The sequence of stages in the development of customer loyalty. Formation of a client base as a condition for the successful functioning of a travel agency. Customer loyalty programs - examples

Building customer loyalty is as important as managing finance, logistics or production. There are no trifles in this matter. Companies that have understood this axiom achieve truly outstanding results.

Formation of a strategy for working with key segments

Knowing the target audience is extremely important when planning a program concept. The company must answer the question of how it plans to use the loyalty program when working with different customer segments, taking into account their specifics. What works well for some participants will be completely useless for others.

The main tasks of the stage

Segmentation of the customer base in order to select target segments
Formation of a portrait of a program participant
- Socio-demographic profile
- Consumption structure
- Behavior patterns
- Needs and preferences
- Motivation model
- Loyalty level (NPS, research)
- Available communication channels
Developing a strategy for working with each of the segments, including setting goals, developing a value proposition, and choosing preferred incentives.

Key elements of loyalty programs

Once the goals of the program and how to measure them have been identified, a strategy for working with different customer segments has been developed, you can proceed to the stage of designing the loyalty program.

Conceptually, we identify three key elements that set the program in motion. Ignoring any of them is fraught with serious imbalances in the future.

Motivation system
Program script
Communication model

Let's consider these components in more detail.

Check out the complete loyalty program concept guide

Customer loyalty is understood as their benevolent correct attitude towards a certain supplier, manufacturer, representative or product, service.

Loyalty criteria

The main criteria of customer loyalty are understood as follows:

willingness to trust the opinion or vision of a company representative;
desire to deal with controversial, ambiguous situations;
willingness to listen to the proposals of the company representative and discuss them;
striving to jointly achieve the best result of cooperation.

Having an understanding of when it is possible to fulfill all these conditions, you can easily distinguish loyal customers from disloyal ones.

How to build customer loyalty?

In order for customers to better relate to your brand, product or company as a whole, you need to use methods that allow you to practically achieve the goals set for the company. The formation of customer loyalty takes place subject to five basic rules:

You must always provide reliable information to your clients - this circumstance will be appreciated by any person, no matter what field of activity it concerns. Of course, each client wants to receive only that informational information that will help him achieve his own goals, which are true and useful for him. In other words, it is required to reveal all the cards. Therefore, a company representative must have a complete package of information about a product or offer in order to be able to provide it to interested customers in a timely manner.
It is necessary to always keep the promises made to customers - this statement may seem simple to the point of banality only at first glance. In practice, everything turns out differently. The reason for a large number of breaks in business relations between clients and company representatives is precisely the failure of one of the parties to fulfill its earlier promises. As they say, if you cannot do, then there is no need to make promises. Otherwise, the client's trust in you and your words will irrevocably disappear along with his loyalty.
You must always be careful - each of us is afraid of unforeseen situations and difficulties, because no one is immune from them. Perhaps there is no worse case than a phone call from a client with claims about late delivery of goods, the provision of not the entire ordered range of products, or the absence of promised discounts on a wholesale purchase. If you really find yourself in such or a similar situation, it is advisable to contact the client in advance and warn him about anything that may go wrong in order to minimize the risk of conflict between you. Then demonstrate your willingness to fix things and make a difference.
You must always show initiative - today the consumer market is saturated with the same offers, which are often implemented under the same conditions. This enables potential customers to make their own choice in favor of one or another partner. To attract a client to your products or services, you need to act and take initiative. This does not at all mean cooperation on the terms of the client, it means the need to be active, strive for a result, offer potential customers a solution to their problems, demonstrate variability of thinking and creativity.
You should always treat your idea / proposal with love - for customers to be committed to your company and its products, they must love your ideas and suggestions. To do this, you first need to love them yourself. Fall in love with your ideas and suggestions yourself, and it will help you inspire, inspire and, finally, fall in love with each of your customers. This guarantees increased customer loyalty.

Thus, managing the loyalty of your customers is an important task that should be set by any company that cares about its reputation and looks to the future. Today, there are various programs that allow you to influence your customers, form a positive opinion in their minds about your brand and the company as a whole. Having chosen any of them, do not forget about the rules on the basis of which the policy of each organization in relation to its customers should be built.

Only mutual respect between partners, the provision of genuine information about conditions, offers, product characteristics and much more, as well as the desire to jointly achieve good results of work can make cooperation as fruitful, long-term and effective as possible.

Video

Here are some helpful tips for increasing customer loyalty:

True customer loyalty is akin to a successful marriage when both parties are happy with each other.

What is customer loyalty? In repeat purchases or an emotional connection, for example, when a client recommends your company to his acquaintances? True customer loyalty is a bit like a successful marriage. It is a relationship in which both parties are satisfied with each other. They don't worry every day that their partner will stop loving or leave for someone else. They went through misunderstandings and disputes, keeping their bonds inseparable and even strengthening them.

Strengthening these bonds of loyalty between the company and its customers is at the heart of database marketing... Loyal customers are more valuable than regular customers. They are usually:

have a higher retention rate;
have a higher level of expenses;
are characterized by a higher level of recommendation dissemination;
have a higher aggregate value;
require less maintenance costs;
make more expensive purchases.

Loyal customers are more valuable than regular customers

Loyalty-building communications

Communication serves as a link between loyalty and database marketing, because loyalty is created and maintained through two-way communications between the company and the customers. The latter make purchases, and the former thank them for their financial support.

One of the most inexpensive but effective ways to learn about customer preferences is to get them to submit their own service desires. This can be done by writing them a letter or calling them, but today the Internet is used more often. Creating a customer profile that includes preference information has a double benefit: the company learns more about the customer, and the customer, in turn, feels like they are being listened to.

Of course, in order for the wishes of customers to be properly taken into account, it is necessary to have a deployed database. The information from it can be used on a daily basis to provide customers with personalized services. The company will be helped in this by using automated intelligent system.

Example (subscriber identification system):

Today, when customers call the bank's hotline, the call-center operator calls them by name, for example: “Hello, Vladimir Yuryevich. How can I help you?" This suggests that even in such a conservative area as banking, customer loyalty is being worked on.

