What is your business doing right now to cultivate customer loyalty?
Building and maintaining a loyal consumer base is no easy feat. But, with a few strategies and tactics, there are several ways to achieve this in a customer-centric world. Let’s dive in!
1. Provide Strong Customer Service
There’s so much that goes into ensuring your business is providing quality customer service, which can make improving this area a bit daunting. Nonetheless, strong customer care can be broken down into three key aspects:
- Establish emotional relationships. Today’s customer is no longer satisfied with being treated like a customer – no consumer wants to feel like just another number. Consider personalizing the experience and use easy-to-understand language – don’t bore them with corporate jargon.
- Humanize the experience. Nothing beats a human on the other side of the line providing comfort and assurance that a query will be resolved. If you can spare the resources, having real customer service agents will always top standard chatbots or simple FAQ sections.
- Prioritize omnichannel support. Whether through a Facebook comment, an email, Instagram DM, or a phone call, someone always needs to be available on as many channels as possible to answer all kinds of queries.
If you feel like your business is lagging behind in terms of providing comprehensive customer service, it’d be wise to think about acquiring customer service coaching services to ensure that no bad experiences happen under your watch. Hiring staff that excels at customer service can do amazing things to attract and retain loyal clients.
2. Offer Thoughtful Discounts & Promotions
Whether it’s a seasonal promotion, segmented discount, or a valuable rewards program, offering exclusive deals to various segments of your customer base is essential for retaining loyal customers.
There are many ways your business can do so:
- Personalized discounts. There’s no better way of personalizing your products or services than by offering discounts. For example, a happy hour special at 6 pm will get 9-5ers into your establishment. Or, a buy one, get one coffee deal on Mondays for student ID holders easily targets college students.
- Rewarding customers. As a client, wouldn’t you love it if you got a free product after four or five orders? Reward programs, if your business can muster the resources to set one up, are easy ways to keep a customer loyal and increase their chances of returning to your business.
- Encourage referrals. Arguably the most underrated method of building and maintaining a loyal customer base, a refer-a-friend program is a highly efficient way of attracting new clients while rewarding your current ones. For example, if your customer refers a friend to your product, reward them with a gift card – and provide their friend with a discount. It’s a win-win!
3. Foster an Engaging Company Culture
There’s a reason why companies with strong omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain far more clients in comparison to those with weaker tactics. Engaging with your customers, particularly with your company’s social media accounts and curated marketing content, is instrumental in building an engaged and loyal clientele base.
Fostering a culture doesn’t start and end with social media, though; you should also establish a consistent presence in the business reviews sector. Always find ways to encourage feedback on your products or services, and always respond to positive and negative reviews. Make known your gratitude for them taking the time of day to critique your stuff. These tactics are easy loyalty builders.
Closing Thoughts
Whether providing strong customer service or engaging with your clients, all three aspects are instrumental in building and maintaining a loyal client base. In a customer-centric world, these components are essential for any business.
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