International Customer Loyalty Month-April 2023
Observed in April, International Customer Loyalty Month is the right time to create awareness among companies and employees about creating a loyal customer base by cultivating a culture of customer centricity. In any business, the customer is the most important factor. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether you have the best product that would solve all the problems in the world; it will not thrive if there are no customers. The sales world had to embrace this factor to understand that the principal asset is customer loyalty.
Historical Background of International Customer Loyalty Month
Commerce is based on trust, which is the building block of loyalty. When you have an unfair seller, an unfair product, and an unfair review, the trading world becomes dipped in poison. Since capitalism's advent, loyal customers have been an asset to many businesses.
At the end of the 18th century, marketing strategies that introduced the ‘premium’ category among repeat customers were the first attempts at winning customer loyalty. During that period, distributing tokens to award services and discounts to those who succeeded them was the most successful way to get customers back among American sellers.
Later on, loyalty programs were introduced to replace the tokens and became so robust that they greatly impacted business growth. However, the development of computing and business strategies based on statistics really shifted the balance to consumer loyalty.
In the 1980s, companies began to cultivate a consumer-centered culture among employees. It began as just a tiny move, but it created National Customer Service Week, which took place in the first week of October. The National Customer Service Week was initiated by the International Customer Service Association and gained national attention in 1992 when it was officially recognized as essential to the prosperity of the American economy by President George Bush.