However, many companies have not yet realized that the same method can be used for their customers. To do this, you can use the subscriber identification system, which allows you to recognize the client even before the operator answers the call. The record from the database should be automatically displayed on the computer screen. Thanks to this, the caller will not have to say his client number, address, etc.

Creating a customer profile has a double benefit: the company learns more about the customer, and the customer feels like they are being listened to.

Loyalty program

A loyalty building program is understood as a system in which the client specifically subscribes to participate in the program. He receives a name card, which he uses when making purchases. The card has a dual purpose: it provides the client with some privileges that cannot be obtained without it, and the company - valuable information that can be used to build loyalty.

Before introducing a loyalty program, you need to answer the following questions:

What customer behavior should be rewarded?
Need to attract more customers or better customers?
What's more important: increasing sales or profitability?
What changes are needed to attract and retain more valuable customers to the company?

The loyalty program is used to solve many problems: the acquisition of customers, their satisfaction, the correct choice of the location of the points of sale, the range of goods and their quality, the correct service. Today, loyalty can be formed or increased by providing customers with reward points or bonuses.

The main idea is to refuse discounts on the product. The transition from discounts to bonuses brings a very powerful economic effect. The explanation is quite simple: when a business gives a buyer a discount, he loses "real" money, instantly reducing his revenue. Bonuses are accumulated by the client for each visit. Subsequently, they can either pay off or receive some kind of gift. Clients easily forget where and what discount they received, but remember well where they can spend the already accumulated points.

When a business gives a buyer a discount, he loses "real" money

The discount is not always valuable to the customer, especially if the amount is not large. And in the bonus program, you can go much further: not only use the “X rubles = Y points” scheme, but also offer an assortment of gifts. Such bonuses, even the smallest ones, are much more enjoyable.

Receiving a gift for bonuses is perceived as something festive and evokes positive emotions in the client. He is glad that he received something for free, and this gift will be remembered for longer than a discount.

Receiving a gift for bonuses evokes positive emotions in the client

Three basic rules of customer loyalty

The first steps in managing a loyalty-based system are finding and acquiring the right customers - those that can provide the firm with consistent cash flows and return on investment for years to come, that is, customers whose loyalty can be won and maintained. Companies based on customer loyalty should remember three rules of thumb:

Some customers are inherently predictable and loyal no matter what company they interact with. They just prefer a stable long-term relationship.
Some clients are more profitable than others. They spend more money, pay their bills faster, and are less demanding on service.
Some customers will find your products and services more valuable than your competitors' products and services.

No company can give everything to everyone. Your strengths are better suited to the needs and capabilities of a specific segment of your customers. Thus, in order to develop a successful business, you first need to attract the right customers, and then develop programs to strengthen and maintain their loyalty, which should be based on the company's attitude towards those customers. Loyalty is two-way: if a company wants customers to be loyal to it, it must be loyal to them.

For customers to be loyal to the company, the company must be loyal to them

The dream of any entrepreneur is to increase the number of sales of goods or services offered to the consumer. In order to achieve a result, a businessman needs to answer himself to two fundamental questions: and how to win loyal customers.

The answer to the first question is not as difficult as it seems. Usually, a business owner sets himself the goal of optimizing the business after opening his own business (retail outlet, salon, workshop, and so on). Therefore, we are talking only about the selection of goods within a deterministic assortment, which greatly simplifies the task.

A simple example can be cited as a confirmation of the thesis. Choosing to his taste, the entrepreneur decided to stop at the opening of a clothing and footwear store for children. It is quite logical that in this case, the basic assortment will include precisely items of clothing and various footwear for children and adolescents, but not snowmobiles, winter tires or, for example, elite wine. A business owner can fill his outlet with goods of different brands and price categories, without going beyond the boundaries of a predetermined assortment - otherwise, the store simply will not be able to satisfy the needs of the target audience, which means it will be unprofitable.

The second question has become more and more relevant lately; the reason for this is the heightened competition to the limit and, in large cities, an excess of shopping centers and stores offering customers similar or identical products on different terms. Of course, according to the theory of probability, customers will make purchases in each of the available stores, but the entrepreneur is not interested in the fundamental possibility of selling the product, but in the favorable distribution of the total number of sales.

This can be achieved in two ways:

an increase in the total flow of customers;
building a base of regular (loyal) customers.

The achievement of the first goal is mainly due to the conduct of large-scale advertising campaigns, covering as large a percentage of the target audience as possible. Such promotions will inevitably be costly: the business owner will have to pay for the competent placement of advertising materials in newspapers, on television, radio, on the Internet, as well as, ideally, for the creation and promotion of relevant groups in social networks (SMM).

Oddly enough, you can cut costs by working on the second task in parallel. After all, a loyal client will most likely recommend his favorite establishment to his friends and acquaintances, acting as an advertising agent of his own free will and completely free of charge. This means that by investing in customer loyalty programs, an entrepreneur will achieve two goals at once. Nevertheless, one should not completely forget about traditional advertising campaigns: even a large number of regular customers does not guarantee a stable and constant increase in customer flow.

Customer loyalty is ...

There is no definitive definition of customer loyalty. Loyalty signs include:

Willingness to repeatedly apply for a product or service to a chosen entrepreneur.
Higher frequency of purchases and / or calls compared to the average customer.
The desire to use additional services and participate in promotions conducted by him (for example, to receive or purchase a loyalty card).
Increased resistance to suggestions from other entrepreneurs.
Willingness to make small sacrifices in order to receive a service or purchase goods from a favorite seller (wait for delivery, overpay a little).
Emotional attachment to the institution / brand: the buyer recommends them to his friends and acquaintances, writes real reviews on social networks and on websites, including leveling out negative reviews from dissatisfied or “ordered” customers.

In a modern market, it is important for an entrepreneur to understand that passing through and forming a primary attachment is not enough: the mood of even a loyal customer can change quite quickly due to many factors.

