Consumer loyalty- positive attitude and emotional commitment of buyers, based on the habit of purchasing goods or services of a particular manufacturer or brand, regardless of price, excluding alternative offers.

Achieving consumer loyalty- a continuous and long-term process of interaction with the target audience, which is aimed at creating a strong connection between the company and consumers of its goods and services. Typically, a purchase is perceived as an exchange of time and money for an item that has corresponding practical and emotional value. A high level of loyalty has a positive effect on the company's performance.

There are several successive stages of achieving a strong connection with customers; they correspond to the types of consumer loyalty.

Types of loyalty

Transactional (basic) loyalty is aimed at retaining the client and consists in providing mutually beneficial terms of interaction. Buyers know about the real advantages of the company; they are completely satisfied with the sales system and level of service. The choice of services offered by the company in this case becomes obvious and familiar.

Emotional loyalty is based on sensitivity to the specific needs of the consumer, which makes him feel special and important. Providing personalized offers and the ability to meet wishes triggers the psychological mechanism of “anchoring” - a comparison of the initially proposed conditions with new ones, which tips the scales in favor of your company.

Example: Harley Davidson organized a motorcycle safety course where potential buyers learn to drive, at the same time they become emotionally attached to the brand and more connected to motorcycle culture. These courses lead to additional sales of motorcycles, and as a result, both parties benefit.

Personal loyalty- the most durable and often irrational type of loyalty. Consumers are so attached to a brand that neither high prices nor better offers from competitors can make them abandon it. The comparison here is with football fans, who are committed to their favorite team regardless of its wins or losses. You and your customers should share a common experience in which the product plays a supporting role.

Costs of forming a circle regular customers, as a rule, lower than the cost of attracting a new client.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. CONSUMER LOYALTY: CONCEPT AND METHODS OF ASSESSMENT

1.1 Definition of consumer loyalty

1.2 Methods for assessing consumer loyalty

1.3 Loyalty pyramid

CHAPTER 2. LOYALTY IN THE ENTERPRISE

2.1 Creating a loyalty program

2.2 Evaluating results and adjusting the loyalty program

CONCLUSION

LIST OF REFERENCES USED

Increasing competition, increasing communication costs, the emergence of the consumer shortage effect and the growth of their expectations determine the development of the concept of consumer relationship marketing, which is replacing classical marketing. If a few years ago marketing strategies were focused on attracting new consumers, then recently the emphasis has shifted to retaining existing ones, forming their loyalty and fidelity to the enterprise. The reason for this change is the realization that long-term relationships with clients are cost-effective because... guarantee regular purchases, require lower marketing costs per consumer and, thanks to recommendations from loyal customers, help increase their number.

However, most Russian companies do not have experience in establishing partnerships with their customers. The main difficulties for them are the lack of a systematic approach to managing customer loyalty and the lack of scientific and methodological knowledge on the formation of enterprise management systems aimed at retaining consumers and increasing their loyalty.

All of the above determines the relevance of developing scientific and practical recommendations in the field of marketing on the formation of programs to increase consumer loyalty.

Approaches to determining loyalty, its structure, types, factors determining the choice of types of loyalty, as well as questions on the theory and practice of managing consumer loyalty in various industries are disclosed in the works of foreign specialists, such as D. Aaker, K. Bazu, D. Brierley, WITH. Butcher, I. Büschken, J. Giese, T. Glova, T. Goki, A. Dick, S. Coyle, J. Cote, V. Kumar, S. Lawson, R. McDougall, S. Park, F. Reichheld, W. Reinartz, W. Sesser, T. Teal, N. Hill, J. Haskett, R. Chestnut, J. Sheth, J. Schlessinger, J. Jacobi.

Most of the works of domestic authors are devoted to certain aspects of consumer loyalty management, such as measurement methods, loyalty programs, personnel incentive systems, while recommendations regarding the development of comprehensive programs for increasing consumer loyalty, developed abroad, require adaptation to Russian practice.

The purpose of the study is to analyze practical provisions and recommendations aimed at creating programs to increase consumer loyalty.

To achieve this goal, the following research tasks are expected to be solved:

determine the place and role of the concept of “consumer loyalty” in modern marketing and identify problems with its use in Russia;

clarify the structure and nature of consumer loyalty, types and indicators that characterize them;

identify factors for choosing the type of loyalty that determine their specificity and variability when creating programs to increase consumer loyalty;

conduct an analysis of existing methods for researching and measuring consumer loyalty, and identify the most effective ones for Russian enterprises.

The objects of research are enterprises and organizations, as well as consumers of goods and services.

The subject of this study is a set of economic and organizational relations that arise in the process of enterprises implementing relationship marketing, expressed in the creation and implementation of programs to increase consumer loyalty.

