Customer Loyalty : New Zealand Ltd & Greenstone Energy Ltd

Many different alternatives exist to face the customer retention problem. One good alternative would be to use and develop a strong customer relation management strategy. With the information collected from the customer loyalty system, the company needs to develop a customer relation service. To improve the perceived value of the brand, the company should create a very developed customer service with a dedicated customer service number and an easy way to order cars. In the airports and main retail places, the company should develop a specific office/desk dedicated to the premium customers and those who have loyalty cards. So that, the consumers don’t lose time and can enjoy of a best quality service.

Developing a loyalty program is challenging. You team must understand what will keep your current customers interested and what will spark them to purchase multiple times.

Customer Loyalty: Understanding the pulse of the customer and providing exceptional customer service by offering the fair measures of product policies like discounts, return policies of retailing and thus enhancing the business policies.

While I’m an atypical U.S. consumer who doesn’t buy into marketing hype, I do have strong product/service loyalty affiliations. I’ll try to keep my Journal entry under 1000 words! I like to revisit the meaning of familiar words. Merriam-Webster (n.d.) defines loyalty as, “The quality or state or an instance of being loyal”. This is exactly what brand loyalty and loyalty programs are trying to create: an ongoing experience with multiple touch-points that captures followers and keeps them engaged through rewards, added value, and “prestige”. The goal is to lengthen “the lifetime value of the customer” (Tanner & Raymond, 2010, p. 284) which helps to maximize profits.

Customer loyalty is much harder to obtain that customer service satisfaction. The most important first step is to satisfy the customer by meeting their expectations. Customers only give a company one chance and if they aren’t satisfied they will not do business with that company again, as well as tell others of their experience. The next step would be to exceed the customer’s expectations. If a business goes above and beyond to assist the customer they begin to build loyalty. The next step is to truly surprise the customer. In order to dominate the marketplace the company must find a way to make them selves stand out with their product or service, accompanied with phenomenal customer service. Once this has been done customer satisfaction and loyalty will be gained. “Acquiring a new customer can cost four or five times more than keeping a current customer” (Bestmark, 2013). So it’s essential to keep the current customer’s happy and coming back for more.

U.S. consumers hold 3.3 billion memberships in customer loyalty programs, the 2015 COLLOQUY Loyalty Census shows, a 26% increase over the number of memberships reported in COLLOQUY’s last census study in 2013 (Colloquy, 2015) With loyalty programs established this helps to generate a repeat customers which drives profits and promises future revenue. Consumers need an incentive to purchase a product at a certain place. When Loyalty programs are in place it helps the consumer relate to the product and funnels them towards the product in which they feel that they are apart of. They can build exclusive points and incentives when products are purchased and are then able to use those rewards points at a later time to purchase more goods or even get a portion of the cash back.

It is imperative to satisfy customers and give them an amazing experience at the company. While it cost less to sell to existing customers and companies can increase profit by selling to the same customers; if customers are satisfied, there is more chance they will come back for more services or products. Satisfied customers are a free marketing for the company. However, it is the opposite if customers are dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about his or her experience (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004). If by any reason, representatives see that the customer is not satisfy, they should act fast and fix the problem. Furthermore, there is more chance for sale representatives to sell to an existing customer that to a new customer. A good strategy for customer retention is to reward good customers. Companies can easily do

Secondly, providing high quality customer service might be another essential factor in any customer loyalty strategy. The better a vendor treats their customers, the more likely the customers will return. As Cater and Cater (2009) state, an outstanding customer service could create a sustainable loyal customer

Redirect the customer to your manager so that he can describe the benefits and special offers under the loyalty scheme to the customers.

The first dimension to look at is how many people sign up for customer loyalty programs. The element of this dimension is if these programs are properly designed to attract customers to sign up, then most often then not, they will. If people are not enticed to sign up, the program may need to be revised. Customers also need to understand clearly the perks of the program in order to evaluate whether or not the program is worth joining.

• Membership open to all customers • Clerk will swipe discount card if member forgets or does not have card • Each member receives the same discount regardless of purchase history • Firm has no information base on customer name, demographics, or purchase history • There is no targeted communications directed at members

As selected previously the Market penetration is good option for the company to have growth in the coming years. This strategy focuses on the marketing and sales to have deepen effect that before. Moreover, the people are preferring to buy with the swipe cards to get rewards. So, it is good to have more brands in the has exiting market rather completely as new program. Fly Buys already has a market and well known loyalty program. So it would be less investment tool for the company to adopt market penetration

The term “Brand Loyalty” also called as “Customer Loyalty” has been in the business industry since a very long time as a model to be used in conducting business. But it wasn’t until the mid to late 1900’s that the term was actually given its due importance by making it a vital part of advertising and marketing. The concept of marketing evolved substantially from being focused on sales of a product to having Customer satisfaction to be its focal point. Studies further revealed that there was a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and Brand Loyalty.

It actively engages just over one million households and its impact on the New Zealand retail and service provision sectors has been profound. Fly Buys enables its members to collect Fly Buys points for everyday and occasional spending, which can then be redeemed for a range of rewards. It has been credited with some of the most significant market share shifts in a number of sectors. (Anonymous, TVNZ/NZ marketing magazine marketing awards)

“Decision maker at loyalty New Zealand” is a real situation case study analysis for Fly buys. It describes the decision making by Chris Lamer for the continuous growth of Fly buys in New Zealand. It explained that Fly buys is the top fifth largest loyalty program all around the world. It was established by Bank of New Zealand, Food stuffs Ltd and Greenstone energy Ltd with some other companies to recognise and reward the new and existing consumers of New Zealand for their consuming. It is leading loyalty association in New Zealand and Australia where it peak its success. It further explains that Chris Lamer, a long prize winner in the various streams like Wellington “Love Affairs” joined the Fly buys in 2007 as a Head of customer engagement. Chris decided to relaunch the brand of Fly buys which resulted in best consumer services and marketing award for Fly buys in 2008. Chris was announced the marketer of the year. The case study provides a description about the spending habits of people in New Zealand by using Fly buys, benefits of using Fly buys and important decisions made by Chris Lamer and his team for the continuous growth of Fly buys. It also presents three options for the continuous growth of Fly buys and explains which was selected by Chris Lamer’s team and what the reasons for selecting that one are. Chris decided to focus on stretching the brand of Fly buys by creating new products and adding more partners which leads to less attention