For example, a loyal customer will be willing to come to terms with a slight delay in the delivery of the product he likes - about 25-30% of the expected time. If the item is to be delivered in 14 days, a loyal customer will wait 18–20 days without much dissatisfaction. However, if the waiting period exceeds 1–2 months, and this happens on an ongoing basis, the loyal customer will almost certainly be lost.

The situation is the same with the value of the goods. A loyal buyer is ready, for the sake of special conditions offered by the seller, to overpay a certain amount (the exact percentage in this case cannot be named), but within reasonable limits. A product for 20,000 rubles, if its price in another store is 10,000 rubles, will not be purchased even by the most regular customer.

It is especially important to maintain the quality of products or services. A variety of loyalty programs are used to build a base of regular customers.

Loyalty program is ...

A loyalty program is a set of activities aimed at creating a stable emotional and behavioral attachment of a client to a brand / outlet / institution.

There are three main types of programs:

Loyalty bonus program. For each purchase, the client receives bonuses in the form of points, points, and so on, in order to exchange them for a real purchase or service in the future.
Discount program. A regular customer receives a document (usually a plastic discount card) giving the right to further purchase goods (any or from a limited list) at a discount.
Accumulative program. Unlike a bonus, a customer receives an additional product or service (for example, free shipping) when the total amount of purchases made earlier reaches a certain mark.

Increasing customer loyalty can be achieved without the involvement of professional marketers: now on the Internet you can find many examples of successful programs and, applying them to a specific situation, achieve success.

This is especially true for small settlements with a relatively low level of competition (and sometimes a complete lack of it). For example, when deciding, an entrepreneur should first of all pay attention to unoccupied or weakly occupied niches - in particular, computer technology. In a small settlement, especially remote from the regional center, such a store, with the likely absence of competition, will be in demand among young people and middle-aged people who do not want to waste time traveling to a big city.

The situation is more complicated in large cities, in which any new establishment is doomed to compete with existing ones. In such a situation, simply copying a third-party loyalty system for customers will not be enough, and an entrepreneur is best to resort to the services of a marketer, advertising manager and other specialists.

Stages of becoming a loyal customer

The customer will not become loyal after the first purchase, let alone a simple visit to the establishment. Customer loyalty is formed in several stages:

First visit.
One-time purchase.
Re-acquisition.
Affection for the store.
Loyalty.

One-time visit

A variety of factors can induce a potential buyer to visit:

targeted advertising;
recommendations of relatives or friends;
simple curiosity.

Having visited the store and familiarized himself with the assortment, the visitor can come to one of three solutions:

buy nothing;
buy something later;
buy the product you like right now.

In the latter case, one can already start talking about the formation of loyalty, but no guarantees can be given. The buyer may not like the quality of the purchased product (or service) or service. In addition, the location (too far from home or in an uncomfortable area), opening hours of the institution, or other factors may be unacceptable for him. In the end, the customer can be lured away by competitors - for example, with lower prices or attractive offers.

In other words, you can start fighting for customer loyalty from the very first purchase, but you should not rely on it. Advertising brochures, online mailings, offers for participation in discount promotions for newcomers, and so on can be used as campaign materials.

Returning customer

After a customer has purchased a product or service and was satisfied with the quality of the purchase and service, he is likely to think about a visit to the store again with a probability of about 25%. After returning and making a purchase again, the buyer goes to the third stage of loyalty formation.

Returning customer

Gradually, a person ceases to purchase the corresponding goods or services from competitors, giving preference to a favorite institution. Such a customer is called a returning customer and, as statistics show, they make purchases 45% more often than first-time visitors.

Loyal customer

This term refers to a buyer who is emotionally and behaviorally attached to a particular brand or store, ready to defend it, oppose critics, and recommend it to family and friends. At this stage, the formation of loyalty can be considered complete, but it is still not worth relaxing: a gradual deterioration in the quality of goods and services or, for example, the emergence of competitors with a more attractive offer can lead to an outflow of not only one-time customers, but also regular customers.

Customer loyalty programs - examples

For example, we can consider two loyalty programs - successful and unsuccessful:

In the first case, an entrepreneur, opening a new store, launches a wide advertising campaign to attract one-time customers. After the formation of a steady stream, he begins to weed out regular customers, offering visitors a bonus loyalty program, which allows, upon accumulating a certain number of points, to receive one unit of a medium-price product for free or for a small surcharge. The vast majority of clients will decide to participate in the program, but a minority will purposefully accumulate points (the exact percentage in this case cannot be named, it depends on many factors). Having accumulated them and received the promised product, the client will not only receive moral satisfaction from the purchase and service, but will also want to participate in the promotion again, and therefore will make even more purchases. For buyers who have collected the required number of points more than two times, the entrepreneur provides an additional discount without reducing the number of points accumulated. In this way, he will finally win over the consumer, and he will bring along new potentially loyal customers.
An unsuccessful option for a loyalty program is a bonus campaign, but with restrictions on the range of goods sold or offered as a bonus (for example, an entrepreneur will try to sell unclaimed or low-quality products). Unnecessary goods simply will not be bought up; moreover, clients will not want to exchange honestly earned points for it. Another unfortunate example is the bar raised too high: if a client needs to buy goods worth several tens of thousands of rubles to receive the simplest bonus, he will most likely simply consider participation in such a promotion inappropriate.

How to develop your own customer loyalty program?

Self-development of a loyalty program includes several basic stages:

Demand study. Before forming an offer, an entrepreneur needs to find out exactly what the buyer wants from him. For example, if a store sells children's clothing, it would be logical to arrange seasonal discounts on summer clothes, swimwear and school uniforms.
Selecting the program format. The entrepreneur decides whether it will be a bonus program, the participant of which, having accumulated the required number of points, will be able to exchange them for a product from a pre-compiled list, a discount program, the participant of which will be able to receive a discount on the purchased products, or some other type.
Clarification of conditions. The business owner determines which goods can be obtained under the promotion, the amount of points required to receive a particular item, or the gradation of discounts depending on arbitrary factors (total amount of purchases, time of working with a client).
Delivering information to the target audience. For this purpose, advertising events are carried out in the media and the Internet, banners are hung, mailings are carried out in social networks and other actions are taken in accordance with the financial capabilities and needs of the entrepreneur.
Promotion and further retention of buyers. It is important for an entrepreneur to fulfill all promises made to them: to provide discounts, accrue bonuses and allow them to be realized. Otherwise, even the once-positive brand reputation will be quickly lost, as will loyal customers. It is possible to restore the shaky situation in the future, but this will take a lot of time and require considerable financial investments.

