Relationship Building

Rewards Programs, Return

Policies, and Gift Registries

In an upcoming case study we will be diving into many different subjects.  Among the most important is relationship building and the many opportunities businesses have to build positive relationships with customers.  Our case study is going to highlight the way that one company fails to take advantage of relationship building opportunities and other companies that excel at building long-term, positive customer relationships.  Let’s take a brief look at ways to not only build your company but also foster strong relationships with customers.  Three things that come to mind immediately are Gift Registries, Return Policies, and Rewards Programs.  Does your company use any of these?

Let’s look at the first item in our list of three customer relationship building tools.  Gift Registries…There are a few times in a person’s life when their life permanently changes such as getting married or having a child.  I have gone through both of these changes in the last few years and in each case my wife and I used gift registries at various stores to allow our friends and family to purchase gifts that we wanted or needed.  Doing our registries was a great way for us to spend a long time in the store, see virtually all of the merchandise, and even request things we knew we would never purchase on our own for one reason or another.  Because of our families and friends all of our registry items were purchased for each life changing event creating thousands of dollars of revenue for the stores.  By giving your customers the opportunity to register for items they want either through a traditional registry or a wish list you are increasing the chances of sales for your business.  The simple idea of gift registries fostered our relationship with the company that did it right and made us question the company that didn’t.  For more on this see our case study coming out soon.  We will also be doing an in depth post on gift registries, how to set the up and why in the near future.

As couples get married, have babies, and receive gifts (either from their registry or not) they may receive things that are duplicates, not needed, or not appropriate.  For this reason it is necessary for a store to have an attractive return policy to foster relationship building.  In the case study we are going to highlight how one store will even give cash back without a receipt while the other store won’t even take back an item that is in stock.  Check back soon for more information on return policies and how to set them up.

One of the primary goals for every business should be to keep customers coming back again and again.  One way to accomplish this is through effective rewards programs.  Our case study is going to highlight several examples of great rewards programs while showing an example of one company that doesn’t get it right at all.  Your business should consider using a rewards program to foster relationships and create long term raving fans.  A post on setting up a rewards program and 5 things to be cautious about in your rewards program will be posted soon.

There are several ways to build long term successful relationships with customers.  It is very interesting to see the companies that get it right and amazingly curious as to how some companies get it so completely wrong.  Let your business be one of the one’s that get’s it right the first time and builds relationships the right way, the Gladiator Marketing way.  Check back soon for more on these three topics and other issues.

Filed Under Customer Service, General Business, Marketing Strategy | Leave a Comment  | July 6th, 2010

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