The entrepreneurial world is a big jungle in which you have to use methods to keep your customers and survive in the face of your competitors. It is a mistake to think that a few advertising efforts (sometimes even misleading) will bring in buyers from all over. If your goal is to build customer loyalty, to have buyers who subscribe to your products and services in the long term, you necessarily need a plan to execute. Explore in this article, 04 foolproof methods that will allow you to retain your customers.
Offer quality services with added value
It is obvious that the quality of the service or product offered is the foundation of any customer loyalty strategy. If you are a business owner, there is no doubt that you offer a product or a service. For your product to be successful with your potential customers, it must be of impeccable quality.
In today’s economic and digital system, where customers have plenty of ways to compare offers from various organizations, it is in your best interest to stand out with qualitative, value-added offers. To do this, do a competitive analysis and identify those things you can offer that your competitors do not. This can be a way of thinking, a way of looking at your business, moral values that few people in your field practice, production mechanisms, methods of packaging and delivery of your products, etc.
Your unique and consistent value propositions are those little or big pluses that only you offer. It is these innovative contributions that will allow you to stand out from the crowd, attract more customers to you and make them fall in love with your organization’s brand image.
Have a database of your customers
You can’t create and maintain a relationship with people you know nothing about. The relationship between a company and its customers is similar to a love affair between two people who have known and chosen each other. The more contact there is, the more the passion is maintained, warmed and increased. To maintain such an almost intimate (but not intrusive) contact with your customers, you need to collect and store as much information about them as possible.
So find ways to get information that will allow you to send personalized messages to your customers and offers that will make them want to buy your products. It’s a great way to build customer loyalty. The advantage with the strategy of creating a database on your customers is that it allows you to create a real proximity with them and almost come to know them at their fingertips. Thus, you will be able to propose offers adapted to their needs and anticipate their requests and expectations. Here are some key points that your customer database should include:
- Their numbers and email addresses;
- Their typology;
- Their buying behaviors;
- Their occupations (to estimate their purchasing power);
- Their history with your company, etc.
Keeping a database of your customers is also a good way to get feedback on customer experiences. You can then build customer loyalty by focusing more on the sources of their satisfaction and correcting the aspects that disappoint or frustrate them about your organization.
Rely on the competence and reactivity of your customer service
Don’t allow your customer service to be the reason ladies complain while having coffee in a lounge on a Saturday night after shopping. Whether your customers come back to buy from you or continue to order your products for the next ten years will depend on the quality of your customer service. For this to happen, your customer service staff must be engaging people who are well-versed in modern methods of communication. Among other qualities, your receptionist, for example, must be a good listener, must be able to provide relevant answers to customer concerns, and must demonstrate good emotional intelligence.
In addition to being well-trained and knowledgeable, your customer service agents must be responsive. In other words, they need to answer calls quickly and provide effective responses to customers. When customers feel that their complaints are being listened to and addressed, that your customer service department is providing real-time technical assistance and that their inquiries are being answered quickly, they feel privileged.
That feeling of privilege is worth more than any advertising campaign you could do. A customer who feels privileged will do more good for your bottom line than another to whom you tout your products. They will come and buy from you again and again because of the honor you give them of having available and attentive customer service.
Make sure you deliver an exceptional customer experience
Don’t confuse customer relationship with customer experience. The first one is about the link you have with your customers (thanks to your customer database) while the second one is about the feeling your customers have towards your products and services. Ensuring a good customer experience to your buyers implies that you positively mark their mind with your products and services so that it creates a lasting bond between you and them. To ensure a great customer experience, you can focus on these three key points.
Personalization of your products and/or services
A survey revealed that in 2017, 44% of French consumers started shopping at their former vendors’ competitors. The reason was that they weren’t getting enough value from them with personalized products and services. This survey captures the fact that your customers don’t just want to be pockets in which you pick money to increase your sales. If they are going to give you their dollars, they want you to give them products that are just like them, that are dedicated to them. To meet this personalization challenge and build customer loyalty, you can use the information collected in your customer database.
Esteem for your customers
A small thank you email or a small gift after purchase is something that warms customers’ hearts. Ask your delivery people and salespeople to always thank customers after their purchases and to smile at them. With loyalty programs, surprise your most loyal customers with rewards (vouchers, VIP passes, exclusive products, etc.). Make them feel valued and privileged. Also, don’t hesitate to ask them for their appreciation of your products. They will see that their opinions are important to you. Basically, keep in mind that in order to keep your customers loyal, you must show them consideration.
Simplifying the user experience
Finally, to turn the customer experience of your buyers to your advantage, simplify their user experience as much as possible. This refers to the way the customer will use the product you sold them. If a customer has difficulty using your product, their user experience will be unpleasant and that will do you a disservice. That’s why you need to make sure that your customers go home having fully understood how to use the product they bought. The more pleasant the user experience, the more positive the customer experience will be and the more loyal your buyer will be.
These are all things you can do to build customer loyalty and, why not, become a reference in your field of activity.
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