Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Loyalty in Business - It Starts at Home

Loyalty has always been an important element to any business, but what is it? In simple terms, loyalty is a feeling or attitude of devoted attachment to you and your business. Without the loyalty of your employees, customers, and shareholders, it may be difficult to even break even, let alone gain profits. Through strategic management, company resources can be made use of in a way which can increase the loyalty of customers, employees, and even shareholders. 

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Virtuous Circle - Wikipedia
Although developing loyalty may seem like a complicated, daunting task. It is actually a simpler concept than you would think. Through providing excellent customer service, along with training and encouraging employees, your business creates a "cycle of success". 

It all starts at "home". In order to generate sales and increase your profit margin, you must have a strong foundation - happy / loyal employees. When employees and trained and empowered they are likely to be satisfied with their jobs, and competent with their assigned tasks. It is also important to reward the right results. If you have an employee who stands out, consider giving them a raise or another type of compensation (perhaps paid leave). If employees see that excellence is rewarded, they will strive to do their best. Employee satisfaction and competence contributes to superior customer service, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Happy customers and employees mean higher sales and profit margins, and satisfied shareholders.

If you would like to improve loyalty in your business, there are a few things to remember:

Simplicity is key: A complex plan to gain employee, customer, and shareholder loyalty is not the solution. Complexity decreases the speed and responsiveness of gaining loyalty in business.

Reward the right results: If employees see that they are rewarded to excellent performance, they are more likely to strive to excellence. In contrast, if you reward customer loyalty, people are more likely to regularly do business with you. A simple idea would be creating a customer loyalty program (providing a discount on goods and services, etc.)

Practice what you preach: If you would like someone to be loyal, it is crucial that you do the same. You yourself should do the things which you advise people to do. Be loyal to your employees, customers, and shareholders, and more likely than not, they will do the same. 

Listen and communicate: Two-way communication and learning is important for any long-term relationship, whether it be business or personal. If you don't listen to concerns or suggestions of the very people you would like to build a loyal business relationship with, it is likely they will not trust you and will not be loyal to your company. Don't lie either - talk straight. Without trust, it is impossible to foster loyalty.

Remember, loyalty is a win / win situation - you will be happy, as will your employees, shareholders, and customers. If you are looking to gain a larger customer base, be sure to employ a marketing campaign. If you are unfamiliar with marketing and would like assistance, feel free to contact us. At All Delivered we offer door-to-door distribution services for door hangers, flyers, postcards, samples, and specialty items. Additionally, we also offer social media marketing services, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, website creation, maintenance, and redesign, along with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services. Feel free to contact us with any questions, or if you would like a free, competitive quote.

Phone: 1-877-992-5533
Website: www.alldelivered.com