As a sales executive, I have been observing a lot of strategy and data getting tossed around. Many businesses experience a slump post the holiday season. This can be daunting for the businesses as most of them experience low sales without any kind of big flashy purchases, all they manage to find are those customers who had visited in the past were repeated, but that too at rather low frequency. This was a loyal customer base though it was small.
Loyal customers are considered to be those who will buy the purchase of your items even when they aren’t on sale. They will also recommend your products and services to their family and friends. Now the greatest challenge for every business is to find such loyal customers and keep increasing their numbers. Several customer feedback software has emerged in the market that keep a track of the regular customers and their opinion of your business. This has come of high use to increase customer loyalty by tapping on to the areas that have interested your customer the most.
Customer loyalty – what is it and what is its significance?
Customer loyalty is the method of measuring how likely would your customers repeat their business. There are several methods of measuring customer loyalty for different industries. However, the basic way is looking at the number of times a customer has purchased in your database. Customer feedback apps are readily available nowadays that can measure the count of repeat buyers who are your most prized customers. Though they may not come with a long buying list yet the likelihood of your revenue from them would be most likely on the top.
The reality is, a meager 5 percent improvement in the retention rates of the customer’s yields between 25 and 100 percent of the increase in the profits across all industries, where happy customers are likely to spend more money and rather often. There are several other benefits of keeping loyal customers. They are the source of word-of-mouth free advertising, online reviews with positive remarks.
Let’s check the list of ways that can help in building a loyal customer base. While looking at your customer loyalty types, you would be looking forward to reciprocal customer loyalty, which is a premium relationship that brings benefit to both the customer and the brand.
Customer loyalty method #1- Know who your customer is and also let them know you
Customers have more likelihood of being loyal if are feeling valued; you need to remember their birthdays, anniversaries, and the last goods they bought. Many of the retailers have implemented those email programs where they send emails on important dates of their customers with some rewards, discounts, or special offers. This is a part of the customer feedback tool that you buy and install that gives you the ability to instantly send emails to your loyal customers on their special moments.
It is rather important that you remain transparent with all your customers regarding your business. If there are glitches in getting your shipments delivered to your stores and customer destinations on time, let them know. Did you recently make changes within your management and/or release some new product? Let it be known to your customers. Giving them the news before the media releases makes them feel close to your brand. This is called brand personalization, an important strategy for acquiring customer loyalty. What’s better is releasing it to your engaged, loyal consumers first using the app to get honest feedback.
Customer loyalty method #2 – Use customer loyalty programs that are card based to reward your customer
The card-based reward programs are way too successful in retaining your customers and making them loyal. It is the best way of getting to know your customer loyalty scale and who all are loyal to you. Spruce up your customer loyalty programs with gift cards, rewards cards, and other rewards or card-based programs. Based on the no of points your customers earn, they receive incentives or discounts or other products.
Customer loyalty method #3 – Make your customer loyalty easy by storing customer data
Always a rather excellent instance of customer loyalty is the option of ordering and paying on your mobile device. Most customers love when they buy yet another reading book or magazine on Kindle and don’t need to enter credit card information. This kind of one-touch order informs you that your business knows the customer and they are being helped with minimum financial interactions as possible. It is all about making the lives of the customers simpler, where your customer has easy access to lock screen opening, to simply double-tap on their android Home button to get the transaction done.
When you make payments seamless and quick, customers just love yours instantly. This is a definitive factor in increasing your customer loyalty towards your brands, thanks to the advanced applications in customer feedback software.
Customer loyalty method #4 – Be the best of what you do
If you are the best at what you do, you will simply win loyal customers. There are multiple brands that a customer falls for, but cannot justify the costs of buying with all. Then, there are rather cheap brands but, they don’t last. In this market of multiplicity and a huge list of businesses, it is best to be the best of what you are and continue to improve at all times. Again use the customer feedback app to keep a tap on what you are looking to hear from your customers and how you are enabling the customization according to your customer needs and improving customer delight continuously.
Customer loyalty method #5 Encourage a lot of customer feedback
If you are prompt at receiving customer feedback, you will receive rather a prompt customer loyalty. With good reviews, you could drive your prospects to leads, as good service ensures converting prospects into customers, and all satisfied customers leave good reviews.
Make sure all your customer touchpoints are attached with the customer feedback app at kiosks, and other available places to receive instant customer feedback. There are several highly traffic-laden channels like Twitter, Facebook, etc. which provide excellent customer service. You could use both social media and email services to understand your customer experience better.
Conclusion
Customer service and an excellent one is the first point of concern for all businesses. Any and every business is looking to create excellent customer service to acquire loyal customers. It is been found through several studies that loyal customers bring maximum revenue for the business rather than shoppers at the frenzy and occasional buying. To understand your customers better and improve your business, try the customer feedback apps so and gather a good lot of customer inputs thereby increasing customer loyalty and adding revenue to your business.
