Many businesses focus a lot of time and effort on bringing new customers on board. But, what’s even more important is the time and effort that your business focuses on retaining existing customers. Customer loyalty is a critical factor in the success of your company.
According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer study, repeat customers that continue to support your brand over time will spend 67% more than new customers. This proves that customer retention needs to be one of your company’s top priorities.
Are you unsure of where to start with increasing customer loyalty? Keep reading to learn about 5 clever ways to keep customers on your side.
1. Offer Rewards
Customers are loyal by their own choosing, but it never hurts to thank them for continuing to purchase from your company. To keep customers coming back, set up a loyalty program to reward them. Your program can offer gifts, discounts, and exclusive offers.
Loyalty programs have proven their usefulness. According to research conducted by Hawk Incentives, 55% of millennials and 47% of baby boomers would be most engaged with a company that offers a rewards card.
With the right loyalty program, customers will feel appreciated and valued. It’s a small gesture to thank those who choose to spend their money at your business versus a competing company.
2. Make Customer Service a Priority
Customers much prefer to do business with retailers that value them. If you want customers to return and do repeat business with your company, you must offer amazing customer service.
Each time a customer interacts with your brand, that interaction is evaluated. This means each time a customer returns a faulty product, waits in line to make a purchase, or calls your phone support line, they’re keeping a running score.
The more positive the experience, the more positively the customer will view your company. In turn, you can expect them to continue purchasing the products or services that you sell.
You can show that your business values its customers by:
- Ensuring your staff is helpful, friendly, and efficient
- Making the customer support team accessible
- Getting involved; answer questions on social media, email, and other avenues
The more you value customer service, the more satisfied your customers will be.
3. Offer a Convenient Customer Experience
Making life easy for your customers is a great way to all but ensure they’re keep coming back. Today’s business world is all about the customer experience and making it faster, simpler, and more convenient.
One of the best ways to bring convenience to your business is to streamline day-to-day business processes. For instance, you can bring in a new transaction system that offers digital and mobile checkout to minimize the time customers have to spend checking out. POS systems can do that, and much more!
Another convenience that most customers would also enjoy is the ability to contact your company online. Emails are nice but being able to live chat or direct message your business is even better.
4. Be Consistent
At the end of the day, customer loyalty boils down to consistency. If your customer service team is great one day but lacking the next, you can all but ensure that customers will notice. Consistency not only applies to your customer service representatives, but inventory, pricing, and availability.
Customers are most loyal to companies that they know they can count on for amazing products and services each and every time.
To improve business consistency, have internal processes in place to ensure that each employee is meeting company standards. Offer training and find ways to make your employee’s lives easier which in turn filters down to your customers.
5. Ask for Feedback & Use It Constructively
It’s nice to feel like you have a say in what goes on around you. By asking your customers for their feedback and opinion about your brand, you open the door for them to have an impact.
Many businesses are afraid to ask for feedback because of the fear of negative words from customers. But, negative feedback can actually help you grow your business. For example, if customers complain that a certain item is always out of stock or that email support is lacking, you can make changes to remedy the issue.
By using constructive criticism to your advantage, you can improve your business. It also shows that you read and value customer feedback and care enough to act upon it.
Conclusion
Customer loyalty is an important business factor that you don’t want to neglect. By offering a loyalty program, listening, and asking for feedback, you can show your customers that you value them. In turn, those customers are more likely to keep returning for more business.
