Identify your most profitable customers. They are the ones from whom you want more loyalty. You certainly don’t want a lot of loyal but unprofitable customers. Use your CRM system to segment your customers and prospects according to potential: what do they have, what do they need, what is the potential for an up- or cross- sell, how profitable is the relationship.

Be aware of how much (more) loyalty a customer can give. No matter what your product is and how much the customer LOVES you and your organization, if they already have everything, the potential for additional sales is probably limited. Likewise, if they LOVE you but use of your product is not convenient, they just can’t give you any (more) loyalty. In the webinar, the example given was Delta Airlines. The speaker likes Delta just fine, but Delta doesn’t have the flights she needs from her home airport. Even though she is willing to give Delta more loyalty, it doesn’t make sense.

These two points offer a great foundation for a simple three-point loyalty program.

1. Start by identifying the best opportunities for new or repeat business. These are profitable customers who still have loyalty to give. Now that you know who you want more business from, you can use the data in your CRM to provide unexpected customer service to these key, high potential accounts. For example, note key dates like birthdays and anniversaries, and send cards. Note hobbies and interests and forward articles in the paper or from the Web that your customer might enjoy. Even if she already saw it, she will appreciate the effort.
   
   
2. Don’t neglect your happy customers who already have everything. They are your best advocates and you certainly don’t want them to succumb to a competitive offer. But don’t waste time trying to squeeze blood from a stone either. If they aren’t in market, they aren’t in market. Just make sure customer service levels stay high high high for these accounts. And stay in touch. More than likely, they will need something someday. Maybe even soon. Or somebody they know might need something. A happy customer is the best referral.
   
   
3. Be an active advocate for CRM. Keep it updated. Make sure others do as well. It is the key to providing stellar customer service at all levels, in all locations, across all lines of business, to your valuable customers. Nothing makes your organization look worse than when one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. An example. We recently refinanced our home. The day after the closing, the mortgage company called. A courtesy call? Nope. It was someone calling to find out about our mortgage needs. Ouch. Not that big a deal, but what if that call came before the close? Might have made us think twice about the firm. By the way, it took more than a month for the actual courtesy call.
   

But how do you motivate others to keep that CRM goldmine updated? Thank them tangibly when they do. When they provide a service or answer a question for your customer, and update the CRM, send them a $5 Starbucks (or Dunkin’ Donuts or whatever) gift certificate. A small gesture that will return far more than the gift certificates cost you.

Do you have additional ideas on how to maximize customer loyalty? I’d love to hear them. Email me at sgetgood@getgood.com, and please be sure to include your contact information.

Naked Conversations is blog evangelism, full stop. Well written, and generally backed up with good examples, but it starts, and ends, with the premise that blogs are intrinsically a good thing for businesses. While I don’t disagree, I do think the authors somewhat gloss over the hard proof that many businesses will want before they jump into blogging with both feet.

Don’t get me wrong –I truly believe in blogs for businesses. But I also believe that most business managers need to put this new thing in the context of existing business goals before they are willing to devote significant resources to the effort. Just saying that blogs are transforming markets and you ignore them at your peril (while true) is not going to be enough. You need to show how the blog delivers on an existing business imperative. How does it fit in the business plan? If you are looking for this information, or how to build a business case, you won’t find enough of it in this book.

Blogging for Business covers much of the same ground as Naked Conversations, but it is less philosophical, and more of a handbook for developing a business blog. It covers all the steps you’ll need to address once you’ve decided to do a blog. In my opinion, it is a worthy successor to Rebecca Blood’s Weblog Handbook, providing up-to-date resources with a business perspective.

Neither book is really strong on how to build your business case, and I am not sure that any book could be, as this needs to be done on a case by case basis, and grounded in the specific business requirements.

However, in both books, you will find great case studies and anecdotal material to support your business case for blogging.

My recommendation:

• If you’ve already decided to do a blog, Blogging for Business has a great how-to approach that will be very helpful for the person doing the work.
• If you are trying to understand the blogging landscape, you can’t go wrong with either book. Buy both – they are good reads.

Associated blogs:

Marcom Blog – an endeavor spearheaded by Robert French PR professor at the University of Auburn that brings together marcom professionals and his students. I was honored when Robert asked me to be a contributor.