6 Ways to Manifest Customer Loyalty
It is always more difficult to create a new client rather than keep an existing one extraordinarily happy. What are you currently doing to maintain customer loyalty?
Here are 6 ways to manifest customer loyalty:
- Become a resource.
Be or become the expert in your field by continuing to learn on a daily basis. Write about your expertise and share this information with your clients. Be sure not to write a sales pitch, rather write about information of value to your customers.
- Say thank you.
This seems like a no-brainer, but how often do you hear those words? How often do you say them? This is one, based on my experience, seems to be taken for granted. I continually notice myself saying thank you to people for taking my money. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? There are many ways to thank your clients. A verbal thank you will work or consider a hand-written thank you note. Wow, how long has it been since you received one of those? If you really want to make a long lasting impression; consider implementing a client gratitude program.
- Stay in touch.
How easy is this? With the internet, there are so many low cost ways to accomplish this. E-mail & social media are great ways to keep in front of your clients. Again, I would like to reiterate that your message be something of value to your client base, rather than a sales pitch. Another option is mobile marketing. I won’t claim to be the expert in this arena yet. However, I do know that ½ of the people that access the internet do so through their smart phone. This is a community three times bigger than the internet desktop community. According to digital buzz blog, 5 billion mobile devices were purchased in 2010. Don’t you think it makes sense to have mobile friendly marketing messages?
- Provide extraordinary customer service.
It must be extraordinary because in today’s market, satisfactory is just not good enough. With all the competition out there, it’s imperative that customer service is exceptional. What are you doing to provide extraordinary customer service? If you’re not providing customer service to your clients another company will.
- Set yourself apart.
Rather than a transactional purchase, provide an experience for your clients. Make answering your phone, listening to your voice mail greeting, receiving your email, and all communication memorable. Do something different to wow them. Consider answering your phone "It’s a great day at XYZ Company, how can I make it a great day for you?" Spice up your voicemail. Be different. Think outside the box.
- Promote your customers.
Use email, social media, press releases and joint campaigns to showcase your customers’ business. This builds relationships with your customers and, in effect, promotes your customers to sell for you. It’s a win win-win situation. Think about it, if you were featured in a cross promotional email, on social media, press release, or direct mail piece wouldn’t you want to share with your friends and family?