The key goal of the relationship marketing concept is to achieve and strengthen consumer loyalty. Researchers note that the presence large quantity loyal and paying customers to the organization can provide it with a number of significant advantages both in the short and long term.

In modern marketing literature, two approaches to the interpretation of the concept of loyalty can be distinguished: 1) based on the fact that loyalty is considered as a certain type of consumer behavior, expressed in long-term interaction with the company, in repeated purchases. Regardless of the fact that such ease of assessing loyalty, this approach has a clear gap: it does not reveal the reasons why a consumer makes a choice in favor of a particular service provider, but only takes into account behavioral outcomes (repeat purchases).

Scientists tried to eliminate this drawback and proposed a completely different approach. According to which, loyalty is a consumer preference formed as a result of a generalization of feelings, emotions, opinions regarding a service (or its supplier). This type of loyalty is sometimes highlighted as more significant because it is not considered to reflect a consumer's past experience, but rather to indicate future behavior. But this approach, firstly: gives preference to subjective opinions - the determining factors of loyalty; it does not prove their influence on the purchase. Secondly, there is the problem of measuring this type of loyalty.

Traditionally, in the relationship marketing literature, customer loyalty is divided into behavioral and perceived. Monitoring behavioral loyalty metrics is carried out by observing the actual behavior of the client and is a method of implementing a retrospective transactional analysis of his consumer activity. In turn, the emotional loyalty of customers is expressed in the level of their awareness of the organization’s activities and what needs they can satisfy by using its products or services, as well as in the level of customer satisfaction with the company’s offerings, their quality and the service provided by the organization. In addition, an important component of perceived customer loyalty is the level of emotional perception of the company. It seems that for the most complete and comprehensive assessment, it is most advisable to use an approach that involves monitoring both behavioral and perceived metrics of customer loyalty.

Consumer loyalty is a figuratively positive attitude of consumers regarding the activities of the organization, as well as products and services sold, produced or provided by the organization, company personnel, image of the organization, trademark, logo, etc. It is the presence of consumer loyalty, that is, his favorable attitude towards a given company or its product, that is the foundation for a stable volume of its sales. Consumer loyalty is an indicator of the stability and success of a company. Loyal consumers can be called those consumers who remain “faithful” to the company for a sufficiently long time (compared to the life of the product) and make repeated purchases.

One of the foundations of loyalty is the positive experience a consumer receives in the process of purchasing or consuming a particular product or service. For example, if a consumer is completely satisfied with the quality of a product of a particular company, then, with all factors remaining unchanged, next time he will most likely make his consumer choice in favor of this particular brand. In turn, when choosing another product included in the range of products produced by the company you like, his favorable attitude will be transferred to the new products of this company.

In practice modern business Loyalty is often understood as customer satisfaction, which is not entirely true. As noted by S. Sysoeva A. Neiman, “satisfaction appears when the buyer is satisfied and does not regret the money spent. But the client will not necessarily become loyal. A loyal buyer is always a satisfied buyer, but a satisfied buyer is not always loyal. Although buyer satisfaction is the first step towards winning his loyalty." A similar point of view is also shared by T.Y. Gerpott, who believes that “satisfaction with a service is not identical to consumer loyalty. Customer satisfaction should be understood as a set of ordered assessments of individual characteristics of services (which can be positive and negative), and these assessments include individually perceived and expected quality characteristics. A positive assessment of a service ( customer satisfaction) increases the strength of repurchase intention, but does not completely determine it, since it depends on the technical, functional and economic connection of the client to the enterprise, the general attractiveness of competitors’ services, and the overall assessment own business". As a number of studies have shown, consumer satisfaction does not necessarily entail repeat purchases and increased sales. During their implementation, it was revealed that it is only the foundation for further building customer loyalty.

The difference between satisfaction and loyalty has provoked opposing conclusions from a number of researchers. Some authors believe that “only satisfaction, not loyalty, can act as an achievable goal for a company,” and confirm their opinion with the presence of effective methods for measuring customer satisfaction, as opposed to the lack of ways to determine their loyalty. Others, on the contrary, emphasize that “loyalty, not satisfaction, should be the real goal of the company,” since customer satisfaction does not guarantee repeat transactions with the supplier, which is the reason why customer satisfaction cannot be used as a meaningful metric. It seems that the second approach looks more reasonable, so it was adopted as a starting point for further analysis of factors that influence the emergence and strengthening of consumer loyalty.

