How to Build Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty measure how likely existing customers will do repeat business with your company. Each industry has its own way of measuring customer loyalty, the simplest way is reviewing existing customer's lifetime purchases in your database.

Customers that are loyal will buy your products consistently regardless of if they are on sale or not and will recommend you to their friends and family. Having this audience large enough to keep you afloat is vital to the overall success of your business. Other benefits include having loyal customers, including positive online reviews and free word-of-mouth advertising. The following tips are simple ways you can start to build customer loyalty.

Know Your Customer

Customer will be loyal to you if they feel valued and cared about. Remembering their birthdays and the last item they bought from you help with customer retention. If you do not have an email marketing system set up, create an email program that says a birthday email and offers discounts for them during their birthday month.

Transparency is also another key factor your business needs to have. If shipments are delayed be sure let them know via email that they should expect a late shipment and when they can expect their product. If you are launching a new product, let them be the first to know by sending a personalized message directly to them rather than hearing it from another source.

When applicable, assign a customer service rep to new customer accounts to help them through the initial set up process and stay with them throughout their customer life cycle. This allows a rep to get to know that client, understand their company, and learn their business goals so they can better assist them.

Create a Customer Loyalty Program

A customer loyalty program is a great way to reward your existing customers for their loyalty and attract new customers at the same time. The following are ways you can do this including:

• Credit cards: retail stores and airlines reward loyal customers with credit card perks such as cashback savings.
• Mobile rewards: create a program that is easy to use where your existing customers can earn points when they make a purchase, and it will also help you see their order and track their information.
• Punch cards: these are a simple and easy option where you can determine how customers earn punches and what the rewards are once they meet their goal.

Make Customer Loyalty Easier

Increase customer loyalty by continuously making their experience with your company more user-friendly. If you can use automation to improve your customers’ experience, consider trying it. These simple steps can help companies ensure that the customer has a positive experience, helps improve customer retention, and increase positive customer feedback.

Be the Best

To differentiate yourself from competitors, be the best around. Focus on delivering a quality product at a price point that works for your customer base. When individuals can connect with your company, they are more likely to become and remain loyal customers.

Welcome Customer Feedback

Customer feedback helps with customer loyalty too. Having positive reviews will help attract new customers, providing great products or services will convert new customers to loyal customers, and happy customer leave good reviews.

Your company should strive to have excellent customer service to resolve any issues the customer has. You can provide customer service through social media platforms too. If you have their email address, send a follow up and ask them to rate their experience and leave a positive review.

Online reviews are important because most people will do research online before purchasing a product or service and this is a determining factor for most people. It is no secret that it costs more to attract new customers than it does to keep the loyal ones happy. Take time to learn what is relevant for your customers and identify ways to increase customer retention and loyalty.