Creating Customers for Life

Customer loyalty | BCBusiness
Creating a loyal customer base can be an exercise in ease rather than frustration if you bring expertise, value and customization to the table.

Expedia CruiseShipCenters manager of interactive marketing Dave Mossop breaks down the steps of creating life-long customers for your brand

Building a client base is about bringing exceptional value and expert advice—follow these adaptable lessons to create loyal customers for life.

1. Attraction Marketing: Spread the word

The first stage is making someone aware of what you do by leveraging a variety of marketing tactics including newspaper, radio, social, pay-per-click marketing and contesting. In addition to this, Expedia consultants reach out to their own circles of influence. All of this is done in an attempt to acquire the customer’s permission to market to them on a consistent basis through phone calls and e-newsletters.

2. Permission Marketing: Build trust

Once you have the customer’s permission, reach out to them both offline and on. Offline, our consultants will call on a regular basis to inform the prospect of exclusive events, upcoming sales and specials that may fit their interests. Online, we send customers e-newsletters focused on specific destination interests, personalized with their consultant’s contact information, photo and custom website.

3. Professional Sales: Customize the experience

After hearing from us on a regular basis, the customer will express interest in doing business with us, and their consultant will then leverage their experience and expertise to further qualify the lead. Whether in person, online or over the phone, consultants seek out more information regarding the prospect’s specific wants (i.e. where they’re interested in travelling to, the type of ship, accommodation and activities they want to experience) and researches the perfect trip for them.

4. Customer Service: The upsell

Once the customer has decided on their cruise, the consultant looks at ways to further enhance the vacation experience through adding shore excursions, travel insurance, specialty dining or even extending the trip at the beginning or end with a few extra days in port.

5. Retention Marketing: Cementing loyalty

When the customer returns, they’re welcomed with a personal phone call from their consultant, along with an email survey asking about the ship, accommodations, dining and entertainment—this further helps qualify their next vacation and adds to a database of customer reviews for others to see. The key element of this survey is that it asks the customer where they want to go next and updates their e-newsletter subscription automatically, ensuring they continue to receive information that is relevant to them.

Throughout the entire sales process, personal selling and technology combine to help enhance the customer’s experience. Providing exceptional service and bringing undeniable value to the table builds a customer for life.

As Expedia CruiseShipCenters’ manager of interactive marketing, Dave Mossop is responsible for promoting customer engagement through integrated online initiatives. In this role, he develops personalized email, social and website marketing solutions designed to generate leads and drive business for 4,000 vacation consultants across North America. Prior to joining Expedia, Dave worked for a boutique advertising agency where he developed and managed several online marketing initiatives for small- to medium-sized businesses.