Every business will find it is well worth the effort to turn a first-time customer into a loyal customer who is faithful to their obligations, buys repeatedly, provides us with valuable feedback and promotes a healthy, orderly business culture.  Since the act of loyalty is defined as faithfulness to a person or thing deserving fidelity, loyalty is a two-way street and must be earned.  So who is most responsible for earning customer loyalty?

The easy answer is it’s everyone’s responsibility and the owner, president, financial officer, receptionist, engineering department, customer service representatives, production staff, even the human resource personnel all share that responsibility equally.

Although that answer has merit, the correct answer may be that the sales representative assigned to that customer is the first among equals and has the largest responsibility to see a first-time customer become a repeat customer and finally a loyal customer.

Beyond obtaining new customers, the largest responsibility of a sales representative is to foster and maintain the loyalty of the existing customer.  The sales representative is the face of your company for your customer.  They should communicate with the customer about all things pertaining to your business.

The sales representative is on the front line. Their honest communication with the client about all things will reveal more about your business than any other dealing…

When the salesperson has a good relationship with a client, the client will reveal more about their overall satisfaction with your company with that salesperson than they will with anyone else.

They will reveal what they really think about the product quality, customer service, price and more to that salesperson.

It is then the salesperson’s responsibility to see that all of the client’s needs are met so the first-time customer becomes a loyal customer.

Their livelihood should depend upon their ability to grow loyal customers.

The business certainly depends upon it as well…

Stay tuned for my next article…“Good Behavior gets Loyal Customers”…