can for your customer.



DON’T forget to build into your advert an opportunity to build on any initial interest by encouraging the reader to provide you with their contact details. So if the time is not right for them to purchase right now you can contact them! Perhaps a time limited offer based on the registration of their interest… then you can contact them at a later date. You may provide a free sample or special information in exchange for their contact details.



DON’T fall for the old “lots of white space” hoax… tell your story on the page and give enough detail so that the reader knows what, how, where, when, and who can meet their needs.

Do it well and reap the rewards…

Customer Marketing tends to be the focus when things aren’t going too good in a business… is that your experience? Really though, it’s a bit late at that point and harder to achieve the desired results.

So when should customer marketing commence? ..Right at the concept stage of a business, and before any investment in bricks and mortar or equipment, stock, etc, takes place.

Let’s take a look at the fundamentals…

1. Customer demand… is there a big enough demand for your product/service to produce and sustain a viable business?




2. Location… do your prospects live within the catchment area of your business, or can you economically reach them?




3. Presentation… is the appearance of your business one that customers would find acceptable for your type of business?




4. Staffing… are your proposed staff numbers sufficient to meet customer requirements and will your staff possess suitable knowledge and be properly trained?




5. Stock mix… will you carry the appropriate range of products or services for your type of business, and in sufficient quantity to satisfy demand?




6. Procedures… have you arranged your policies for setting pricing, payment options, credits, refunds, replacements, specials, lay-by requirements?

Well that’s most, not all, of the boring things that you should be in control of before you turn to what is generally considered to be marketing… the clever, attention grabbing, wow-the-customer strategies that promise to stack money in your bank account!

But you can’t stop yet until this is done…

Hold it! Before you run your advertising or dash off to your printer… what is it you want your prospect to do?

If you don’t clearly know what you want your customer to do… how will they know what to do? Will you invite them to visit your premises.. do you want them to telephone you.. fill in a coupon or form.. give you their contact details..?

With solving their current problem in mind you can now construct an advertisement or printed promotional material that details how you will achieve their desired result, and exactly how they should respond to your invitation to do that.

Do you take advantage of past secrets?

Don’t be fooled by all the wonder schemes that promise to bring vast wealth by divulging to you “new” ideas! There are only two areas to be concerned with…



First… Marketing Strategies. Despite the sheer number of gurus offering the latest and greatest marketing ideas, the reality is that nothing has changed over the last few hundred years! Rather than spend heaps of money, almost everything you need to know is already in print, and has been for the past 100 years!

This is so because the basic needs of humans doesn’t change… we still all need food, clothing, shelter, love and a range of other emotional and physical requirements… just like our ancestors.



Second… Marketing Techniques. Here we do find change as we adapt to the constant development of aids and technology… from the peak days of printed advertising, then telephones, telex, fax, and the internet which has itself spawned a number of opportunities. But these only work because of the predictability of good old human, standard issue desires and needs, as mentioned above!

So work on the basics, understand your prospects or customers and then select the most appropriate and effective means of guiding them to the solution you can provide to their problems… Tell them about it, and you are marketing to your customers.

Customer experience is hard to pin down because it is usually a product of individual perception based on previous happenings… So how is the customer experience you provide in your business regarded by your customers or clients?

For many, their first impression of your business is through the advertising or printed matter you have distributed. And remember… their perception is reality to them, and it is very difficult to change a person’s perception.

Are you switched on at the start?

Right at that very first contact point you are starting to build an expectation in the minds of those reading or listening to what you have to say. If you say nothing about what your prospects can expect from their contact with your business, they will form their own opinion which means you are not in control of the situation.

What if you use generalities such as “Great Service”, “Best Prices”, “Top Quality”? These terms in themselves are so overused as to be meaningless… unless you back up each statement with cold hard facts to prove your claim!

I have yet to find a business owner who says that he/she provides “Lousy Service” with “Terrible Prices” and offers “Poor Quality” products! Yet your customer or client could be thinking just that about your business, and add your business to their “don’t-do-business-there” list.

Discover your customer service standard

If you want to find out how your customer service is regarded, one way is for you to use a “mystery shopper” strategy, where a person unknown to you concludes one or more transactions and then reports back on their experience.

Another way is to have a third party facilitated Customer Focus Group, where a number of regular customers are invited to express their thoughts to an impartial interviewer. Afterward you will be given a report on the realities of your customers’ experiences when using your services or products.

Once you have swallowed what may be a “bitter pill of truth” about your business you are in a position to create or modify your advertising and promotional material to correct misconceptions or any real problems revealed.

And now to fix the problems

But unless you change the behaviour or mindset that caused the problems in the first place you are defeating yourself by creating even more false expectations for your clients with your new claims!

Finally, you may find it very informative to review the advertising and printed material from a successful local business similar to your own. Get yourself on their mailing list if they have one, become a customer of theirs, and ask your customers their opinion of your competition.

When you adopt some or all of these strategies your business can only become a more attractive place to your present and future customers.