Consumer loyalty is based on an individual set of compelling arguments in favor of the choice once made. One part of these arguments, such as the price of a product or a bonus program for purchases, can be expressed in very specific numerical indicators. The other part, the same cuteness or attentiveness of the sellers, is difficult to describe in numbers, but it undoubtedly has an impact. Accordingly, to increase consumer loyalty, both rational and emotional moves should be made.

What kind of moves are these? Like most everyone else marketing moves, the development of consumer loyalty is built on two human vices: greed and a tendency to flattery. The second most important ones are indulging laziness and inciting curiosity. By skilfully playing these four strings, we can bring the consumer closer to the conclusion that there cannot be a better choice for him that is beneficial to us. To do this, you only need to accurately and clearly highlight the benefits that are significant for this particular person. And it is obvious that the combination of benefits that is significant for each person can be quite individual.

For a long period of time, scientists believed that consumer loyalty is determined solely by his satisfaction, but modern research has revealed that consumer satisfaction does not always entail repeated purchases and generally an increase in sales; in principle, at least half of “satisfied” consumers change service providers. This gap between loyalty and satisfaction indicates the possible presence of other components that influence the formation of loyalty.

The components of “behavioral” loyalty (the values ​​of which can be obtained from the consumer database) are defined as follows:

Cross-selling is an increase in the number of additional company products that were purchased by a consumer during a specific period in time;

An increase in purchases is total amount or a share of a given amount of increase in the size of the purchase of the same product in a certain period of time;

Repeat purchases - the number of repeat purchases;

Maintaining the achieved level of interaction between the consumer and the company is the comparative constancy of the purchase amount of one product over a certain period of time.

Since we are dealing with consumer preferences and opinions, measuring the components of perceived loyalty is much more difficult. In this case, consumer and expert surveys will be the main way to obtain information. Indicators of consumer loyalty will be:

1) Its awareness, which is defined as the degree of familiarity of the company’s activities in the services market. Also, consumer knowledge can be measured in the form of the number of recommendations from other consumers, such recommendations lead to attracting new customers.

2) His satisfaction, since regardless of the identified limitations of satisfaction - an indicator of loyalty, it would not be logical to reduce its value. Satisfaction is the most difficult factor of all those listed above. It consists of the following main components:

Quality of key benefits;

Quality of the service delivery process;

Perception of service value.

Moreover, the consumer’s attitude towards the product, service, and price of the company’s product is formed under the influence of:

Personal factors;

Social change;

Situational phenomena.

The most famous and widely used method for assessing service quality is “SERVQUAL”, which was proposed by Parasuraman, Beri and Zeithaml in 1985. The “SERVQUAL” method is a questionnaire that is developed based on a synthesis of data collected from five various types services, including 22 pairs of questions with a Likert scale. These questions were developed according to five main parameters of service quality, namely:

Responsiveness - that is, the willingness to help the consumer in a timely manner and provide him with the necessary service;

Persuasiveness is the competence of company personnel and their ability to inspire confidence in consumers;

Reliability - the presence of commitment in the work of personnel, the ability to perform the promised service within the specified time frame;

Sympathy - the degree of individualization of the approach to the consumer, providing him with personal attention;

Tangibility - all physical, tangible objects used in the process of providing a service (furniture and interior items, condition and specifications equipment etc.).

The questions of the methodology are divided into two parts, of which the first part served to identify consumer expectations for a particular service, and the other part - to identify the level of compliance with the quality of the offered service.

Very often this technique was criticized, especially regarding the following points:

The technique does not provide for comparison of variables that have clearly different importance for consumers;

The individual dimensions of the technique are intertwined, especially with regard to empathy and responsiveness;

The technique uses statements that begin with a negative.

There is obvious repetition of questions;

Since the composition of each measurement strongly depends on the specifics of the industry, this technique is not applicable for all services.

The share of criticism was taken into account by the authors of SERVQUAL and subsequently amendments were made to the methodology. Other scientists also tried to combat the differences in methodology; they tried to create better tools for measuring service quality, mainly by improving SERVQUAL. For example, the SERVPERF methodology, which was developed by Cronin and Taylor, but it also has a number of gaps in measuring service quality.

Since assessing the quality of the service alone is not enough to measure satisfaction, today attempts to develop a satisfaction measurement tool consist of supplementing SERVQUAL modifications with blocks for assessing perceived value and additional indicators of satisfaction and, in general, correspond to the procedure proposed by Lambin. Additional indicators usually include: overall satisfaction rating (which is subsequently compared with the overall results for individual parameters) and future intentions of the buyer, such as willingness to recommend the services to friends and intention to refuse the services of this company. In addition, it is necessary to add socio-demographic questions and questions on the overall satisfaction of those surveyed with life.

Thus, we draw the following conclusions: 1) complete consumer satisfaction when creating loyalty is a more significant factor than simple satisfaction; 2) it is necessary to monitor the state of consumer dissatisfaction.