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As you can see, the general principles of developing a loyalty program are quite simple and can be easily implemented by any business owner. All that is required of an entrepreneur is to correctly determine the direction of movement and conscientiously fulfill their obligations. In this case (even with a relatively modest offer for the loyalty program), the flow of grateful customers will be ensured, and with it the long-awaited growth in sales.

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Checked by: Elena Viktorovna,

Introduction

The problem of creating a loyal consumer is currently in the center of attention of marketers. Firm executives and marketers are realizing that the long-term approach to maximizing the single highest possible profits does not pay off. Much more important is investing in improving the quality of the product and the level of customer service, maintaining the customer's sense of satisfaction. Satisfied customers who remain loyal to a single service facility for many years tend to be more profitable than new ones. First, the company minimizes the costs associated with attracting them. Secondly, satisfied consumers are more likely to contact the company, recommend it to their friends and acquaintances, and are less price sensitive.

A key goal of the relationship marketing concept is to achieve and strengthen customer loyalty. Consumer loyalty in relation to their supplier of products and services arises and strengthens as their cooperation develops, therefore, the criteria-based definition of the phases of building loyalty should be closely related to the concept of the customer's life cycle.

The purpose of this work is the formation of a loyalty program and their increase. To achieve this goal in the work, it is necessary to consider such sections as:

The concept and methods of assessing consumer loyalty;

Building customer loyalty systems;

Customer loyalty programs.

1. Consumer loyalty: concept and methods of assessment

A key goal of the relationship marketing concept is to achieve and strengthen customer loyalty. The researchers note that having a large number of loyal and paying customers can provide it with a number of significant advantages, both in the short and in the long term.

In the marketing literature, there are two approaches to defining loyalty. The first is based on the consideration of loyalty as a certain type of consumer behavior, expressed in long-term interaction with the company and making repeat purchases. While it is easy to measure loyalty in this way, this approach has a clear drawback: it only considers behavioral outcomes (repeat purchases), but does not disclose the reasons why a consumer chooses a particular service provider.

The authors tried to overcome this drawback by proposing a different approach, according to which loyalty is considered as a preference of consumers, which is formed as a result of a generalization of feelings, emotions, opinions about a service (or its supplier). This type of loyalty is sometimes seen as more meaningful, as it is believed to indicate the future behavior of the consumer rather than reflect its past experience. However, this approach, firstly, giving preference to subjective opinions as the determining factors of loyalty, does not prove their influence on the purchase. Second, there are problems in measuring this type of loyalty.

Traditionally, in the relationship marketing literature, customer loyalty is divided into behavioral and perceived. Monitoring of behavioral loyalty metrics is carried out by observing the actual behavior of the client and is a method of implementing a retrospective transactional analysis of his consumer activity. In turn, the emotional loyalty of customers is expressed in the level of their awareness of the organization's activities and what their needs they can satisfy by using its products or services, as well as in the level of customer satisfaction with the company's offers, their quality and service provided by the organization. In addition, an important component of perceived customer loyalty is the level of emotional perception of the firm. It seems that for the most complete and comprehensive assessment, it is most appropriate to use an approach that involves monitoring both behavioral and perceived metrics of customer loyalty.

In the practice of modern business, loyalty is often understood as customer satisfaction, which is not entirely true. As noted by S. Sysoeva A. Neiman, “satisfaction appears when the customer is satisfied and does not regret the money spent. But the client does not necessarily become loyal. A loyal customer is always a satisfied customer, but a satisfied customer is not always loyal. Although customer satisfaction is the first step towards winning his loyalty. " T.Y. Herpott, who believes that one hundred "satisfaction with a service is not identical to customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction should be understood as a set of ordered assessments of individual characteristics of services (which can be positive and negative), and these assessments are infused with individually perceived and expected quality characteristics. Positive assessment of the service ( customer satisfaction) increases the strength of the intention to re-purchase, but does not fully determine it, since it depends on the technical, functional and economic connection of the client to the company, the overall attractiveness of competitors' services, and the overall assessment of their own business. " Several studies have shown that customer satisfaction does not necessarily translate into repeat purchases and increased sales. In the course of their implementation, it was revealed that it is only the foundation for further building customer loyalty.

The difference between satisfaction and loyalty has provoked opposite conclusions from a number of researchers. Some authors believe that "only satisfaction, not loyalty, can be an achievable goal for the company," and they support their opinion by the presence of effective methods for measuring customer satisfaction, as opposed to the absence of ways to determine their loyalty. Others, on the contrary, emphasize that “loyalty, not satisfaction, should be the real goal of the company”, since the fact of customer satisfaction does not guarantee that he will make repeated transactions with the supplier, which makes it impossible to use the fact of customer satisfaction as a meaningful metric. It seems that the second approach looks more reasonable, so it was taken as a starting point for further analysis of the factors that influence the emergence and strengthening of customer loyalty.

The components of "behavioral" loyalty are the simplest to measure; their values can be obtained from a database of consumers. They are defined as follows:

Cross-selling is the number of additional products of a company purchased by a consumer in a certain period of time;

Increase in purchases - the amount or proportion of the increase in the size of the purchase of the same product over a certain period of time;

Repeat purchases - the number of repeat purchases;

Maintaining the achieved level of interaction with the company by the consumer - the relative constancy of the purchase amount for the same product over a certain period of time.

