How To Build Customer Loyalty in 7 Easy Steps
Nothing can be more fulfilling than acquiring and winning new customers for your business. However, the real challenge is in retaining and keeping these customers for good. So how do you go about ensuring customer retention for your business?
This page shares with you some practical tips for building customer loyalty. Read on to learn how to earn loyal customers for your business growth and success. Cover photo by Adam Winger.
7 Practical Ways To Gain Loyal Customers and Grow Your Business
We may define customer loyalty as “customers who continue to patronize your brand and buy your products or hire your services.” However, it’s more than just gaining regular customers and ensuring repeat business. It’s also about building relationships and cultivating a customer base in the long term.
Here’s the catch: Keeping customers is about five times cheaper than acquiring new ones. Customer retention can even boost your business during difficult times in the economy. However, earning customer loyalty is easier said than done.
Fret not; we’ll share some practical tips for achieving this business objective. That said, here’s how to gain loyal customers and grow your business:
1. Understand Your Customers Deeply
If you want to win new customers and keep them for good, start by knowing them and understanding their needs. This means that you must study your target and current market holistically.
- Know your target customers. It takes extensive research to create your buyer persona and perform customer profiling. About 90% of businesses employing personas claim to understand their audience better.
- Understand your consumer needs. It also requires you to examine the needs of your existing customers. Know their pain points, personal preferences, buying habits, and interests.
Knowing and understanding your customers deeply helps you in your approach to building customer loyalty. Then, you can proceed to the next step.
2. Let Customers Understand Your Brand
Jesse Galanis, Content Manager at Tech Lockdown, recommends introducing and establishing your brand for customer loyalty. “In business, it also takes two to tango. You offer products or services to customers, and they pay you for these offerings. So while you strive to know and understand them, let them discover and understand your brand as well.”
To achieve this, consider the following:
- Brand: Create a unique and appealing brand identity through distinct and memorable logos, icons, designs, and other visual elements directly associated with your business.
- Offerings: Highlight the value of your products or services by allowing customers to see how these can benefit them.
- Values: Communicate your values by sharing your philosophies and ideals as a business. Harness the power of neurodiversity in brand culture.
3. Offer Real Value to Your Customers
In business, it’s vital to ask the most crucial question: what do you have to offer? Companies primarily create products or services to earn money from customers. But to win their hearts, you must provide them with real value. That’s how you can get them to patronize your business—a win-win solution for both parties!
Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director at Circuit, emphasized the direct connection between business value and customer loyalty. “Customers will patronize your brand if they see your products or services meet their needs. But to ensure customer loyalty, you must continuously improve your offerings as consumer needs and demands are ever-changing.”
4. Provide Excellent Customer Service
Putting your customers at the top is crucial for improving your bottom line. According to Zendesk, 73% of business leaders reported a direct link between customer service and business performance. Quality customer service can drive sales in business:
- 93% will spend on companies providing their preferred customer service options.
- 90% will spend on companies offering personalized customer service experience.
- 92% will spend on companies that don’t let them repeat information.
- 89% will spend on companies that provide answers online.
Enhance the customer experience and ensure customer satisfaction through the following:
- Build a Robust Customer Service Team. Employ customer-centric agents who always make customers their top priority. They must willingly and effectively answer inquiries, process requests, provide updates, handle complaints, and resolve issues.
- Improve the UX on Your Platform. Optimize the channels where customers visit and do business with you, whether your website or social media pages. The goal is to enhance the user experience through a structured user interface (UI), easy navigation, fast loading time, and valuable content.
Photo: Blake Wisz
5. Regularly Engage with Customers
Lucy Kuharenko, Marketing Manager at Weblium, recommends constant customer engagement for building loyalty. “Acquiring customers is one thing: Keeping them is another. You must invest time, money, and energy in connecting with your customers. The goal is to build trust and establish good relationships with them.”
Below are some online platforms where you can regularly interact with your customers:
- Website: Of course, start engaging with your customers via your business site. Offer them immersive media and interactive content to boost your engagement.
- Social Media: These channels are where people live and breathe. Get customers to follow your pages, whether on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn. Then, interact with them through likes, shares, and comments.
- Blog: Produce content pieces, whether articles, images, or videos, that resonate with your customers. Then publish them on your blog and other platforms where they can easily and quickly see and consume them.
- Designs: Be highly critical of the specific visual elements on your platforms. Focus on design strategies to encourage repeat purchases and ensure customer retention.
6. Empower Your Customers in Various Ways
Coty Perry, CMO at Anglers, suggests empowering customers to build loyalty. “Customer empowerment translates to customer loyalty. When you provide customers with resources, you allow them to find solutions to their own problems. When they feel empowered, they will most likely continue patronizing your business.”
To empower your customers, offer them self-service options:
- IVR: An interactive voice response system (IVR) enables customers to get basic answers and process simple requests.
- Chatbots: AI-powered chatbots can act as customer service representatives (CSRs) assisting customers with basic concerns. They can refer you to live agents for complex issues.
- Knowledge Base Center: This resource includes frequently asked questions (FAQs), troubleshooting guides, and product manuals. They can guide and assist customers with their concerns.
7. Create Loyalty Programs and Offer Some Perks
Regular and loyal customers deserve some add-ons for patronizing your business. Provide customer loyalty programs like mobile wallets, credit cards, and punch cards with reward systems. You can also offer a referral program by incentivizing customers when they refer your business to others like family members, friends, and loved ones.
Alex Milligan, Co-founder & CMO of NuggMD, suggests offering loyalty programs and other benefits to encourage customer loyalty. “Incentivize repeat business with special discounts, exclusive offers, and attractive perks. That can surely go a long way. With these enticing privileges, customers will most likely do business with you.”
Conclusion
Every entrepreneur aspires to establish customer loyalty for their business. They don’t just aim to acquire new customers; They also seek to keep them for good. However, doing so is easier said than done.
As such, consider our practical tips recommended above for earning loyal customers. Understand that building customer loyalty requires hard work and patience. But when done successfully, you’ll reap the fruits of your labor—business growth and success!