Since the company needs to study the dynamics of satisfaction, the latter study should be carried out regularly, at least once a year. It is necessary to compare behavioral loyalty and perceived parameters to evaluate loyalty. The values ​​of the components of behavioral loyalty can be obtained from the database, in fact, for each consumer at any time. However, it is impossible to measure the perceived loyalty of each consumer on a regular basis. Therefore, it is advisable to assess both behavioral and perceived loyalty segment by segment.

Depending on the level of behavioral and perceived loyalty, we can distinguish Various types loyalty:

Absolute loyalty - a situation in which a high level of behavioral loyalty of consumers corresponds to a high level of perceived loyalty - is the most favorable for the organization. Consumers with absolute loyalty are the easiest to retain. Moreover, maintaining existing quality standards may be sufficient for this.

Implicit loyalty means that high levels of perceived loyalty are not reinforced by consumer behavior. That is, he highlights this company from among competitors, but does not purchase its products as often or in such quantities as absolutely loyal consumers. The reasons for this are, first of all, external factors, for example, insufficient income. In such a situation, the organization needs to strengthen its achieved position by developing behavioral loyalty. For this purpose, price incentives can be used, for example.

False loyalty occurs when behavioral loyalty is matched by a low level of perceived loyalty. This situation is threatening because the consumer is not attached to the organization. His purchases may be a consequence of limited supply, habits (the services of this company are traditionally used by other family members), therefore, as soon as the consumer finds an organization that satisfies him to a greater extent, he will refuse the service. In order for consumers to demonstrate this type of loyalty to be established, a necessary effort of perceived loyalty is required.

Finally, lack of loyalty provides minimal opportunity for retention. The organization should either refuse to retain this part of consumers, note, beneficial for it, or take special measures to increase, first of all, perceived loyalty.

It seems that it is most appropriate to consider the process of forming customer loyalty through the prism of their development life cycle. In this case, it becomes possible not only to determine a list of factors influencing the emergence and strengthening of loyalty, but also to appropriately formulate a range of marketing activities that need to be carried out depending on what stage of development the relationship between the consumer and the organization is at. A description of loyalty factors is proposed based on a tool called the “Loyalty Pyramid”, in which perceived loyalty includes:

Having a high value in the relationship with the company;

Satisfaction of all functional needs and expectations (including open ones) of the client;

Perception of the company (brand, popularity in the market). Client awareness of the company’s activities/products.

Behavioral loyalty includes:

Stability and active use of the company's products and services.

According to this method, loyal customers are those who have a positive attitude towards the company’s activities and are well aware of the opportunities that the organization provides them. Knowledge of its products and services leads to their active consumption, which is a factor in consumer behavioral loyalty. This behavior is characterized by the stability of the client’s transactions over a long period of time or the growth of consumption of the company’s products and services. This demonstrates the customer's satisfaction with what the company offers him. Based on satisfaction, prerequisites arise for creating a positive emotional background of interaction with the organization, which, in turn, leads to customer loyalty.

It seems that determining loyalty using this method includes all the most significant factors that must be taken into account by an organization seeking to orient its marketing activities to build long-term mutually beneficial relationships with our clients. Thus, when considering the formation of loyalty from the point of view of this tool, one of the stages that the client must go through in the process of forming his positive attitude towards the organization is achieving a high level of satisfaction from the consumption of the company’s products and services. In addition, this tool examines the phases of building consumer loyalty according to the stages of its life cycle in relation to the organization. As their relationship develops, the phases of the “Pyramid of Loyalty” do not replace, but complement each other.

The first stage of the described tool involves the formation of a positive image of the organization in the client. This stage of developing customer loyalty is the first in terms of both the beginning of the client’s interaction with the company and the emergence of the buyer’s perception of the supplier. It seems that the greatest significance in at this stage The organization's efforts are aimed at a general positive perception of its activities by the target audience of consumers and at informing customers about the products and services that they can use in the company, what needs they can satisfy through the consumption of its products. This implies such areas of the company's activities as branding and effective communication with clients.

The main objective of branding within the concept of relationship marketing is to differentiate an organization from its competitors. With the help of a brand, a company has the opportunity to convey to its target audience the necessary emotional values, thanks to which a positive customer perception of the organization as a whole arises. As S. Davis notes, a brand is a way of demonstrating the values ​​that a consumer can receive when interacting with a company. The author emphasizes that "a brand is a set of sustainable promises. It implies trust, stability and a certain combination of expectations." Branding is the main tool for creating a positive image of an organization in the eyes of its consumers.

