In a recent column in Vertical Systems Reseller Magazine, pcAmerica CEO David Gosman outlined the reasons why a business that should be tracking it’s customers’ sales history and rewarding their repeat business through a loyalty solution. Businesses that are not doing both could be losing money.

While most retailers provide good face-to-face customer service, this typically ends once the customer departs the store. And although customers do return to the store, Gosman asserts that businesses aren’t seeing the whole picture—tracking, analyzing and responding to purchases that may generate additional opportunities.

Gosman believes that’s when a CRM (customer relationship module) can assist retailers in luring their customers back to make additional purchases. CRMs are used to maintain customer profiles and record purchasing activity and other inquiries. A good CRM can track sales, returns, marketing outreach and other relevant information. Mining this data can help a business see the bigger picture of a customer’s buying habits and drive additional opportunities.

When a customer earns loyalty points, they may have little financial value but a large psychological impact. Shoppers love to collect points in exchange for freebies, and the store reaps the rewards in the form of a detailed purchase history that is gathered when the person swipes his loyalty card. When used together, CRM and loyalty plans are the key to collecting data and using it to drive sales and create marketing campaigns businesses can use for the successful post pursuit of customers.