How to Increase Customer Loyalty and Retention

As part of any company's marketing plan there has to be a focus on offering a service which actively promotes customer loyalty and customer retention.

Support for your customers

Once you gain a new customer you'll want to keep them and in many cases want them to come back for re-sales and extra purchases.  Every time you gain a new customer you'll be wanting to ensure that you establish the right relationship from the start. Offering positive on-going support and useful information about the product or service you provide. A relationship which will lead to that customer coming back for more. With the right approach each new customer can become an ambassador for your business and bring in an endless supply of new referrals.

 

Below are just a few ideas which you could employ to help with customer relationships and customer retention:

Always meet the needs of the customer. Find out what they are looking for, what they want, what they need and then fit your product to fit with those needs. Always over deliver by adding a bonus, new feature, freebie or over and above service. After all your buying a customer as well as selling a product.

Ensure you give ridiculously good customer service, offering a professional service, a thoughtful service, a service which leaves your customer feeling as though they are your most important customer of all. Treat your customer the way you would want to be treated. Customers after all want to be treated as people not just another sales figure. Work together with your customers when things go wrong with the service or the product. Customers have a right to complain. It doesn't mean you have to agree with them, but you do need to listen to them, understand where they are coming from and together come to a resolve.


Keep your customers happy

Aim to be open and transparent when dealing with customer service. If you get it wrong, be willing to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it. Always be genuine with your customers. Show a real desire to improve. Even if your are doing a great job already you can still do better. Customers really do appreciate that sort of approach and interaction. To know you care for your customers will shine through and help keep your customer base stable and loyal.

Always thank your customers. Praise them and genuinely care for them. Let them see 'you give a dam' and from time to time reward them with a business gift or loyalty voucher, a special offer or send out a birthday message each year. Make then feel wanted, make them feel special and make them feel the business really does appreciate their custom. If you do, it will not only help with retention, but it will also make it  a lot easier for further sales negotiation. Send out a clear message that you genuinely are interested and care about them, their business or their aspirations for the future. Pick up the phone, arrange a visit and make it personal.


Free business gifts or offers for loyal customers

Remember, customer loyalty works both ways. If you want customers to be loyal to you, you will need to be loyal to them through the entirety of your relationship.

Come the day when they leave you, and they will. They will either sing your praises or tell everyone not to go anywhere near you or your business. People always tend to talk about the negatives of a business much more than they remember to talk about the positives. It's just the way it is. 

Your business will also have customers who will come and go. However, you will still be able to maintain a core group of customers who will stick by you through the good times and the bad. The building blocks of loyalty are trust,  honesty and sincerity. Your customers want reassurance from you that what you say is what you mean. You can show this in the way you carry out your daily business with them.

Make it real and they will learn they can trust you. And it is that trust which will keep them loyal. So make sure you keep those customers satisfied with your products and services. Go the extra mile for your customers and they will show their appreciation and reward you with mutual respect and loyalty to your business.

Go the extra mile for customers

Always bear in mind that each and every time you meet a potential new customer, you are wanting to create and build a positive working relationship. And as you are already aware, relationships of any kind, take time and need constant care and attention to achieve trust and longevity.

Even if you don't make the sale of the century at that first meet it doesn't matter. What matters is you do so on the understanding that this customer, if nurtured and cared for, will stay with you and your business for a long time to come.
A customer who will serve you well and bring the possibility of new or extra business through referrals or extra sales.

What's all that worth I wonder, to you and your business?

Bingham
Blogger for Bath Business Web Ltd