Knowing your customer allows for targeted advertising

Knowing more about your customers can also help you to tailor certain advertisements to them.

You might create an ad with different background colors, and send each customer the ad which matches their favorite color.  Or you might feature a "back-to-school" theme when sending to clients who have school-aged children, while sending a football theme to those who like football.

You can also time your marketing efforts to coincide with when your customer may be most receptive.  For example, if you are dealing with a rake manufacturer, you know your customer's busy season is fall, and you might want to approach him during the summer so he can place his order in time to have your products delivered before they are needed.  If you go one step further and recognize that your customer is a volunteer in his son's Little League, you might assume he's not going to have a lot of extra time during the summer, so you might back up your sales call to late spring so he'll have time to give your proposal his full attention and serious consideration. 

Chances are all of your competitors are going to know that a rake manufacturer's busy season is autumn, but how many of them are going to know about the Little League commitment?  You'll be the only one talking to the client before his attention turns to his obligations outside the office.  How big of a competitive advantage would that be? 

Depending on your marketing budget, you might also be able to offer to sponsor a team, or to buy new equipment, or to provide water bottles to each player in the league, or to bring snacks to the field after a game.  The possibilities are only bound by your imagination.  Your client will feel loyal to you because you have shown an interest in him, not only as an order number, but also as a person.

Getting to know your customers takes only a small investment

By taking just an extra minute or two to really connect with each customer during each contact, your business stands to improve profitability by 25 - 100%, if Reichheld's figures are correct.  Isn't that worth just a few extra minutes?

Keep in mind that any one of your employees can destroy the customer's loyalty in just one interaction if that employee isn't on-board with your loyalty initiative.  If your firm is bigger than a sole proprietorship, you will need to develop processes, tools, and even a culture around connecting with your customers on a personal level.