Loyal Customers Make the Greatest Brand Ambassadors

Loyal customers are critical to the success of every business, so ensuring they are happy keeps them coming back and helps lead to growth. I learned this very early on in my career at Verizon Wireless, and the theme continued on at VISA, Princess Cruises, Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, and AmaWaterways. Not only do happy customers keep coming back themselves, they spread brand awareness and good graces through word-of-mouth, especially on all the various social channels.

While at both Uniworld and then AmaWaterways, we introduced special incentives and programs dedicated to our loyal past guests. Because cruises are considered a luxury purchase with a high price tag, and not an everyday purchase, we needed to develop initiatives to keep them engaged on a regular basis. Our past guest loyalty magazines were one way we could keep them informed on new destinations, products, and offerings. These magazines weren’t designed to be a hard sell, but rather a soft sell, sharing information and insights, so when they were ready to make their next cruise purchase, they would think of us.

Below are examples of both Uniworld and AmaWaterways’ loyalty magazines. I often developed paginations for the magazines, created the overarching themes, interviewed people, researched and wrote many of the articles, along with other contributing authors, and edited the final pieces.