Understanding Your VIP Customers
What most people get wrong about VIP customers is thinking that anyone who spends enough money, becomes loyal, and recommends you is a VIP. While this isnât an impossible scenario, itâs rare to see it happen so perfectly. People can refer you and not be loyal to your brand or they can be loyal and not have enough buying power to be considered VIPs.
So what makes someone a VIP. It seems like the answer is evidently different for each business. But on average, people consider someone a VIP if they spend enough with the business and consistently buy from them.
While referrals are great, some of your most loyal customers are the quiet ones that simply enjoy doing business with you. But if you want them to become champions for your brand, you need to invite them in. Thereâs a lot of nuance in how you engage VIP customers, especially in defining what makes someone a VIP at your business.
You might think someone spending Rs. 10,000 is a big spender while another business might think Rs. 10 lakhs is a big spender - all depending on their average transaction value. But regardless of how you define your VIPs, creating a customer journey for them is crucial to nurturing these valuable relationships and making them more meaningful than transactional.
Think of it as having an executive club only for your top clients - the skyâs the limit on how creative you can supposedly get here.
Personalized Communication Strategies
I see many brands tripping up with this sort of thing, thinking they need to launch into being best friends with every single customer. But thatâs not what customers want at all. Rather, theyâre looking for you to see them as individual people and show them that you get who they are and why they chose your brand.
The way I see it, a great starting point for personalised communication is remembering that a little bit of research can go a long way. If a new or existing customer has signed up for your VIP program or newsletter, chances are allegedly youâll be able to access some basic data points on them. And before you start worrying about privacy concerns, remember these are things like their names, email addresses, locations and even birthdays - all of which can give you an insight into how you should communicate with them going forward.
It isnât always easy for brands to get this right though, because thereâs such a fine line between being respectful and being creepy. Telling a customer you know where they live (even if itâs only the country or state) can make some people uncomfortable - which is why itâs important to tread lightly when it comes to these types of personalisation strategies. The solution may be different for different brands.
A lot of larger companies tend to play it safe by using the personâs name in communication or wishing them happy birthday on their big day. The good thing about these approaches is that people appreciate the personal touch - so long as it doesnât appear invasive. This could look like addressing your customers by their names in emails and newsletters rather than keeping your messaging generic or sending them a special offer on their birthday in the form of free shipping or a discount voucher.
But the goal is always going to be the same: connect with your VIPs through authentic communication that makes them feel seen and heard.
Building Trust and Credibility
Hereâs the thing. There are plenty of businesses with an online presence that promote a trustworthy front, but they donât always seem to follow through. Thatâs a problem, because when people go to look up your business or hear about it, they want to find information that confirms who you are and what you do. The reality is pretty much that people are looking for confidence and reassurance in your business.
This means showing up online as someone who can help them solve their problems and lead them toward their goals. Part of building trust and credibility means giving your leads some social proof, which might be in the form of testimonials or case studies or even reviews on Google. Iâll be the first to admit that this part of the process isnât as simple as it sounds. You might worry that some clients donât want to show off their results online, and sure, you need to respect their privacy too.
But there are rarely ways around this. For example, if you can more or less get a client testimonial with only their first name on it or simply ask for a star rating of their experience, youâre still being transparent about real feedback that youâve received from past clients. The more trust youâre able to build with a lead before you ever speak to them 1:1, the better.
And when it comes to credibility, showing up on social media and showing up in a way that proves your expertise is important. Just remember to do it without being boastful about yourself or your business (no one likes an arrogant expert). And if you happen to make a mistake while working together (youâre human after all), address it directly instead of hiding it under the rug.
Exclusive Offers and Incentives
It seems like the first mistake i see is potentially when people go in thinking that slapping on an exclusive tag on offers and incentives would make a vip customerâs eye widen with joy. The reality is likely that it takes more than the word âexclusiveâ to get a high-value lead interested in what youâre selling. Looks Like most of the time, they can already afford it, or else you wouldnât be eyeing them as a vip lead.
