To help meet your need for keeping current while using your time wisely to find nuggets of easily applied knowledge, we are now coupling our NetBlazer articles with our succinct book reviews. In this way, we will profile the Internet's most innovative 'clickers and shakers' and demonstrate how they bring to life the latest in business practice and research for the new economy.

In this article we start with ways that you can build customer loyalty. To explore this topic, we profile 121 Limited (http://www.121limited.com) - a fast-moving and nimble company that helps business truly use the latest technologies to build customer loyalty. The companion article is the book review - Loyalty.com: Stirring Your Clients' E-Motion - which claims to help readers build loyalty by adopting a Customer Relationship Management approach.

Net Blazer IV

When you meet John Lennie you instantly get the feeling that his business, 121 Limited, is not your typical dotcom - it's too fast and too savvy. While answering one of several calls from clients on his cell telephone, he comments to me "I've got a customer project that launches Monday - last Monday". Without a doubt John instills this sense of speed, urgency and humour that only comes to someone who instinctively knows how to keep customers happy and loyal.

Bringing many years of experience in sales, he has instilled a customer-centric orientation throughout 121 so that it can quickly respond to the changing needs of it's key clients^*. For example, anticipating trends and in response to client demand, earlier this year 121 developed a software platform that would enable clients to easily implement and monitor call centres for customer service and sales. The product would not only provide clients with topnotch capacity but they could also act as re-sellers of the software - allowing John and 121 to provide support for the software applications. After considerable field-testing, clients turned the tables on John. They didn't want the software but they did want the service. So, 121 quickly hired, trained and re-directed its resources so that it could provide client-specific Internet call centre services. Now, companies, particularly small to medium sized businesses, can have instant call-centre capacity on the Internet to offer enhanced services to their clients as well as generate new sales and conduct research.

Another example of 121's speed and customer-focus: While designing an Internet marketing strategy for one client, 121 discovered that this highly profitable client was spending considerable resources on banner advertisements. Like with so many of the Internet features that businesses now take for granted, banners can be effective but only if they're targeted to the right audience, at the right time and in the right context. In spite of the many reports that banner advertisers offered, the client still wasn't sure of the true dollar benefit they provided. They turned to John and 121 to make some kind of sense of the numbers. Within a few days, John and his team were able to develop and deliver an easy-to-understand and results-oriented audit of the effectiveness of the clients' banner ads.

Notes linking this NetBlazer to the companion book review -

^*The first section of Loyalty.com speaks about the importance and processes of deciding which clients require special customer relationship management efforts.

These examples emphasize a key element of all companies committed to building long-term relationships with their clients. At the core of all 121 services, be they call centres, strategies, or banner audits, is the devotion to understanding the client and then communicating to them on their terms^**. Many companies are just beginning to recognize that developing this knowledge and capacity requires integrating a 'human' element into the over-automated nature of most Internet shopping and e-commerce applications. Quickly out of the gate, 121 has been able to inject humans efficiently into their clients' data collection and communication process. The result: increased profits for clients because as John declares "machines and software don't build loyalty, only people do."

John's considerable success at building loyal clients so they come to him with their problems is first and foremost a process of building client trust, whether it is online or offline. 121 is a strong supporter and advocate of any processes that truly ensure his client's continued success through careful protection of their own customers' private information. John maintains that respecting such privacy is essential in building trust^***. "This trust is the foundation for loyalty". As a result, he advises that his online clients apply all the key elements that build trust, including meaningful privacy policies, seal of approval, (WebTrust is his preferred seal) and reliable fulfillment systems. Finally, John recognizes that online trust also requires unique web design and administration skills. So, to help his clients go that extra mile, John works with Halex, a web solutions firm that creates layouts that are exceptionally crafted, unique and user-friendly.

Just before John runs out to a client meeting, he shares some of what he believes are key lessons for any firm to be successful in the fast-moving economy:

• Whether you're starting or maintaining your business, ensure positive cash flow as soon as possible.
• Only build your business capacity to meet actual rather than projected customer demand
• Rather than emphasizing the glamour of marketing, spend time and resources on developing thoughtful and time-specific sales plans. This means speaking with customers frequently to find out what they want and what they need.
• Develop a strong network of professionals who see you as partners. These people become your sources for referrals, mentoring and advocacy.

If you think you or your company currently are, or will soon be NetBlazers, contact us. We want to share your stories and insights.

Notes linking this NetBlazer to the companion book review -

^**A prevailing theme in sections one and two of Loyalty.com is the continued attention to communicating to clients about what is important to them in terms to which they can relate.

^***The final section of Loyalty.com emphasizes that privacy of personal information is a necessary condition to building any kind of lasting and profitable relationship with clients and customers.