Creating loyal customers is more important than building more customers.. Do you agree?

Retaining loyal customers helps in broadening the base as also saves from advertising budgets. Word of mouth reference or appreciation from a reliable friend or relation remains one of the most effective modes of reference.

Without doubt addition is best for any business and retention of existing cutomers is huge contibutor to carrying forward.

Of course retention of customers neither means taking a customer for granted nor ....non-investment on innovation and quality progress.

yes! it is very essential in business that we keep loyal customers with us  because in the long run we get support from loyal customers. To keep running the business one should recognize and maintain loyal customers while building more customers.  

I fully agree with the opinion of Ms.Purvi Ghose.

Loyal customers are very vital for any business.

THANK YOU PURVI.IN TODAY`S CONTEXT,RETAINING THE CUSTOMER IS VERY IMPORTANT AND IS VERY USEFUL.LOYAL CUSTOMERS ARE INEXPNSIVE BRAND AMBASSADORS BECAUSE OF THEIR WORD OF MOUTH PUBLICITY.

Loyalty pays heavily in the long run...Many corporates & even small entrepreneurs tend to ignore the existing clients for the sake of business promotion. The cost of loosing one customer can't be calculated in terms of business & trust lost in the long run, as compared to cost of making a new customer. But it is equally important to make new customers, the top management must make an extra-ordinary efforts to maintain the loyalty of the existing clients.

its much obvious question.......wen u cr8 loyal cutomers..u are,in a way,creating a strong customer base.....

True, I agree with you

Dear Purvi, thank you for inviting me.

Ms.Sakshi, Its is always more important to take care tof the existing loyal customers rather than to hunt for new customers. Holding the existing database itself is of great marketing coz, even in this tech savvy times, still word of mouth is the greatest means of delivery and also thru the networking sites. A loyal and happy customer is always worth more than 10 new walkins.

A Strong Brand can convert customer into loyal customer, and its a long term process a loyal customer itself helps to maximise the customer base, therefore in my opinion creating loyal customer is more important than building more n more customer....

I will definitely vote for creating loyal customers because building more customers and not satisfying them will again be a loosing state.  They may go out with so many other customers and stopping further customers.  Loyal customers are an asset to the brand and their mouth publicity works more and faster.  So you should go for creating loyal customers and satisfy them fully.

Of course, there is no denial of fact creating loyal customers is more important than creating more and more customers.  Having said that, one needs to create a base of customers and then work towards converting the customers to a loyal customers.  In other words, one is a starting point and the other is the end point.  Both are equally important.

Unfortunately, these days, every other corporate is interested in the starting point and completely forgetting the end point.  This is because of the lifestyle of the customers as they themselves tend to be not loyal to a particular product.  This is mind and heart related issue.  To create more customers all you need is mind and to create more loyal customers, you need mind and a heart.

This change is a result of outsourcing customer services and extensive use of online portals to sell products.  Outsourcing, per se, is not bad but quality of services provided is not monitored in most of the cases.  This results in drifting of customers.

Of course, there is no denial of the fact that we need to create more loyal customers than merely building more customers.  Having said that, we can create loyal customers only if we build more customers.

The point is, building more customers is without application of mind.  Creating more loyal customers out of the customers is with full application of mind and it can be achieved only if the entitiy has an attitute for it.

With the advent of online portals and use of call centres, one tends to feel that corporate are more concerned with acquiring more customers.  It is because the outsourced entity may not carry the same level of commitment and conviction towards customer satisfaction.  I am sure a number of my friends here will agree that banking, telecom and FMCD sector which extensively uses the services of outsourced entities is the worst provider of services.  It is a pity that if you have problem with one, you may end up with a similar problem with another because that company has also outsourced its activities.

Quality should be the driver and managements should spend time to see how the end customer is serviced.  This can happen only if companies take extra effforts in its business. 

I strongly feel that corporate should work towards creating loyal customers.

However, with the advent of call centres and online portals to sell products, corporate are no longer looking at loyalty of customers but definitely putting all their efforts in building more customers.  By this process, corporate's top line goes up and individual employees sales targets are met.

I have had many bad experiences where top corporate do not take customer satisfaction and post sales seriously.  Earlier times, if a customer is dissatisfied with the product or the service, corporate will see to it that these cases are attended to on a priority.  To give an example, the worst case is with the banking sector and consumer durables. 

Outsourcing is the main culprit for this.  The outsourced entity may or may not have the same level of dedication and seriousness that of the producer or provider of the services.

Yes, we may not deny that : getting a new customer is more costly than to serve an old customer.

Are best served customers loyal ?

Truth is that like "job hoppers" in employment market, customers are also hopping new service providers ... may be the 'fashion' has caught them.

Any solution ?

its very simple....when a brand builds loyal customers, these loyal customers act as brand ambassadors and create more customers for the brand. Therefore building loyal customers automatically enlarges the customer base of a brand..