Effective communication with the target segment of consumers at this stage of building customer loyalty means, first of all, informing customers about the products and services that the organization can provide them with and what needs it can satisfy. From an operational point of view, this includes the entire range of company activities related to its information interaction with the external environment - from advertising, which conveys primary information about the company to consumers, to individual messages sent to specific clients. It should be noted that as the relationship between supplier and consumer develops, the degree of individualization of information exchange increases. In addition, this process is characterized by a change in information transfer channels: if in the case of advertising, traditional tools are used to convey information to large segments, such as television, billboards and press advertising, then within the framework of individualized communication (person-to-person ) channels such as telephone calls and electronic correspondence. It should be noted that in general, the availability of information about the company is an important component of the concept of relationship marketing not only at the stages of initial attraction of customers and the development of relations between him and the organization in the early stages of cooperation, but also in the process of further interaction. Only if the client knows what needs he can satisfy by interacting with the company, is it possible to develop his cooperation with the supplier.

The next stage of the “Loyalty Pyramid” is associated with ensuring a high level of intensity of customer consumption of the organization’s products and services. At this stage, the most in demand are tools to influence the behavioral loyalty of users, implying the use of the entire range of the company’s capabilities to provide clients with financial privileges. This implies the participation of consumers in various bonus promotions, receiving discounts for using the company’s services, gifts for purchases, as well as various loyalty programs based on discount-bonus schemes, and offers to join the club. This stage is characterized by the client receiving an empirical sensory experience of consuming the organization's products and services. The level of customer satisfaction will depend on how well this experience meets his expectations. Therefore, in order to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, it is important to ensure consistently high quality company products.

Even a successfully developed loyalty program may not produce the expected results if the people directly working with the client and responsible for implementing the program do not fully understand what is required of them. The manager’s task is to find ways to motivate these employees, as well as timely correct their attitude towards this responsibility.

The concept of “loyalty” has long been familiar to players retail market. It is not so important how they understand it, what is important is that loyalty programs allow them to reach a qualitatively new level of work. It is absolutely clear that this is good and it is necessary.

To whom? Firstly - to the clients. People like it when people smile at them, give them gifts, give them discounts, congratulate them on their birthday - in general, they stand out from the crowd and make them pleasantly happy. Secondly, it is financially beneficial for the company: attracting a new client is four times more expensive than retaining an old one. Thirdly, according to many business gurus, the future belongs to companies that build long-term relationships with clients.

Let's consider the process of creating loyalty using the diagram shown in Fig. 1, as well as the main stages of implementing a loyalty program.

Fig. 1 The process of creating loyalty

Stage 1. Analysis of the current situation

At this stage, research is carried out on all target groups that influence the formation of loyalty. We consider the following target groups:

consumers of the product;

company employees;

company partners (suppliers of goods and equipment, marketing and financial intermediaries, media).

As part of the study of employee attitudes, the company conducts in-depth interviews with employees, as well as analysis internal information, results of previous studies, etc.

To study the opinions of consumers, in-depth interviews with regular and abandoned consumers and a quantitative survey of consumers are used. It also analyzes the customer database using questions such as: Which customers contributed the most to the company's revenue last year? From whom does the company expect the main income this year? Which key customers are most susceptible to competitors' temptations? An important indirect indicator of how satisfied a buyer is with a particular company is the frequency and average size of purchases. The more often and more a client buys, the more loyal he is to the company and its products.

Competitor research is carried out through analysis of various competitors’ actions to build loyalty (methods of observation, analysis of secondary information), and a quantitative survey of competitors’ consumers. Competitor analysis will help you formulate a program for developing relationships with your customers.

Stage results: 1. Satisfaction index (including comparative with satisfaction indices for competitors’ products (services).

Segmentation of consumers (by loyalty, frequency of purchases, other characteristics of consumer behavior and socio-demographic criteria).

Assessing the degree of loyalty of company personnel.

Stage 2. Development of a preliminary version of the loyalty building strategy

Based on the results of the study, a preliminary version of the loyalty formation strategy is being developed. It includes the following sub-steps.

1) Description of the current situation and the main barriers to the formation of loyalty

Based on the data obtained at the first stage, it is described how satisfied the target audience is with the company’s work and are loyal to it. If target audiences are completely dissatisfied, it is hardly worth pursuing a loyalty program. Obviously, in such a situation it is necessary to take completely different measures and try to change something in the company’s activities. Or the opposite situation - the satisfaction of target audiences is very high. Since loyalty is based on a feeling of satisfaction, it is very important to describe the degree of satisfaction with the goods and services of a trading enterprise and how loyalty depends on this. This section contains information that is a “starting point” for assessing the effectiveness of the proposed loyalty program. Subsequently, the data obtained after carrying out the proposed activities will be compared with it.

