Attracting new customers is the essence of every business. We market and sell to a target audience that we hope to catch the attention of. While attracting customers is hard, maintaining customer loyalty is even more difficult.
A customer loyalty plan has plenty to offer any business. Let’s talk about how you can increase loyalty among your customers with a few simple steps.
What is Customer Loyalty?
Customer loyalty is the invisible influence that keeps customers coming back continually. Loyal customers return to a business over time, keep updated with your social channels, and often even provide positive feedback for your services where others will find it.
These customers love what you do. Your business has helped them, and because they think it can help others as well, they choose to be loyal and pick you over competitors.
Why is Loyalty Important?
Loyal customers ultimately earn you more money. You spend less money on advertising to retain new customers, and the loyal ones return on their own. Repetitive buying also helps you to forecast your sales as your base customers start to spend consistent amounts over time.
Loyalty also acts as a free form of advertising. When customers truly support what you offer, they want their friends and family members to benefit the same way they have. These customers spread your services through word-of-mouth marketing and social media, helping you find other customers.
How to Improve Customer Loyalty
Improving customer loyalty can be done by taking many different routes. Some of the most effective means of improving include:
Delivering Above and Beyond Expectations
Delivering your customers an exceptional experience is the best way to make sure they’ll work with you again in the future. 17% of customers will walk away from a business after only one bad shopping experience.
The initial experiences of any customers should be given full attention to make sure they leave feeling satisfied. Happy experiences bring customers back, so whatever you do, do it with full effort.
Prioritizing Customer Service
Customer service is always the leading force of customer experience. Customers are loyal when they know they can turn to you for help when they need it, and that your services are the answer to their problems.
The overall experience of buying is reliant on the product received as well as the service provided by a merchant. Therefore, businesses that prioritize customer service come out above the rest. Customer service should be widespread, offering the option for customers to speak to you in person, over the phone, and through email or a live chat. Make sure you have a dedicated team of employees responding within a specific time frame to build confidence among customers.
Asking For Customer Feedback
No one knows how to improve your business better than the customers that use it. Gathering customer feedback is a valuable way to see what your customers candidly think about you. By receiving customer opinions, you can adjust to offer what customers what to see.
The other hidden benefit of asking for customer feedback is that it instills in customers that what they think matters. Since customers want to support businesses that care about their needs, taking their feedback into consideration encourages more loyalty.
Utilizing Social Proof
Social proof refers to the idea that people will act in accordance with what society accepts. In other words, when people talk to their friends or post online about which products or businesses they love, others want to love them as well.
Social proof can come in many forms. Whether your customers are leaving great reviews online, interacting with your social media posts, or sharing their experiences with their friends, they’re spreading the word that what you offer is valuable.
Setting Up a Customer Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs offer long-term customers a reward for returning to your business. These programs attract new customers and give them a reason to return in the future, creating a consistent customer base.
Depending on your business, loyalty programs might offer discounts, free items, or other incentives. All of these are options to increase your customer loyalty and increase your number of returning buyers.
The Role of Delivery in Customer Loyalty
Where does all of this come together? With a solid delivery plan that gives customers exactly what they want. All customers voice that they want faster, cheaper delivery options, and by listening to them you can show them you have the solution they need.
FlashBox cares for your customers and shows them that their experience is important. We deliver beyond expectations with delivery prices that have never been available before and have on-demand customer service professionals available to help them. These types of solutions create loyal customers.
Working with FlashBox is a step in the right direction for customer loyalty. Try out same-day delivery today to see how often happy customers return for more.
