The rewards are high both in terms of making significantly higher profits and sales (it is much less costly to sell into existing customers than new ones) and will also enhance your company reputation for service and quality if you have a horde of repeat customers coming back again and again. Some studies show that selling to an existing customer rather than attracting a new one, can be as much as ten times more profitable - all the cost of attracting the existing customer has been made already and they already trust you because they have paid you money before whereas a new prospect must be attracted by advertising, sales calls, meetings and presentations and a lot of hand-holding before they will commit.

You must look after existing business because it is the most profitable business you have and the best form of actual recommendation and referrals upon which to build your company reputation. Creating loyal customers is not done simply by delivering good products and services; it is vital you take an interest in cultivating your customer and prospect base and to this end gathering as much information and maintaining a good database for use by your marketing team is essential. Imagine you had the ability to send a customized birthday card for your prospects and customers simply because you had a simple customer relations management system established to collect data such as date of birth from your customers and you had the foresight to design and create some birthday cards with your name and logo on them, perhaps with an amusing cartoon design incorporating your company.

This pays dividends as how many of your competitors, or any other business is going to do this? Sure, we all send out Christmas cards, maybe at Easter too or when celebrating at other times in the year but again, this is something your competitors will be doing and you need to stand out from the crowd and differentiate yourself. This is where custom cards can really help you gain the spotlight with your customers, particularly if you tie the card in with humor and a giveaway such as a free gift or discount off within a set period of time.

It is these small touches which will generate loyalty and allow your customer-facing team to capitalize and cement this customer perception by delivering good performance when a customer places an order. Having great products and service standards is one aspect of generating loyalty, but this is a point-of-sale occurrence and you need to keep your name in the forefront of customer perception and consciousness to really achieve ingrained levels of loyalty.

You are looking at penetrating your customers lives much more deeply than simply providing a glossy wrapping for your product; you are burrowing into the lives of your customers and becoming part of their trusted circle and you can achieve by taking a little time to think about what is likely going to make your customers and prospects go, "Hey this looks neat - how did they know it's my birthday!" or "This is a really funny Christmas card!" Your are applying the personal touch and building a personable face for your company as one which pays attention to clients not just when you are trying to sell to them but before, during and after the sales are made.