Perceived loyalty is more difficult to measure because it deals with consumer preferences and opinions. In this case, the main method of obtaining information will be consumer and expert polls. The following will act as loyalty indicators:

Awareness. First, awareness is defined as the degree to which a company is known in a non-target market. In addition, awareness can be measured as the number of recommendations from existing customers leading to new customers.

Satisfaction. Despite the highlighted limitations of satisfaction as an indicator of loyalty, it would be a mistake to underestimate its value. Moreover, of all the factors listed above, satisfaction is the most difficult. Customer satisfaction is made up of three components:

Key Benefit Qualities;

The quality of the service delivery process;

Perceptions of the value of the service.

Moreover, the attitude to the product, and to the service, and to the price is formed under the influence of the following factors:

Social;

The best known and most frequently used service quality assessment tool is the "SERVQUAL" method, proposed in 1985 by Parasuraman, Beri and Zeitaml. It is a questionnaire that was developed based on the aggregation of data collected from five different types of services, including 22 pairs of questions with a Likert scale. The questions were developed in accordance with five main parameters (dimensions) of the quality of services, to which they were attributed:

Reliability (reliability) - the ability to accurately and on time to provide the promised service;

Responsiveness - the willingness of staff to help consumers and provide a service in a timely manner;

Assurance - the competence of personnel, and their ability to instill confidence in consumers;

Empathy - the degree of individual attention to consumers;

Tangibles - all physical, tangible objects used in the process of providing a service (properties of equipment, appearance of the premises and employees, printed materials, etc.).

The first part of the questions was intended to identify consumer expectations for a particular service. The second is to determine the level of relevant qualities in the service offered by a particular organization.

The SERVQUAL methodology has been criticized many times. The main comments were about the following points:

SERVQUAL does not provide weighting for variables that are clearly of varying importance to consumers.

The individual dimensions of SERVQUAL overlap, especially when it comes to empathy and responsiveness.

Assertions starting with negation are used.

From the point of view of the respondents, there is an obvious "repetition of questions" in the questionnaire.

SERVQUAL is not applicable to all services, the composition of each dimension is highly dependent on the specifics of the industry.

Some of the comments were taken into account by the authors of the methodology, who made a number of amendments to SERVQUAL. Other authors have also tried to overcome the contradictions of SERVQUAL and create better tools for measuring service quality, mainly by improving the methodology described above. An example of such work is the SERVPERF methodology developed by Cronin and Taylor. However, there is still no perfect tool for measuring the quality of services.

However, as noted above, to measure satisfaction, it is not enough to assess only the quality of the service. At the moment, attempts to develop a tool for measuring satisfaction are to supplement SERVQUAL modifications with units for assessing perceived value and additional indicators of satisfaction and, in general, correspond to the procedure proposed by Lamben. Additional indicators usually include: the overall satisfaction score (which is then compared with the aggregate results for individual parameters) and the future intentions of the buyer, such as the willingness to recommend services to friends and the intention to refuse the services of the given company. In addition, socio-demographic and general satisfaction questions of the respondents with life should be added to these.

Two conclusions can be drawn: firstly, complete customer satisfaction is a more significant factor in creating loyalty than simple satisfaction, and secondly, it is necessary to track the opposite state of satisfaction - dissatisfaction.

Since the company must study the dynamics of satisfaction, the latter must be surveyed regularly, at least annually. In addition, to assess loyalty, it is necessary to compare its behavioral and perceived parameters. The values of the components of behavioral loyalty can be obtained from the database, in fact, for each consumer at any time. However, it is impossible to measure the perceived loyalty of each customer on a regular basis. Therefore, it is advisable to assess both behavioral and perceived loyalty by segment.

Depending on the level of behavioral and perceived loyalty, different types of loyalty can be distinguished:

Absolute loyalty - a situation in which a high level of consumer behavioral loyalty corresponds to a high level of perceived loyalty - is the most favorable for an organization. Customers with absolute loyalty are the easiest to retain. Moreover, for this it may be sufficient to maintain the existing quality standards.

Hidden loyalty means that a high level of perceived loyalty is not reinforced by consumer behavior. That is, he distinguishes the given company from the number of competitors, but purchases its products not as often or in such quantity as absolutely loyal consumers. The reasons for this are, first of all, external factors, for example, insufficient income. In such a situation, the organization needs to strengthen the achieved position by developing behavioral loyalty. For this, price incentives can be used, for example.

False loyalty occurs when behavioral loyalty is matched by a low level of perceived loyalty. This situation is threatening because the customer is not tied to the organization. His purchases may be the result of a limited supply, habits (other family members traditionally use the services of this company), therefore, as soon as the consumer finds an organization that satisfies him to a greater extent, he will refuse the service. To validate consumers exhibiting this type of loyalty requires a mandatory effort of perceived loyalty.

Finally, a lack of loyalty provides minimal opportunities for retention. An organization should either refuse to retain this part of consumers, let us note, beneficial for it, or take special measures to increase, first of all, perceived loyalty.

2. Building customer loyalty systems

To achieve loyalty, provided both by the financial interest of the consumer in cooperation with the organization, and by his positive emotional perception of the company, the developed loyalty complex must contain both tangible and intangible privileges for consumers. For example, T.Y. Herpott identifies the following components of the loyalty complex: measures that increase the value (utility) of a service for certain groups of customers as a result of providing them with economic benefits (loyalty driven by value), and measures that, thanks to formal and informal communication, as well as interaction between the supplier and the consumer increase the intensity of contacts, increase trust and stabilize satisfaction (loyalty driven by contacts).

Material factors provide the client with tangible financial or any other benefits, for example, saving time, convenience of service, etc., while intangible factors contribute to the development of a sense of emotional satisfaction from interacting with the organization due to quality service and attentive attitude on its part.

There are several ways to classify loyalty. So, for example, Yu.M. Pustynnikova distinguishes material, including traditional and programmatic, and intangible - procedural and personal factors of loyalty (see Figure 1).