2) Setting program goals

Goals must be set absolutely precisely and, if possible, expressed quantitatively, so that the degree of their achievement can be, if not precisely measured, then at least assessed. To do this, it is necessary to formulate the goal in real units of measurement: percentage, rubles, number of customers, etc. Only then will it be possible to evaluate its success in the future. Of course, the key goal is to increase the company's profits, revenue and market share. Other important goals include the ability to retain customers and attract new ones, accumulate an extensive database about them and provide information support to other divisions of the company, create the opportunity to exchange information between the organization and its clients, and increase the loyalty of not only customers, but also employees and partners of the organization.

3) Determining target audiences of the loyalty program. Segmentation of consumers, employees and partners

The main target group of the loyalty program is consumers. First of all, these are regular consumers who provide a large share of the profit. They should be given primary attention and, when creating a loyalty program, their needs should be met first. You should not exclude less profitable or less profitable people from the program. potential clients. They should also benefit from the program.

A successful customer loyalty program is impossible without a team of loyal employees. Therefore, the second target audience of the loyalty program is company employees. Employees can also be segmented depending on their level of loyalty. The more expressed the employee’s level of loyalty, the more reliable the employee is.

Creating loyalty programs can be effective not only in the field of relations with consumers and employees, but also for working with company partners. The target groups of such programs are relatively small and consist mainly of business partners or firms.

4) A set of measures to build loyalty

For each target group loyalty programs, a set of measures to build loyalty is being developed.

A set of measures to build consumer loyalty includes:

a set of material incentive measures (for example, discount programs and bonus programs, special offers, etc.);

a set of non-material incentive measures ( special conditions for regular customers, clubs of regular customers, etc.);

communications with consumers (magazine covering the loyalty program, newsletter or mailing list, hotline, Web site, participant meetings, events held as part of the program).

A set of measures to build employee loyalty includes:

informing and involving employees;

organization of team building events;

development of objective and transparent system material and non-material incentives;

improving working conditions for employees;

taking into account possible disloyalty when recruiting personnel;

monitoring job satisfaction.

The set of measures for building loyalty of counterparties includes:

participation in joint sales promotion projects;

holding regular meetings and negotiations to discuss current commercial issues;

providing information about end customers.

6) Calculation of costs for carrying out the proposed activities

Loyalty program costs consist of: initial costs(for program development, including personnel training, acquisition of technology, etc.) and operating costs. The magnitude of these costs largely depends on the level of the program and its scale.

There are many ways to generate a profit that can cover most, if not all, of your costs. These include, for example, customers paying annual membership fees, selling merchandise and special offers as part of a loyalty program, receiving commissions from external partners or credit card companies, advertising in magazines covering the program, paying for participation in events or for using some privileges.

The most complete cost control can be achieved by limiting the number of loyalty program participants to a certain limit.

In general, the cost of creating loyalty programs should not be considered as “costs”, but rather as an investment in marketing tools, which in today's competitive environment is a strategic necessity.

Stage results:

1. Initial version of the loyalty program.

2. Business plan for implementing a loyalty program (including calculations of the necessary expenses and planned income from the implementation of the program).

3. Proposals for the formation of a client database (in accordance with the requirements for CRM systems).

Stage 3. Finalization of the loyalty program

At this stage, there is an active discussion of the proposed loyalty formation strategy. Necessary adjustments and additions are made to the program. Principles for managing the loyalty program are being developed, integrating the program into the company structure, software or an IT model of the database, an additional package of documents, including: instructions for working with the database, instructions for conducting various promotions, etc., depending on the content of the program.

1) Solution organizational issues loyalty programs

In order to properly manage the program and ensure its smooth functioning, it is advisable to create service center, where the main activities will be concentrated. Particular attention should be paid to the selection of personnel, technologies and the formation of service center infrastructure.

2) Integration of the customer loyalty program into the company structure

There are many ways to integrate a loyalty program into a company's organizational structure, from creating a completely independent firm to implement the program or assigning these responsibilities to an existing department of the company itself, to completely transferring administrative responsibilities to an independent agency. None of them are perfect, so the decision must be made based solely on individual characteristics company organizing the loyalty program. But it is even more important that the company takes full advantage of the huge potential support that the program can provide. A collaborative and supportive relationship needs to be built between the company's departments and the staff implementing the loyalty program, and management must ensure that both parties understand that they are trying to achieve the same goal and are helping each other to achieve this.

3) Technical support for the loyalty program. The database for a loyalty program must be well thought out and developed. It is necessary to foresee in advance what kind of information it should contain, how this information should be collected, what technical and human resources will be required, how the collected data will be analyzed and for what purpose it can be used.