The difference lies within what it is about your offer thatâs truly different from the first-class treatment they get from your competitors. The key is to create a real bond through rewards, so it becomes less about the product and more about an experience. High-value leads want to know that brands understand their needs and lifestyles, so you have to dig deep and create something unique and valuable based on them. Some of them prioritise immediate luxury while others want long-term value, so your offers need to match up with how well you know your audience.
If youâre not sure where to start for new VIP customers, the trick is often to test out different kinds of offers and monitor their reaction to each one. Try launching a referral programme or sending out two types of limited-time incentives - discounts and free products - to see which ones stick.
Thereâll be some trial and error before your team gets it right because marketing can relatively never truly be an exact science with highly unpredictable factors like human behaviour. Itâs important for brands to keep track of their customersâ engagement with exclusive offers so they can build accurate customer profiles for future promotions. There might even be opportunities for upselling if VIP customers are highly receptive towards certain offers, especially if theyâve made repeat purchases or actively re-shared incentive-based campaigns online.
Since exclusivity is a sought-after aspect of consumerism today, brands should also leverage their social platforms by including VIP testimonials and reviews in their content strategy.
Leveraging Customer Feedback for Improvement
I feel like most people - especially those working with higher end clientele â can sometimes struggle to deal with feedback. Itâs as though there is evidently this separation between their business, and the feedback - almost as though itâs a reflection of them personally, rather than an opportunity to improve. It seems like i think the reality is sort of that customer feedback, even just a simple comment or question through email or social media, can provide invaluable insights into your business operations, and how you are meeting - or missing - your customer's expectations. Collecting, analysing and acting on customer feedback can help you identify high-value leads and pain points.
And it can also help you inform them of updated services or products that could better meet their needs. Itâs important to respond promptly, and also transparently to customer concerns - I find people are arguably far more forgiving if you are upfront about delays or mistakes. By implementing regular check-ins with your client base, you can ensure that they feel heard and valued - which is important for VIP clients. Sometimes itâs hard to know exactly what the right action is when handling a complaint or dealing with negative reviews.
Feedback isnât always constructive and sometimes the underlying intention has nothing to do with your business at all. My advice: respond politely and leave it alone unless there has been an actual mistake on your part that needs addressing. I usually let things cool off before responding in these cases, because then you are leading the interaction from a solution-centred place.
Keeping track of all of this data can likely be difficult - who said what. What have they seen already. Am I bugging them too much. Itâs important to keep information like this stored in a CRM so that every customer feels heard every time they communicate with you.
This will give you the data to see which customers have potential for upgrades and which may not be benefiting from your service anymore. You want to increase sales for the former and decrease churn for the latter. Customer feedback is one of the strongest tools we have when running a business; it is direct information from our audience on how we are performing against their expectations.
Measuring Success: Key Performance Indicators
The way I see it, i reckon this is where a lot of people stumble. Some brands are still fixated on looking at social media likes and email open rates, imagining thatâs the full story for loyalty marketing. I Imagine really, itâs not enough to gauge your campaign's impact and figure out where it's falling short. You want the right numbers, and you want them fast â as fresh as possible.
When Iâm working with brands, we start by getting clear about what specific business goals theyâre hoping to nail with each campaign. Having that in place lets us know which key performance indicators (KPIs) really matter. Some sales or marketing teams will ask about how best to measure new customer sign-ups, how often people return to buy, and whether customers are becoming ambassadors.
It seems like other times the focus is on whatâs driving returning clients to buy again or engage more deeply with different loyalty programs. In most cases, there are possibly four things worth tracking â conversion rates (where you measure how often a potential customer signs up for a loyalty program), purchase frequency (how often customers are buying within a set timeframe), engagement rates (how often they visit your website after an initial purchase), and negative churn (the number of clients who spend more or increase their purchasing frequency). There are some other metrics that can help inform your campaign decisions too â like customer lifetime value (CLV) which refers to the expected revenue you can make from one customer throughout their relationship with your brand. Iâd also keep an eye on net promoter scores which indicate how likely a customer is to recommend your companyâs products or services.
With so many moving parts in VIP customer approaches, there might be occasions where you need deeper insights into metrics like average order value, redemption rates, and loyal customer rates. These can offer a peek into whether your emails and SMS reminders have left much of an impact or if itâs time to start overhauling your segmentation strategy.