Susannah Schofield shares her bespoke SPEND AGAIN business model to allow you to capitalise on the benefit of a repeat purchase.
Acquisition is the most time consuming and costly part of any business, but so are loyalty schemes – and without customers your business won’t succeed – follow this unique easy business model guide to learn how to keep your customers happy without having to invest a fortune. Susannah Schofield shares her bespoke SPEND AGAIN business model to allow you to capitalise on the benefit of a repeat purchase.
When you run a business, no matter what size there are a few things that are always consistent. No matter what you sell, offer, or do for your customers you would always want them to do it again! Customer or client acquisition is the most expensive undertaking any business can face. Strategic and Marketing plans can cost a fortune just to create, let alone implement. With marketing campaigns hard to measure, real success with SMART objectives can become a tough delivery criteria, and the return on investment of any money spent in tough times is so crucial that with one ‘bad news’ day in the media it can alter how your adverts appear and are perceived, and how your potential customers respond.
Loyalty schemes are great ways of allowing customers to feel valued, but why give extra away if you don’t need to, after all it all comes off the bottom line, so effectively the consumer is paying for the promotion – so why not just offer a better price initially to secure the first sale rather than inflate a price to build a return customer strategy which scares your customer off to the competition before they have even carried out their first interaction with you.
They are all tough questions, with no right answer – but if you follow my ten simple steps to successful customer loyalty I think you will find something that fits for your businesses, no matter the size or the offering:
So when faced with the question – how do I keep my customers and make them valuable to me? You need an answer - get them to SPEND AGAIN!
I would like to share my bespoke SPEND AGAIN model of ten top actions to get your customers back …. Every time, all the time:
SPEND AGAIN MODEL:
1.) S = Speed - how quickly do your customers return to you currently if at all? To be able to get your customers to come back to you again you will need to understand how many repeat purchases you currently get, what drives those behaviours and what are they buying? Do customers need something else once they have made one purchase? You can easily do a ‘we recommend’ at the bottom of purchase confirmations or statements. Look for patterns that occur within your customers’ purchases that you can ensure everyone knows what you sell and offer. If marketing promotions are relevant to individuals they are valued and used.
2.) P = Penetration - how many customers currently repeat purchase from you, and why do they? Utilise the insight from those customers that do spend again with you and then you can profile your customer base to allow you to target similar ‘lookey-likey’ customers to gain repeat purchases automatically. Then use that insight to build you future business model and customer recruitment programmes. Research is crucial to understand what works and what will work better in the future of your business.
3.) E = Exceptional – You and your business must be extraordinary. Your Quality of Service will be what customers talk about. Research shows that if a purchase or business interaction has gone wrong, but the end result is positive then the customer actually becomes more loyal and more likely to recommend your products or services as a result. Never think that a customer is not worth the extra mile service, you must strive to not only be better than your biggest competitor, but be more amazing that your smallest challenger too!
4.) N = Need – Create the ‘must have’ product/ purchase! How do you get your customers to believe they can’t survive without your product or service? How do you get them to ‘need’ what you do? Is this driven by testimonials, but product reviews, via personal recommendations? Consider what makes your consumers ‘pull the trigger’ to the purchase. Do they need your business to make their lives easier, quicker, faster – what is your businesses’ USP? (Unique Selling Point.) Find this out and unlock the repeat purchase pattern that delivers quick growth in any business.
5.) D = Drive – Desirably the best customer is the one that pulls your product to them, not relies on you to push it towards them. If you can get your offering into the psyche of people so they come looking for it and customers don’t rely on you telling them about it, then you are on the way to future success. No matter what you do, try to ensure it is your business they think of for this occasion or need.
6.) A = Additional – Can you offer extra products? Consider adding a product line or offering that makes you a more attractive ‘one stop shop’ for your customers. Alternatively if your business resource does not allow growth, could you work with complimentary partners or service suppliers that offer similar but non conflicting products or services? Consider making joint or partnered offers to different clients or data segments that you can swap and then contact independently or together and try to sell or market your business too?
7.) G = Growth - grow with your customer maturity. If you offer something to a specific age, generation or sector how do you then ensure you grow and mature with your customer database? If what you offer doesn’t lend itself to aging with your clients then can you find a partner that would benefit from your old customers, introductions and cross business referrals can be a great way to secure extra revenue and allows you to potentially test new products via a complimentary supplier?
8.) A - Acquisition - member get member, if you have happy, delighted customers then reward them for getting you more customers – this works twofold: Firstly you get more, similar like-minded delighted and purchasing customers like those you asked to recommend a friend, but secondly, and almost as important as your new customer is the original customer you asked, as they will become more emotionally attached to your business and as a result of this become an advocate for you. As a business ambassador for your company they will get a feeling of value that you asked them, and also any reward you go on to give them as a Thank You will delight them even further, ensuring they recommend again without the need for a reward.
9.) I = Increase - frequency – can you contact your customers more frequently to buy again? Consider offering seasonal promotions, can you use calendar events to drive extra sales – when it comes to life in general “if you don’t ask, you don’t get” customers are no different so – remember to ask!
10.) N = Nothing left - take every £ available. If you sell a gift product, can you offer a gift wrap, delivery, greeting card service alongside? Can you differ and standout from your competitors by making the purchase easier for the buyer and more attractive for the receiver? If your customer has a certain amount of money to spend, how do you make sure you get the maximum amount of that revenue for your business?
If you follow the simple rules above you can’t fail to get your customers to come back time and time again, this is a simple strategic sales and marketing business plan that will drive your business forward without investing too much, into creating a direction for your business without testing what works and what will deliver.
I believe if you listen to your customers and what they really want, you will be successful. Businesses should never assume, as assumption is the mother of all mistakes – businesses should grow with their customers and allow the purchaser to drive the growth and the opportunities. That way the customer will always spend again, and again, and again.
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