Picture 1

By traditional material factors of loyalty, the author understands the convenience provided to the consumer in terms of the availability of the products and services offered by the company. Programmatic factors include the full range of options aimed at providing financial benefits to the buyer. Procedural intangible factors relate to the convenience of interaction with the organization for the client, and personal ones - the level of customer service in the company. From the point of view of such a classification, it is also easy to distribute the influence of the allocated factors on the formation of the client's commitment: material factors provide behavioral loyalty, and intangible ones - perceived.

An alternative approach involves identifying financial, functional and emotional factors, the combination of which ensures consumer loyalty. It is understood that the financial factors that are a tool for influencing behavioral loyalty include all the company's efforts aimed at providing material benefits to its customers. Functional indicators, which are significant in terms of both behavioral and perceived loyalty, cover such aspects as the regulation of business processes of customer service and interaction with them, as well as the availability of information to consumers and the ease of implementation of transactions. Emotional factors, in turn, provide only perceived customer loyalty by granting them a special status, providing personalized service and other non-financial benefits.

Following this model, the process of building relationships with the consumer begins at the stage of his interest in the products and services of the organization. From the point of view of the concept of relationship marketing, all actions taken by the organization at this stage should be to provide the consumer with the information he needs and create a positive impression on him from interacting with the firm.

After acquainting the buyer with the firm's offer, the second stage of the life cycle according to the Grenroos model begins - the purchase process. This stage is characterized by the fact that the buyer compares his experience of the acquired experience of interacting with the organization with his expectations of this experience. It is important at this stage in the development of the consumer to lay the foundation for his further loyalty, which is ensured, first of all, by the achievement of satisfaction of all the functional needs of the client. This stage is characterized by the client gaining experience of interacting with the organization at all points of contact and experience related to the quality of meeting his needs. Thus, the quality of the products and services provided to the consumer and the extent to which it is convenient for the client to interact with the company should be recognized as important factors at this stage that have an impact on the preconditions for customer loyalty.

If the experience gained by the consumer was positive, and the company was able to gain his favor, the third stage begins - the process of consumption by the client of the acquired goods. From the point of view of the concept of relationship marketing, this stage in the development of the consumer's life cycle is characterized by the fact that it is here that the emergence and growth of customer loyalty occurs. It should be noted that at this stage of the discussed model, the full range of tangible and intangible opportunities should be used to build customer loyalty.

It seems that the definition of loyalty using this method includes all the most significant factors that should be taken into account by an organization seeking to orient its marketing activities towards building long-term mutually beneficial relationships with its customers. So, when considering the formation of loyalty from the point of view of this tool, one of the stages that the client must go through in the process of forming his positive attitude towards the organization is to achieve a high level of his satisfaction from the consumption of the company's products and services. In addition, this tool examines the phases of building customer loyalty by stages of his life cycle in relation to the organization. As their relationship develops, the “Pyramid of Loyalty” phases do not replace, but complement each other.

The first stage of the described tool implies the formation of a positive image of the organization in the client. This stage of the formation of customer loyalty is the first from the point of view of both the beginning of the interaction between the client and the company and the emergence of the customer's perception of the supplier. It seems that the most significant at this stage are the efforts of the organization aimed at a general positive perception of its activities by the target audience of consumers and at informing customers about the products and services that they can use in the company, what their needs they can satisfy through the consumption of its products. This includes such areas of the firm's activities as branding and effective communication with customers.

The main purpose of branding within the framework of relationship marketing is to differentiate an organization from its competitors. With the help of the brand, the company has the opportunity to convey to its target audience the necessary emotional values, thanks to which the emergence of a positive perception by the clients of the organization as a whole is carried out. As S. Davis notes, a brand is a way of demonstrating the values that a consumer can receive when interacting with a firm. The author emphasizes that "a brand is a set of strong promises. It implies trust, stability and a certain combination of expectations." Branding is the main tool for creating a positive image of an organization in the eyes of its consumers.

Effective communication with the target segment of consumers at this stage of building customer loyalty means, first of all, informing customers about the products and services that the organization can provide them, and what their needs it can satisfy. From the point of view of operational activities, this includes the entire spectrum of the company's activities related to its information interaction with the external environment - from advertising that conveys primary information about the company to consumers, to individualized messages sent to specific customers. It should be noted that as the relationship between the supplier and the consumer develops, the degree of individualization of information exchange increases. In addition, this process is characterized by a change in information transfer channels: if in the case of advertising, traditional tools are used to convey information to large segments, such as television, billboards and advertising in the press, then within the framework of individualized communication (person-to-person ) channels such as phone calls and e-mail are used. It should be noted that in general, the availability of information about the company is an important component of the relationship marketing concept not only at the stages of initial customer acquisition and the development of relations between him and the organization at the early stages of cooperation, but also in the process of further interaction. Only if the client knows what his needs he can satisfy by interacting with the company, it is possible to develop his cooperation with the supplier.

The next stage of the "Loyalty Pyramid" is associated with ensuring a high level of intensity of consumption by customers of the organization's products and services. At this stage, the most in demand are tools for influencing the behavioral loyalty of users, which imply the use of the full range of the company's capabilities to provide clients with financial privileges. This implies the participation of consumers in various bonus promotions, receiving discounts for using the company's services, gifts for purchases, as well as various loyalty programs based on discount-bonus schemes, and offers to join the club. This phase is characterized by the customer gaining an empirical sensory experience of consuming the organization's products and services. The level of customer satisfaction will depend on how well this experience matches his expectations. Therefore, in order to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, it is important to ensure a consistently high quality of the company's products.

3. Customer loyalty programs

There are two ways to retain customers. The first is the creation of conditions that prevent turning to other suppliers, enterprises, etc. the consumer will "measure" seven times before "cutting off" all previous connections, if this is associated with significant investment, the cost of finding new suppliers, the loss of discounts for regular customers and etc. The second is complete customer satisfaction, who is unlikely to be tempted by competitive low prices or other incentives. To implement these methods of retention within the framework of relationship marketing, customer loyalty programs are used.

