Where Do Elite Customers Come From?

The brand we've studied for a month isn't terribly healthy. It doesn't have nearly enough Elite-level customers to thrive.

Let's take a look at where this year's Elite customers came from.

• 1,241 were Elite customers last year (out of 2,205 that were Elite a year ago).
• 698 were Loyal customers last year.
• 285 were Quality customers last year.
• 62 were Average customers last year.
• 3 were Struggling customers last year.
• 101 were Lapsed customers in the "Spend" segment last year.
• 1 were Lapsed customers in the "Experiment" segment last year.
• 0 were Lapsed customer in the "Save $" segment last year.
• 27 were Newly Acquired Customers in the past year.
• 2,418 total.

There's some good news here ... Elite customers increased from 2,205 to 2,418. When a business is struggling, you take whatever good news you can get.

Half of the Elite customers were Elite customers the year prior.

It should become obvious that care and nurturing is needed. Most of you view care and nurturing as being a "Loyalty Program". Let me reposition the argument for you ... what are you doing to develop customers that will ultimately be part of your Loyalty Program? The analysis above shows you need care and nurturing of Struggling customers to get them to become Average ... you need care and nurturing of Average customers to become Quality customers ... and you need care and nurturing of Quality customers to become Loyal customers. Then ... then you can start talking about your Loyalty efforts.