AMiable Solution #175: Are Your Customers Faithful?

You pour as much love on your clients, customers, members, and donors as you can.  You refer to them by first name.  You not only personalize all of your communications with them, but you also hand-select the products and services you offer them.  You make sure you call or write at least twice a month.

But is that enough to keep them faithful?  Do they love you as much as you love them?

It depends on the customer.  Paul Wang, co-founder of the Database Marketing Institutes, classifies buyers into three categories: program buyers, transaction buyers, and relationship buyers.

Program buyers are rarely influenced by marketing.  They follow set procedures to make purchases for their business and usually use one of several suppliers, as dictated by their manuals or processes.

Transaction buyers care less about brands and loyalty and more about prices and deals.  They respond to sales and discounts but will abandon one company for another at the drop of a price.

Relationship buyers, however, not only respond to marketing, but they thrive on it.  They want to build a history with you and develop a trust in you.  They don’t want to waste time or energy finding an organization they can count on every time they need to make a purchase.  When they find a company or organization that provides a quality product or service, employs friendly and helpful people, and supplies them with information when they need it, they’ll make that company or organization their go-to.  Relationship buyers will stay with you for a lifetime if you treat them right.

If relationship buyers seem to be the best type of buyers, does that mean you should focus all of your attention and budget on them?  Not at all.  But it does mean that you need to understand which customers fall into each category and market to them appropriately.  And marketing to relationship buyers, when done right, is something everyone will love.