How do you make your customers loyal to your brand?
Don’t get carried away by the desire to grow your customer base; if you’re not succeeding at keeping the ones you have, your mission to attract more regular buyers to your business is going to fail. The new ones will be lost for the same reasons you’ve had to let go of the people, who previously patronized you. In any case, a pool of faithful customers gives you something that a large, but shaky and unreliable base of in-and-out buyers won’t: certainty. It’s something you’ll need in good measure if you’re going to build and sustain a growing business.
We’ve already implied that customers have the will to pitch their tent with whom they wish. What you need to know is why they do this. Are there things about your business that cause them to stick with it, or drive them away? You will have to figure this out when devising strategies to that will make them fans of what you do.
Here, we’ll show you ten ways to keep your customers satisfied and happy with your brand.
- Provide the best product or service you can.
This is the first step. Without it, you’re not going to last. No matter how good your selling strategy is, you won’t be able to continue recording big sales if what you’re offering isn’t up to scratch. Be the best, and sell your quality. Then, the buyers will keep coming to you.
- Treat your customers like human beings.
Recognize them as
people with feelings, needs, motives, and intellect. Don’t shove your product in their faces, or give them the impression that you’re in business just to get money from them. They can tell the difference between a person, who is concerned about meeting their needs, and one, who is only interested in milking them. Be human. Be courteous. Be kind and sympathetic.
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Communicate with your customers on a regular basis.
Make your relationship with them, more than just about buying and selling. Give them a heads-up, when you have a new product you think they’ll be interested in. Furnish them with updates on your business. If you have in-person meetings with them on a regular basis, you should be courteous enough to inquire about their well-being, their family, work, and other aspects of their lives (you can do this if you have become familiar with them).
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Thank your customers.
When you appreciate them for patronizing you, they will believe that you value
them. There are many ways to do this. Saying thank you to them verbally is one; sending thank you notes along with your products (when delivering to them) is another. You can also send a special, personalized appreciation email, or thank them on
social media in response to a positive review of your product they posted after using it.
- Let them in on your product or service development.
Ask your customers, what they would like to see in your new products or services, and tell them when the new offering is available, especially if it includes features that they suggested to you. They’ll get the sense that you take their opinions seriously, and they will be happy to stick with your business, since it caters to them in tangible ways.
- Resolve issues quickly
When there’s a complaint from a customer, do your best to attend to it immediately. Prompt action is a signal that you are committed to providing high-quality service; if you maintain this attitude over time, customers will trust you for it.
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Seek customer feedback
Find out what your clients think of your products and services, and use the feedback you.get to improve your business’s processes and output. For more on this, read our article,
Top Five Ways To Get Customer Feedback.
- Give them more than just a product
How about helping customers with information that they can use? For example, if you produce toilet soap, you may provide your customers with personal hygiene tips via your social media handles, your blog, or even a small booklet handed to them for free, along with your product (when they purchase the soap). Or if you are a car dealer, you could give them a list containing descriptions and contact details of trusted auto-repair workshops they can visit if the vehicle they buy from you develops a fault or needs maintenance work to be done on it.
You can do this more often on your website, if you have one. It will give your customers an extra reason to keep coming back to you.
- Place a premium on integrity
Say what you mean, do as you say, and consistently work with this ethic This is a sure way of winning your customer’s loyalty.
- Modify your products to suit your customer’s changing tastes
Your customers are humans; as a result, their preferences will change over time. Adapt your products and services to their evolving tastes, in order to keep up with their demands. It’s not always a comfortable way to run a business, but it can be interesting, if you take it as a challenge to spur growth by testing the limits of your creativity.
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This article was first published on 6th December 2017
ikenna-nwachukwu
Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.
Comments (1)
These are definitely good ideas to build customer loyalty. Here is a bonus, send customers birthday messages on their birthdays and make them an offer. Such a powerful gesture.?