Loyalty – the undiscovered country
Retailers need to concentrate on retaining customers…
A recent loyalty poll published on theretailbulletin.com produced in collaboration with the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM) indicated that next year, 55% of retailers will invest more on acquisition than retention. In 2015 almost two thirds (63%) will be spending more on acquiring customers than retaining current ones.
The research indicated that poor UK customer experiences was leading directly to retailers having to devote the majority of their budget to getting in “new” customers, as existing ones desert.
Using further research, we wanted to know if our readers agreed with the findings of the poll. 75% of them did.
It was not hard to see why when we asked companies about how they felt they measured up against two key loyalty drivers
You’re a retailer, so where are my products?
Top of the list for any shopper, has to be the ability to buy what they want, when they need it. So it would be expected that asking how they rated on availability, should produce glowing reports. This is not what shoppers actually report, and interestingly, retailers are also well aware of their weaknesses in this area.
On a rating scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is very good, Retail Bulletin retailers felt they average just 3.58. A fair way away from good, let alone very good.
Service with a smile?
We asked Are your store staff informed, available and keen to answer shopper questions?
They told us that at 3.73 out of 5 – their confidence in their customers getting the answers they wanted in the way they would expect was little better than their customers chances of getting the products they were looking for.
Light at the end of the tunnel
All round not, perhaps, a great result. However, there was some encouragement from the results.
75% of those responding agreed with the Retail Bulletin results. And, in answer to the question “In light of the report’s conclusions will you consider investing more in customer retention?” 79% said yes.
A victory perhaps for learning from experience, even if the experience we all have to learn from is poor.