A customer loyalty program is defined as a set of actions organized in such a way as to stimulate customers and be in accordance with their requirements, as well as to minimize losses, namely, losses in the number of customers, and increase the number of sales. Such programs are widely used in retail outlets, airlines, car rental companies, photo kiosks, in other words, in all sectors that offer everyday goods and services at a fairly high unit price.

The fundamental motive behind loyalty programs is to provide customers with benefits. The best way to encourage any person, to give him any material, emotional, psychological benefit.

In Russia, little attention is paid to the formation of consumer loyalty, adherence to a particular brand, on which long-term sales depend. At the advertising level, consumer loyalty can be won through the place of origin of the goods (French wines and perfumes, Cuban cigars, etc.), packaging (some packages eventually become a brand themselves) or the creation of a legend about the product (for example, placing kefir on the packaging " House in the village "history of the origin of this drink). Based on the data on the mental characteristics of the Russian consumer, it can be assumed that the latter method will be the most effective on the domestic market.

3.1.4 Coalition loyalty program

It brings together several companies that are not competing with each other, but aimed at the same target audience. It can be built on both discount and bonus schemes. The undoubted advantage of coalition loyalty programs is the unification of client bases of various companies. As noted by Y. Karasev, such programs "combine various spheres of activity and allow obtaining a synergistic effect from the cross-use of client bases." In addition, combining databases provides an excellent opportunity for planning various bonus promotions, because you can use the products of your partners as an incentive gift in exchange for bonuses, thereby promoting their business among your customers and increasing their loyalty without compromising your own budget. According to Y. Karasev, participation in such a loyalty program gives the company the opportunity to "promote its goods through an additional punishment, which has high dynamics over time and which can be considered very high potential for cross-marketing activities." Coalition programs share the same advantages and disadvantages as traditional discount or bonus schemes. The most preferable is the construction of such a program on bonus mechanisms, which presuppose high involvement of consumers in the program and ensure its economic efficiency. An important point is the observance of the principle of non-intersection of commercial interests of the coalition members. The disadvantage of coalition loyalty programs is that in order to achieve their effectiveness, it is necessary to implement a large amount of support activities and form a separate brand of the program itself, which should be associated by the consumer not only with companies that are members of the coalition, but also with the program itself. A special case of a coalition loyalty program is the combination of a company discount card with a bank credit card. In essence, this means that the bank card plays the role of a discount or bonus. The bank acquires the opportunity to encourage cardholders to use them to pay for their purchases, but for the rest of the coalition members, the meaning of the program remains the same. Such loyalty programs operate either as a bonus scheme, or on the principle of returning part of the money spent to the cardholder's account.

All of the above methods of influencing the behavioral loyalty of customers can be used both as a single loyalty program "for everyone" and as part of targeted offers. A cross-use option is also possible, when initially all users of discount or bonus cards are offered the same basic conditions, which are further supplemented with targeted offers for specific consumer segments.

4. Implementation of the loyalty program on the example of the "Red Cube"

The "Red Cuba" loyalty program began its evolution with a discount system that was launched at the end of 2001 and existed for 3 years on very simple conditions: a 5% discount, which, as a rule, was summed up with all promotions, unlike the offers of many other companies. At that time, they were a chain selling dishes and household goods. Since 2003, the positioning of the company has changed and in 2004 they finally switched to the model of specialized gift shops. The concept of a discount did not go well with the gift assortment, so Red Cube began to look for an alternative and settled on a bonus system. Of course, the company developed it from scratch, learned a lot, for example, from Rosinter with its Guest of Honor program. But nevertheless, the sale of goods and the service sector have different specifics, so the company assessed someone else's experience critically and adapted it for itself. They carried out marketing research, using financial modeling to select the optimal rate for the accrual of bonuses, and from October 1, 2004 this project was launched in all stores. For half a year, bonus and discount cards were accepted in parallel, after half a year the discount cards were no longer valid, but they are still being exchanged. By the time the discount project was completed, there were about 150,000 participants, at the moment there are just over a million people in the Loyal Customers Club.

The threshold for obtaining a card from the "Red Cube" company is only 500 rubles. - It is enough to fill out a simple questionnaire. Regular customers are those cardholders who, after receiving it, have made at least one purchase during the year (this criterion is met by about 70% of buyers of "Red Cube" stores).

The material component of the program is very interesting: 11% of the amount of each purchase is credited to a personal bonus account. There are exclusive promotions in the Red Cube chain of stores - the first one has already ended a few days ago, when bonuses were accrued at rates from 30 to 60% - no other company offers such conditions. The great advantage of the "Red Cube" program is that its parameters are extremely simple, and the buyer can easily navigate his bonus savings. Unlike other companies, Red Cube does not introduce a special rate for recalculating bonus points into money: for example, one bonus is not equal to a penny or 10 kopecks, etc. The "Red Cube" bonus point is always equal to a unit of the base currency - 1 ruble in Russia, 1 hryvnia in Ukraine, 1 tenge in Kazakhstan. Also, "Red Cube" has no product exceptions from the program: you can buy absolutely any product for bonus points. New projects have been opened in the chain of stores - stores of fresh flowers "Klumba" and stores of jewelry and accessories from the Italian designer AlessandroFrenza. They are also included in the bonus program. It is not done from the program of exceptions and for individual stores of the chain. Red Cuba has a constantly increasing share of stores opened by franchisee partners, and one of the prerequisites for obtaining a franchise is participation in all marketing activities. "Red Cube" plans to open stores in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, the chain of stores is faced with the need to maintain separate bonus accounts by currencies.

Economically, the "Red Cube" program fully justifies itself. Analysis of the data shows that the size of a purchase from a cardholder is usually 50-60% larger, and they make purchases much more often than casual visitors. But the company does not stop there. She is constantly analyzing the database for a variety of parameters, for the third year already using for this several software products of the BI class from three suppliers (one foreign and two Russian companies). If we talk about the organization of the process, then on each questionnaire and card there are unique barcodes, and at the time the card is issued, a dynamic link of them is formed. All this is displayed online in the central office. So far, the questionnaires are filled in manually, but in the near future "Red Cube" plans to automate this process. This will require adapting the questionnaire to machine input.

