“The Power of Loyalty: 10 Essential Steps to Build a Successful Customer Loyalty Strategy” by Roger Brooks, Entrepreneur Press, 19.95.
Who doesn’t have a bunch of bar-coded loyalty cards on their key ring or a co-branded credit card in their wallet? I have nine. Brooks is right; they do shape where I buy. Now that Kroger has teamed with Shell, I’ll be shopping at Kroger more often so I can receive a 10-cent per gallon discount on Shell gasoline. I can double-dip the discount because I have a Shell co-branded credit card with its five percent discount on gasoline.
The 10 essentials build a sustainable loyalty life cycle around five principles: Identify customers, track their spending, motivate their behavior, reward their loyalty and measure results. Loyalty programs of various firms in various industries affirm the principles.
When it comes to the five principles, Brooks points to CVS as one of the leaders. I agree. It’s a weekly shopping destination for me; I gravitate toward loyalty card sale items. It’s rare that I don’t end up with numerous coupons on my sales receipt — all tailored to items I have purchased. Many of these coupons encourage me to buy CVS-branded products.
CVS tracks my spending and rewards me for it. At point of sale, its system prints use-like-cash rebate coupons based upon level of purchases. The rebates ensure I will return. Over the past few months, I “earned” $23 in rebates; on my use-the-rebate shopping trips, I spent more than the $23.
Brooks provides numerous examples of loyalty cards from a variety of companies, including T.G.I. Friday’s (Free food just for signing up.), Neiman-Marcus (In Circle rewards include quarterly cash cards for various services or lunch), American Express (I converted my Membership Reward points to Delta frequent flyer miles and went to Hawaii.) Loyalty works for these firms; it can work for yours.
For businesses thinking of starting loyalty programs, information on sources and costs for loyalty software, as well as how to measure program ROI, would have been helpful.
“Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” by Liz Wiseman with Greg McKeown, Harper Business, $25.99.
The smartest person in any room is the one who recognizes, appreciates and capitalizes on the talent of the others in the room. Leveraging that talent by incorporating its perspectives and knowledge into business processes, they become talent magnets and productivity multipliers. People want to work with them.
On the flipside are the “diminishers” who believe productivity stems from control of staff and resources. They want people to work for them. Silo-dwelling, empire maintainers clearly fall into this category. Unfortunately, so do a lot of managers who think of themselves as multipliers, but aren’t. For anyone seeking confirmation of multiplier management, take the free 10-scenario “Are You an Accidental Diminsher?” survey at multipliersbook.com.
The approach to talent management highlights the difference between multipliers and diminishers. The authors’ four practices of a multiplier’s talent management are spot on:
1. “Look for talent everywhere.” Diversity of talent opens the doors to forward thinking. Employing those who share your views leads to congruent, same-as-me thinking — which can’t get you from Point A to Point B.
2. “Find people’s native genius.” “A native genius is something that people not only do exceptionally well, but absolutely naturally. Individuals all have their strengths and weaknesses. Tapping their strengths allows them to build on what comes naturally. As a team, strength-building usually offsets individual weaknesses.
3. “Utilize people to their fullest.” How? Connect them with opportunities. Productivity and continuous learning go hand-in-glove with challenge. People doing the same old same old become bored and dissatisfied; at a minimum, their productivity plateaus.
4. “Remove the blockers.” Remind staff that the smartest person in any room always keeps ego in check. Prima donnas can do more damage than deadwood. Sometimes management is the blocker; adopt a “ignore me as needed to get your job done” approach to letting staff do what you hired them for.
The success stories of numerous multipliers drive home these points and may others. They show that 1 X 1 equals 3.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.
