ARTICLES
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Creating a customer satisfaction and loyalization program that works!
PRESENTATION OF THE COMPANY AND ITS SECTOR OF ACTIVITY
Our client is the leader in their field and they have been in business for over 40 years. They offer supplies and equipment to other businesses.
THE SITUATION AND THE OBJECTIVES
Our client's sector of activity has reached maturity and we find all the signals that define that phase.
Our client is faced with stiff competition, pressure to lower prices, delivery delays that are becoming increasingly shorter, and business models from their competitors that quickly adapt to market conditions.
Considering that supply sales count for over 60% of their revenue, and that the clientele purchasing supplies is eroding, it was imperative to protect this client base without incurring new marketing costs.
OBJECTIVES:
- Increase customer satisfaction and loyalize the existing clientele to halt erosion;
- Establish a calendar of punctual promotions with clients that present the highest and most interesting loyalization potential;
- Maintain a permanent year-round contact with clients and prospects;
- Reduce commercial costs by unit sold;
- Implement a high-performance measurable marketing program;
- Get in touch with the eroding clientele and make them a personalized offer.
THE SOLUTION AND THE STRATEGY
Develop a customer satisfaction and loyalization program for the industry specific supply market of our client.
Our program concentrated on the active and inactive clients and helped our client to manage business relations differently with them. In order to achieve this we needed to:
- Segment and analyse client files;
- Concentrate marketing efforts more on client retention than acquisition;
- Treat clients like prospects;
- Communicate the marketing message through client privileged channels;
Following the analysis of the situation, instead of offering simple rebates and promotions that can be easily copied by the competition, Exo chose to conceive offers grouped with existing promotional components and to create incentives based on the quality of service and support which are our client's strengths. The incentives that we created allowed clients to choose from one of three free services following the purchase of certain products within a pre-determined time span. We created personalised offers for each client segment, taking into account the particularities of each.
We started by sending out a mailing to the clients with the strongest erosion. That permitted us to test and to optimise our concept as well as to validate the preferred communication method. The results showed a unanimous preference for e-mail.
We centered the promotion of the clientele satisfaction and loyalization program on the segments of clients going through the strongest erosion. We used direct Internet based marketing activities accompanied with a follow-up call from a customer service representative. The purpose was to generate qualified prospects for the sales force.
THE STEPS TAKEN TO DEVELOP THIS PROGRAM:
- Analysing and segmenting client files;
- Determining the personalisation variables;
- Determining the offers and the strategies for each segment;
- Creating content;
- Creating promotional tools;
- Testing the concepts, the channels, the offer, and the message;
- Determining what new data to gather to enrich our client's marketing database;
- Creating mailing lists;
- Promoting the program;
- Getting in touch with the segment of clients suffering the greatest erosion;
RESULTS / IMPACT
The first promotional operation consisted of soliciting a segment difficult to convince since they're among a clientele that's been eroding for the two last years.
GENERAL STATISTICS GATHERED THROUGH ELECTRONIC CHANNELS
62% of clients who received an e-mail took the time to inform themselves of the offer inside. Note: the average success rate for this type of activity is 39%.
35% of clients who received an e-mail, by clicking on a link included with the e-mail, visited the promotional micro-site of the client satisfaction and loyalization program that we created. Note: the average rate for this type of operation is 8%.
LEVEL OF APPRECIATION OF THE CLIENT SATISFACTION AND LOYALIZATION PROGRAM.
97% of non-loyal clients had a favourable opinion of the steps taken by our client.
LEVEL OF INTEREST FOR THE INITIAL OFFER:
78% of solicited clients found the offer interesting.
QUALIFIED PROSPECTS FOR THE SALES FORCE:
43% of contacts indicated that they would like to take advantage of the offer in future supply purchases.
NEXT STEPS
Re-contacting the prospects generated by the initial offer. This contact will be made by a sales rep; new mailing in fall target at the 20% most profitable clients; increasing the frequency of communications and promotion to maintain relations with the most interesting segments all year round; development of non-utilised cross-sale and up-selling practices.
 PDF Version
Lynda St-Arneault, Exo Marketing Intégré
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