The company's data processing system is centralized. Bonus accounts are kept in a single repository, transactions from stores are received there online, and the amounts on bonus accounts are recalculated. The technical means are very simple: barcodes and a magnetic stripe are used as personalization tools. The storage also contains personal data of clients. Red Cube has its own unique information security solutions, and the company guarantees confidentiality to all members of the Loyal Customers Club. The data warehouse was also developed by the company's programmers.

Even at the stage of system design, the company rejected the possibility of attracting an outsourcing processing center to process bonus points. She decided to do it on her own and did not lose: there were practically no serious problems during this time. Communication with cardholders is organized through several channels at once: unlike a discount, a bonus allows you to organize communication with regular customers. They constantly want to check their savings, understand the origin of the bonus amount, make a second purchase or spend bonus points.

The easiest way to check your account is to come to the store, where the cashier, having read the barcode, will issue a check with the amount of the bonus balance. The second way is a personal account on the company's website. Currently, it displays the balance of funds on the account and the amount of purchases made with this card for the entire time. You can also change your personal data there. The most traditional information channel is the call center. In the near future, they are going to connect another channel of information via SMS-messages. Until now, "Red Cube" used this channel only for broadcasting information about various promotions and events of the company, but now the company wants to organize a system of individual notifications about the accrual and write-off of points. At the moment, with several providers, the company is actively testing this channel, and believes that it will work within two months. They also actively use e-mail, but the mailing lists of their own magazines and catalogs have long been abandoned: the client base has grown dramatically, and the mail does not work very reliably.

If we talk about partnership programs, then, despite the fact that the "Red Cuba" program is individual and is aimed mainly at retaining customers, the company is opening many new stores. If in Moscow the task of increasing the company's awareness and increasing brand awareness is not urgent, in other cities there is a need to inform and attract potential buyers.

Nevertheless, the market for loyalty programs is on the rise, even specialized consulting companies for their development have appeared. When the "Red Cube" began to create its bonus program, there was nothing like this on the market. Now similar products are appearing from other companies, software tools are being actively developed to support them. But only those initiatives in which original ideas and unique approaches are implemented become successful.

5. Test

A loyal consumer is ...

a) those consumers who positively relate to the activities of the company, offered by its products and services, its personnel, etc .;

b) a solvent consumer;

c) an emotional consumer who is aware of the organization's activities and the level of customer satisfaction.

The components of behavioral loyalty include (possibly several answers):

a) satisfaction;

b) awareness;

c) cross-selling;

d) increase in purchases;

e) repeat purchases;

f) all answers are correct.

The main components of "perceived" loyalty are:

a) satisfaction;

b) awareness;

c) all answers are correct;

The material factors of consumer loyalty include (possibly several answers):

a) procedural factors;

b) traditional;

c) personal;

d) software;

e) all answers are correct.

What loyalty is provided by intangible factors:

a) perceived;

b) behavioral.

What are the three components of the process of forming consumer satisfaction:

a) 1) the quality of the key benefits;

2) the quality of the process of providing the service ;;

3) perception of the value of the service.

b) 1) time of consumption;

2) the share of consumer loyalty;

3) the level of customer satisfaction.

c) 1) evaluation of the service;

2) customer satisfaction;

3) the level of customer service.

The most famous and most frequently used tool for assessing the quality of service is the methodology:

c) Elasticity's.

Which of the presented options relate to the types of loyalty depending on the level of behavioral and perceived loyalty (possibly several answers):

a) emotional loyalty;

b) absolute;

c) versatile;

d) false;

e) hidden;

f) lack of loyalty;

g) effective;

h) all answers are correct.

What hidden loyalty means:

a) providing minimum retention opportunities;

b) when behavioral loyalty corresponds to a low level of perceived loyalty;

c) that a high level of perceived loyalty is not supported by consumer behavior, i.e. distinguishes this company from competitors.

Loyalty program - …….

a) client's attachment to goods, services, personnel, environment, as a result of his satisfaction;

b) a set of actions organized in such a way as to stimulate customers and be in accordance with their requirements, as well as to minimize losses;

c) unites several companies that do not compete between slabs, but target the same target audience.

What does the discount program mean:

a) providing the client with a discount at the time he makes paid transactions;

b) the accumulation of special points by the client, which in the future he can exchange for gifts valuable for him from the company's catalog;

c) the material or emotional benefit received as a result of a "lucky chance".

Coalition Loyalty Program - ...

a) a program in which the benefit depends on the buying activity of the client;

b) integrates various areas of activity and allows you to get a synergistic effect from the cross-use of client bases;

c) combining the company's discount card with a bank's credit card;

What factors underlie customer loyalty in a developed market:

a) intangible factors;

b) emotional;

c) incentive.

What are the advantages of discount or bonus programs:

a) enable the organization to track the purchasing activity of its customers;

b) the use of cards by customers allows the company to authorize them at the time of transactions;

c) allows for a fairly trial segmentation of the client base;

d) all answers are correct.

What development trends of the Russian market of loyalty programs could you write _______________________________________________

Conclusion

Loyalty is defined by a combination of "behavioral" and "perceived" characteristics. Therefore, loyal are those consumers who have a positive attitude to the activities of the company, the products and services it offers, its personnel, etc.

There are also several common tools for influencing behavioral customer loyalty - customer reward programs, such as:

discount program;

Prize drawings;

Bonus programs;

Coalition program.

All of these methods of influencing the behavioral loyalty of customers can be used both as a single loyalty program "for everyone" and as part of targeted offers.

An important stage in building customer loyalty is to achieve a high level of satisfaction with the products and services of the organization, as well as the level of service and quality of service provided by the company to its customers. In addition, in the process of forming a loyalty complex, it is important to provide for the presence in it of various measures aimed at providing the company's customers with both material and non-material preferences.

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