On a recent road trip with my son and future daughter-in-law, traffic on the highway came to a complete stop thirty minutes into our 3 ½ -hour drive. Not knowing what lay ahead, I was instantly reminded of the time it took me 14 hours to drive to Chicago after a snowstorm, normally a 5-hour trip! I still cringe every time I think about it… the discomfort, the stress, the feeling of helplessness, and the disappointment over all the missed appointments and opportunities. Luckily, my quick-thinking and a bit impatient son, who was listening to the traffic report, quickly maneuvered the car into the exit lane and took an alternate route. In no time at all, we were back on-track and actually arrived at our destination a little ahead of schedule. It was painless and we didn’t miss a thing.

It’s too bad the people in all those other cars weren’t listening to the traffic report. They would probably be delayed, and were likely to miss something special. They too, could have maneuvered around the accident and arrived ahead of schedule like us. Catching up on some work-related reading in the backseat, our little glitch in the road got me thinking… customer advisory councils are a lot like that traffic report! They provide insight to what lies ahead. 

If you’re planning a road trip and want to know what condition the roads are in, tune in to your local traffic report. You will learn where to expect slow-downs due to construction. You will discover where caution is needed due to ice and snow. You will find out which roads should be avoided altogether due to accidents. You will realize that an alternate route may be necessary, and which one will get you to your destination more quickly. You will get a glimpse into what lies ahead so you can anticipate and plan accordingly.

Likewise, when navigating the road to success for your organization. Tune in to your customer advisory council and gain insight to customer challenges, industry trends, and product development! 

• Learn what to expect from the market.
• Discover where caution is needed or where speed is of the essence in developing new products.
• Find out what new programs and services are needed or what should be avoided altogether.
• Realize that a different perspective or strategy may be needed or that another way or doing things may work better.
• Discover how to achieve differentiation.
• Anticipate the future and plan accordingly.

Take my advice. Tune in to your “traffic report.” Learn what to expect and what lies ahead. Prepare for the open road, congestion, and potential detours. Avoid the stress and disappointment of missed opportunities. Anticipate an alternate route and you may actually arrive ahead of schedule like we did. Tune in. It’s painless and you won’t miss a thing!

The phrase ‘customer loyalty’ is strictly a marketing term that defines the inclination of a customer to choose a particular business, product or service over other available options. Brand loyalty starts when choices are made by customers and action is taken.

What is a Customer Loyalty Program?

Customer Loyalty Programs are specially structured marketing strategies focused primarily on directing consumer behavior in a target market. The program itself focuses on rewarding and encouraging loyalty among long-standing and relatively new customers of the business.

What are Benefits of Customer Loyalty Programs?

Customer Loyalty Programs are essentially the key to an organization’s long-term success. It benefits the business by aiding it to excel in the following dimensions:

• Innovation in design of products including service products
• Operational and executive excellence
• Conformance to changing market trends
• Adaptability to evolving consumer behavior

What are B2B Customer Loyalty Programs?

Many businesses devise reward programs that are aimed at encouraging customer loyalty. The major challenge that businesses face when devising an effective customer loyalty program is that of researching the key elements that drive customer loyalty. In the B2B World examples of Loyalty programs are Customer Advisory Councils or Boards (CAC) and Executive Sponsor Programs.

What is Account Retention?

Customer Retention is the measure that businesses adopt to tackle customer defections. The entire process of customer retention has no defined period as it starts with the business establishing a contact with a customer and continues throughout the span of the relationship. Attracting and retaining new customers does not simply relate to a business’ products and services. A lot depends also on the manner in which it serves its existing clientele and the reputation it has maintained in the market.

Why is Account Retention Important?

When you try to replace an account that you have already lost, you waste crucial time and resources while resolutely eating away your profit margin. It is evident from most examples of trying to rebuild lost accounts that the process costs at least ten times more, as newer clients require a lot more resources and attention. When you build a following of loyal customers you get revenue that you can depend on to keep your company’s cash flow afloat while also maintaining your financial integrity.

The Key to Account Retention

The key to account retention is customer satisfaction. The best way to keep accounts is to make sure that you provide personal attention to your customers, provide quality customer service and take criticism and complains in their stride. Your reaction to a problem presented by a customer is the key to determining whether they will stick around or not. You should have the skills to appropriate the sort of reaction that enables your customers to see that you have their best interests at heart.

Customer satisfaction is established through frequent communication. One of the best strategic tools to establish account retention is through a Customer Advisory Board. You have to keep your client up to speed about any steps that you are taking that directly influences them and inform them of the process that you are making on their problems to maintain account retention. Keeping your clients informed reminds them about the significance of their company and the integral role it plays moving forward which ultimately builds strong account retention. 

As a follow-up to the poll I ran on the LinkedIn group for CAB.org, this blog addresses the 2^nd biggest challenge for Customer Advisory Board (CAB) Program Managers – agenda design. I'd like to share a few best practices we've developed to help bring together an agenda that ensures value for all attendees.

 When designing an agenda, we break down session content into four buckets:

1. Identify what you want to learn from your members. Your Executive team should determine the most important issues/areas to gain member feedback. Frame the discussion around the 2-3 key questions you’d like the members to answer.  This allows for a natural dialog among the group. 
2. Determine what you need to inform members about. Provide a strategy update on your company including areas you are considering pursuing, etc., and allow time for Q&A. These business level discussions give members an opportunity to fulfill their role of “advisor.”
3. Understand what members would like to learn.  Survey members a few months prior to the meeting on topics they would like to see on the agenda. Consider having 3 or 4 members participate on a panel discussion on one of those topics.
4. Make time for peer-to-peer learning/networking. Incorporate time for members to learn from one another, and include a fun team-building activity or experience that everyone can enjoy.

Designing an agenda with a mix of these four areas makes for engaging dialog that will be mutually beneficial to the members and the host team.

I recently attended an Advisory Council meeting which provided actionable product and marketing insights for our customer.  Because the members spend so much of their time at a Council meeting sharing, so we felt a “give” back to the Council members with a dynamic guest speaker would change things up a bit and provide a great learning opportunity for all. 

In order to ensure the speaker’s content was meeting the objectives for our customer, several sessions were held with the speaker prior to the meeting.  While there was no doubt that the speaker could talk at length about the topic, we needed to strike a balance on the right amount of lecture time and engagement time with members to create meaningful dialogue.  We only had two hours for the speaker’s session, so we kept the following tips in mind when allocating time on the agenda.

1. Provide enough time for the speaker to convey their key points
2. Engage Advisory Council members with the speaker through a Q&A session
3. Capture key insights from your members during an interactive session that ties to your overall meeting objectives and the speakers content

Striking the right balance with your guest speaker will enable you to achieve your goals for the session as well as allow Council members to gain key takeaways from the time spent.