Stage results:

The final version of the loyalty program A package of documents allowing you to begin implementing the program.

Client database.

Stage 4. Implementation of a loyalty program

At this stage, the following are carried out: carrying out activities to build loyalty; launching a client database; training employees to work with the database; development of instructions for company employees.

In the process of implementing a loyalty program, consumer feedback, including consumer comments, complaints and questions, is of great importance. First of all, the company itself needs this - because it cannot solve problems without knowing what exactly they are. Among other things, it is important to listen to the opinions of not only those who have just become consumers, but also those who have stopped using the product. Main questions: What were the main motives that prompted the decision to buy the product? What most influenced your decision to stop using it? It is these questions, or rather, the answers to them that will help in the future to avoid mistakes in relations with consumers and increase the loyalty of the latter. Questionnaires of store visitors and special surveys help here.

Stage results:

Adjusting the loyalty program based on the opinions of consumers and employees.

Debugging the client database.

Approval of instructions for employees.

In an increasingly competitive environment, many Russian companies launch programs to increase customer loyalty. But before you put this method into practice, you need to know exactly what they want.

As we noted earlier, the term “customer loyalty” (from the English loyal - faithful, devoted) marketers designate the positive attitude of customers towards the company, its services, personnel, image, corporate style. A customer loyal to a brand spends more, will not pay attention to price increases, and will tell friends about his favorite brand, thereby attracting new customers to it.

Marketers note several conditions under which it is advisable to launch a consumer and customer loyalty program. Some authors believe that the creation of such a program will support developing businesses - it will not save a dying business. According to others, - trademark, for which the “insider” club is being organized, should be well known. Otherwise, its creation may result in losses.

The need to create customer and consumer loyalty clubs arises in markets where competition is strong and there are many similar products. For example, in Russia such a situation is now observed in the insurance market, in the sector mobile phones, in the publishing business.

Abroad, there has long been a tendency to create coalition programs, when several companies unite (sometimes with the help of an independent operator) to create loyalty clubs for consumers and clients. This method is also used in Russia. For example, the company “Lavtek.ru” in 2000 launched the project “Club Much. RU". Currently, almost 800 companies participate in the program: shops, gas stations, restaurants, cafes, entertainment and consumer services enterprises. The companies that make up this community reward customers with Mnogo.ru cards with reward points (bonuses), and in return receive marketing and advertising services.

The program allows its participants to exchange client databases, whereas with an individual approach to the problem of loyalty, the company works only with its own clients. Moreover, the club has turned into a channel of communication with customers, allowing it to take into account consumer preferences in various aspects of consumption, highlight the most profitable customers and constantly remind them of yourself. About 700 thousand clients own consumer and customer loyalty club cards, half of whom live in Moscow.

Some consumer and customer loyalty clubs become unprofitable over time, so the companies themselves are forced to abandon them.

Despite the appeal of creating fan clubs of consumer and customer loyalty, it is not always advisable to use this tool if there is an opportunity to highlight the product in some other way. For example, Wrigley chewing gum itself creates a kind of consumer and client loyalty club due to a certain set of its properties, unique to it and based on high technology. Therefore, a company that is thinking about whether to create a consumer and customer loyalty club or not should focus on the question: will this have a long-term effect.

When the decision to create a customer and customer loyalty club has been made, several important criteria should be identified in the upcoming loyalty reward program. The buyer must understand the value of the customer and customer loyalty club, see the choice of incentives and how realistic it is to receive a reward. In addition, when researching the requests of the target audience, you need to calculate whether the buyer really needs this reward.

But most importantly, by creating an original model of a customer and customer loyalty club, a company can bring everything to naught if its products and services are of poor quality and uncompetitive, and it itself is unfriendly with its customers.

You can evaluate the results of a loyalty program using a number of loyalty program analysis techniques:

Analysis of program development (distribution of program participants depending on their card level; increase in the number of program participants over this year compared to the previous one; program development intensity coefficient (the ratio of the number of program participants to the total number of buyers trading company);

Analysis of the dynamics of the arrival of participants in the program (determining the average number of participants who came in one month; determining the average increase in the number of participants per month; determining the seasonality coefficient of the arrival of participants in the program);

Analysis of the activity of program participants (determining the share of loyalty program participants among all buyers of a trading company; the number of purchases per participant; the number of inactive program participants);

Analysis of the financial return of the program (change in revenue from purchases of program participants; average amount of revenue per one participant in the program; coefficient of financial costs per participant; return of the program per 1 invested ruble per one participant in the program).

Based on the assessment, corrective measures are developed.

Stage results:

The level of consumer loyalty after the implementation of the loyalty program.

