Customer loyalty. It’s critical to your business. And without it, you’d be no better off than many fly by night companies who don’t know the meaning of staying power.
Customers are shrewd. They’re the backbone of your success. They know what they want. They know what they like. And they know the value of loyalty. They’d rather fight than switch. So how do you find them?
By building customer loyalty.
You can have an award winning digital marketing campaign. You can spend thousands of dollars on business development strategists. You can even spin SEO into consistently high volume SERP traffic. But without customer loyalty, your business is simply not going to take off.
It might seem simple to build customer loyalty. Have a great product and consistently deliver great service. But there’s an art to maintaining customer loyalty—one that large and small businesses alike seem to miss out on. Here are 6 tips that can help turn customers from curious to loyal devotees.
Tip # 1: Let’s Make It Personal
If your attitude towards your customers seems to be that they’re nothing more than a potential sale, then you need to change your mindset! Customers don’t like to be approached with cold impartiality in 2019 anymore. They want to know that the businesses they support reflect their values, their passions, their curiosities… and ultimately, their life stories.
If you’re a small business, get to know who your average customer really is. Get to know their thoughts, their fears and their hopes. Craft them into a persona. Create an empathy between your customer and your product. Treat them like they really are. Living, breathing flesh and blood entities.
Tip # 2: Ask Not What They Can Do For You, But What You Can Do For Them
Repeat customer business may be about many things, but the most significant one is service. Don’t just sell them your business. Let them know how it can enhance their lives. Perhaps even change them for the better.
Think of your own business. How can your landscaping service affect the world around us positively? By beautifying the homes of your customers. Which in turn drives up the value of their property. Which in turn can help create local businesses and industries. What seems like just another day at the proverbial office for you can have a cumulative effect in ways you may not fully understand—yet.
Tip # 3: Personalize The Interaction
One neat little trick that customers report loving is receiving handwritten notes from their local businesses. It might seem small and insignificant, but it makes them feel special. Supported. And ultimately happy.
You may not have the time or desire to leave a handwritten note for every single customer you interact with. But your long time customers will appreciate the act. And you may often find they’re just as likely to refer you to their friends and families as a result. And that alone can be worth a hundred positive reviews on Amazon or Yelp!
Tip # 4: Learn To Remember Names And Faces
Sometimes, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the details of your business that customers tend to blend into one another without you even noticing. You have your new customers. You have your repeat customers. And sometimes you can’t even tell them apart.
But they can tell each other apart. And they can and will remember you. And if they want to come back, it’s going to take more than having a unique product or prompt and efficient service. We all yearn for little things about us to be remembered. Our birthdays. Our anniversaries. Our job promotions. If you can keep track of your spouse’s or your best friend’s, you can keep track of your customer’s as well.
Tip # 5: Relay The Information
We all love hearing about the hot new hangout. Or a new book. Or whether or not the latest Hollywood blockbuster is actually worth paying money to see. And so do your customers.
It might seem counterproductive to refer your customers to another business—especially when they’re your direct competitors. But customer loyalty is a curious thing. It’s based on the psychology that customers have multiple options to choose from for a product or service. But they want to keep coming back to you. You’re the only one who can provide them with the service they simply can’t get anywhere else. It’s a general human trait to want to share what we appreciate. It’s the driving force behind creating a great marketing strategy. And in the end, the best marketing strategy is still word of mouth.
Tip # 6: Follow Up
Customer loyalty doesn’t just end at your sale. It requires consistent follow up. And that means not only providing great service, but being secure enough to know when to ask how you can actually improve it.
You might be many things to your customers. Their new favorite restaurant. Their local child care center. But they’re loyal to you because of your consistency, not just a one time sale. They want to come back to you because each time they do, the customer experience just keeps improving. Connecting with your customers doesn’t take a lot; sometimes nothing more than a phone call, email or even setting up a suggestion box. But outreach is critical. And sometimes the best way to reach out is to simply ask.
Are you looking to market your business with a company that takes customer loyalty as serious as your customers do? At No Joke Marketing, we’ve been paving the way for innovative digital marketing solutions since 2013. We’re not prepared to stop. Find out more at nojokemarketing.com
