Businesses must build a loyal customer base to survive and drive brand growth. Today, the importance of customer retention activities cannot be underestimated.
And it’s important to do it the right way, based on the company’s values and commitment to serving customers. If the market goes up and down over time, you need to earn your customers’ trust so they can continue to support your brand.
What is customer loyalty, and why is it important?
Businesses can benefit from customer loyalty if they provide high-added value to their products and services and have a consistently good customer experience. Simply put, customer retention is achieved when customers make repeat purchases from your company over time. This means less customer acquisition effort (although you’re always trying to acquire new customers).
Here are some reasons why building customer loyalty through exemplary customer service is essential:
- Loyal customers spend more: About 80% or more of them would spend more on companies that personalize the customer service they provide.
- Loyal customers are less likely to churn: 74% of the customers said they would forgive a company for its mistakes if they received excellent service.
- Loyal customers improve customer retention: 81% of customers say they are more likely to make the next purchase if they are satisfied with customer service.
- Loyal customers are less likely to rely on competitors: 76% of customers say they switch to a competitor because of multiple poor customer service experiences.
- Loyal customers are more likely to recommend your business to their friends and improve your brand reputation: 64% of executives say customer service positively impacts their company’s growth.
Key strategies for building customer loyalty for your business
Below are some of the best strategies businesses can use to build customer loyalty quickly:
- Communicate value to customers
Before you can increase customer loyalty, you need to understand which aspects of your brand deserve customer loyalty. Sit down with your team to create a marketing strategy that outlines what makes your brand stand out, your purpose, and how your values align with your customers’ core beliefs.
Your brand values guide your customers. In particular, marketing should focus on the brand attributes that are unique to your brand and allow you to differentiate yourself from your competitors. It can also mean standing out, which is becoming more common. So stick to your beliefs and try to communicate them effectively.
- Show your appreciation with our loyalty program
To build customer loyalty, use special offers, discounts, or rewards to help encourage repeat purchases. You can also consider creating your loyalty program. There are many types of loyalty programs. Rewarding your customers motivates them to be happy with their purchases and returns.
Loyalty programs like these help customers feel valued while providing valuable customer data that can be used to improve the customer experience. Together, these efforts can turn repeat customers into loyal customers.
- Provide excellent customer service
People have high expectations, especially when it comes to customer service. Providing the best possible experience for new and existing customers is extremely important. Customer experience includes everything about customer interactions, from when a customer first visits her website to when they call her customer service team for assistance.
You can broaden your channel coverage to respond more quickly to customer inquiries. By taking an omnichannel approach to customer support, you can deliver a fast and helpful experience to your customers wherever they are.
- Personalize your marketing
One of the keys to a successful business is treating each customer as an individual, not just a transaction. 62% of consumers say they are more likely to repeat purchases from brands that treat them as individuals.
Personalize your marketing by targeting content that speaks to them the most, rather than just mentioning their name. Learn their names, birthdays, shopping habits and preferences, and unique needs. Today’s technology makes this even more possible, so take advantage of these tools.
- Setting up a referral program
On a related note, loyal customers are more likely to recommend your brand to people they care about. That is why 93% of customers trust recommendations from friends and family, so taking advantage of this is important.
With our referral program, you can extend your customer loyalty campaign by rewarding customers for talking about you. It also builds loyalty because offering incentives make people feel unique and valued.
- Accept feedback
Finally, be a brand that listens. Customer feedback helps us understand our customers’ needs, wants, and concerns.
Pay special attention to negative feedback, research it constructively, and address issues promptly. This way, you can enhance your business in the process. When customers make sure they are heard, they know they can trust the brand, ultimately leading to customer loyalty.
Conclusion
Building customer loyalty is really about building relationships. Like any relationship, it takes time and effort to build trust and continued investment to keep the relationship going. Loyalty and customer loyalty are not simply bought; they must be earned.
To improve customer retention, pay attention to the customer experience and do whatever it takes to make your customer’s life easier and hopefully more enjoyable.
We at Onpassive Digital are work towards making Data Analytics and Big Data available to all the businesses and help them in achieving their maximum reach and realizing goals.