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New research from a customer behaviour research agency, SMG, makes a very interesting reading – for a number or reasons. It reports that many retailers are more focused on acquiring new customers than retaining their loyal clientele.
In fact, next year over half of retailers surveyed will be spending more of the marketing budget on acquiring new customers, although 63% of them acknowledge that existing customers are more profitable. Moreover 76% of respondents believe that product, service and staff availability and till queuing times are the biggest causes of customers walking away before completing their purchase.
So why don’t they start from addressing these issues before blowing money away on new marketing activities which often miss the target?
Perhaps because building customer loyalty is a long and arduous process – which all of you know only too well, managing your businesses over many years. Meanwhile top management of large companies want instant results which can be manifested on a balance sheet to the stakeholders, regardless of the fact that such a performance is not sustainable in the long term. Yet they aware that people who once can be lured into a store and convinced to buy heavily promoted and discounted products are unlikely to become loyal customers and ambassadors of the store and the brand.
Attracting new customers is important as the market changes constantly, however unless they have a good in-store experience and are impressed with the service they receive they won’t return, so they will become an expensive one-off investment. And we all wish to keep our customers for life not just for Christmas.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a good New Year from the whole team at IER.
Anna Ryland, Editor
