Do businesses value loyal customers ? (experience, service, verse)

[michel]

When I was younger ..some time ago, customers who had been "loyal" customers to shops, businesses were rewarded for it.

I notice now that there is an increasing trend for businesses to offer new customers prefferential treatment; there is often a "Existing customers will not qualify" clause, somewhere.

Is this "Fair"?

[Seyorni]

A proper pub will give regular patrons the occasional free pint.
At least that's been my experience...

[Engyo]

Certain businesses do. It seems to be inversely proportional to the size of the business, though.

[MaddLlama]

Small businesses value customer loyalty. Large corporations value it less because they can just use advertising, sales, and other methods to attract new customers to replace those who choose to shop elsewhere.
However, most large businesses have a form of customer loyalty programs - Borders and Barnes and Nobles both have discount cards, and many stores have store specific credit cards (I have one for Vicky's and one for Target, so I shop there all the time).

[Fluffy]

That is very interesting michel. I myself have not noticed such a trend but this is likely because I rarely have enough cash to be given the title of "consumer" .

I do certainly feel that at least to an extent (perhaps not to the extent that you experienced when you were younger) somes businesses do still value loyal customers or rather they value the money they make off of them. An excellent example would be the loyalty card. I know my parents go out of their way to buy almost all of our goods from our local Tesco just to rack up the points (especially on petrol where points are tripled ). If this behaviour is typical of consumers in general then I can see there is certainly a motive behind businesses making attempts to retain and "reward" their customer base.

However, it might be that extensiveness of these loyalty schemes has created a largely unmoving customer base which might lead smaller businesses to favour taking the customers from larger one's since evidently they would otherwise not survive if they focused on merely "rewarding" those who already went there.

I am unsure whether either of these things could be described as fair. I would have to take the view that until Western businesses start buying their goods fairly (ie fairtrade) then Western consumers are already acting on an unfair level compared with those in undeveloped countries who are penalised for providing this opportunity. So any disparity in Western consumers appears to be rather insignificant by comparison.

[niceguy]

I am not the one to ask for a discunt but I have often recived it anyway as the recognized loyal custumer I am. This is in small shops where I sometimes end up chatting with the shopkeeper if there are no other customer waiting to be serviced at the moment.

[Booko]

Originally Posted by michel

When I was younger ..some time ago, customers who had been "loyal" customers to shops, businesses were rewarded for it.

I notice now that there is an increasing trend for businesses to offer new customers prefferential treatment; there is often a "Existing customers will not qualify" clause, somewhere.

Is this "Fair"?

Well, let me put it this way: Any business that does not recognize my value as a continuing customer will quickly find that I am no longer a continuing customer.

I find I have success getting the preferential treatment new customers get if I simply write or call and ask if I am an unimportant customer to them.