What does it mean if a business adopts a different approach towards it's base customers and new customers?
If you mean for the customers I would say there might be some decline in loyalty. It's frustrating when you feel that you might be better off leaving a business and possibly returning to it later, than staying with it. Especially as there's a good chance more than one company in the same category does this, and then, as a customer, you're better off constantly switching than staying loyal.
Yes, perhaps I misread the question to be the implications of incentives aimed only at new customers. I think loyal customers should always be rewarded! If rewards exist for both existing and new customers (even if they are different in nature) then I don't think it would mean anything, unless exisiting customers feel that the rewards aren't equal (or better for them).
Lisa Ormenyessy, Founder at OMGhee
How would you compare that to a customer loyalty program then Lina? With a loyalty program you are rewarding your best customers and treating them very differently than a new customer. Mary, are you meaning when businesses offer a special deal to new comers that existing customers don't receive? If so, the way around this is to let your existing customers know that you dot want them to miss out, so offer them a good deal for example, "if they get X amount of referrals to the new offer they will receive X"