Assessing the achievement of the set goals of the loyalty program.

A set of corrective measures aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the loyalty program.

Within course work It is impossible to talk about all aspects related to the development and creation of a loyalty program, but we hope that we were able to briefly highlight the main points. Creating and managing a consumer loyalty program is not easy, but the effectiveness of such efforts cannot be overstated. A properly designed loyalty program can become the main competitive advantage companies.

Several conditions must be met to create an effective loyalty program:

Constantly emphasizing the importance of the client for the company. In this regard, loyalty clubs are not so much encouraging the client’s contribution to the company’s business (free ticket, discounts), but rather a constant mention of the client’s importance for the company

Constant dialogue with clients, receiving feedback. Including using the so-called “hot lines”

Constant provision of any additional information.

The client may know everything about the company, may be satisfied with the service and quality of goods and services, he may be satisfied with the price level - as a result, he buys a product or service. However, in order to become loyal to a company, he needs not only to rationally understand the profitability of the purchase, but also to feel the pleasure of working with this particular company or from purchasing this particular brand.

If another company appears on the market with the same offers (prices, service, quality), it is the presence of this personal attachment or involvement of customers that will allow the company to win the competition.

So, involvement is the keyword of loyalty. It is this additional emotional connotation that distinguishes loyalty programs from more formal savings programs in which the consumer simply uses a discount card or collects discount coupons.

At the same time, not only, and perhaps not so much, external consultants or even an agency like ours should work. The success of a loyalty program lies in the regular management of the program within the company itself.

For the program to bear fruit, it needs to be pursued persistently and for a long time. It cannot be carried out and completed in a few weeks or even months. And that is why all of the above makes it so important to decide on a loyalty program.

Customer loyalty is one of the core concepts of relationship marketing. The work highlights the problems of theoretical study of consumer loyalty: discrepancies in the conceptual apparatus; unclear distinction between the terms “brand loyalty” and “consumer loyalty”; different approaches to the interpretation of the nature and structure of consumer loyalty; different industry specifics.

The discrepancies in the conceptual apparatus are due to the fact that at the moment there are several similar terms that are used on an equal basis with or instead of the term “customer loyalty”, or denote one of the types of loyalty - “commitment” and “satisfaction”. In our opinion, commitment should be considered as the highest degree of development of loyalty, and satisfaction as one of the conditions for its formation.

Today, there is a unclear distinction between the terms “consumer loyalty” and “brand loyalty.” They were developed at different times and within the framework of different concepts: the term “brand loyalty” was introduced in the early 20s in the USA and was developed within the framework of the concept of branding, and the term “consumer loyalty” began to actively develop in the 80s years within the framework of the concept of relationship marketing.

Important elements of a set of measures to increase consumer loyalty are loyalty programs and programs to increase customer satisfaction. The work separates these marketing tools, since they pursue different goals, but for any company, a system for increasing customer satisfaction is more significant than a loyalty program, because loyalty program is a barrier to switching only when high level fulfillment of the most significant characteristics of a product or service. Customer satisfaction depends on the quality of work of the entire company, while a loyalty program should be considered as one of the alternatives to marketing communications. However, the role of loyalty programs should not be underestimated, therefore, modern conditions For most companies, customer loyalty programs need to be complemented by programs to improve customer satisfaction.

Thus, the goals of the research task received their logical conclusion in the development of theoretical aspects of consumer loyalty management and the substantiation of methodological tools for the formation of comprehensive programs for increasing consumer loyalty.

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When your reputation works for your profit

Community management

Creation of Tone of Voice. Prompt processing of both negative and positive comments on behalf of the brand. Communication management according to specified scenarios. Translation of problematic issues to the customer.

Agents of influence

Creation and implementation of “virtuals” on forums and in in social networks. There is a database of upgraded and live accounts on more than 300 sites.

Working with reviews

Writing, coordinating and posting reviews about the brand on top platforms and review sites. Processing and covering negative comments with positive ones. As a result, negativity is gradually being forced out of search results.

Social media monitoring

Working with Youscan, IQbuzz, Brand Analytics systems. Control of brand mentions. Identifying key insights and promptly responding to negativity. An indispensable tool for monitoring customer feedback.

Analytics and research

Analysis of the information field, research of the product category and the brand’s main competitors. This tool covers tasks from reputation monitoring and real-time marketing to in-depth research.

SERM

Detailed analysis of search results for selected keywords. Collecting references about the client on social networks, forums and news sites. Developing a strategy for dealing with negative information. The client receives fully controlled delivery in the TOP10.

Consumer loyalty: Mechanisms for repeat purchase Dymshits Mikhail Naumovich

1.1. Definition of Loyalty

1.1. Definition of Loyalty