Customer loyalty is the next competitive battleground. It’s where a business is going to be won or lost.
You have probably heard that it is far easier to sell to existing clients than to win new ones. Yet, many online shops spend a little fortune attracting someone that may not even be interested in their services. To increase revenue, the best proven strategy is to work on your customer loyalty program. Inspire those who have already bought from you to buy again and you will probably have a lifetime buyer. Here is how you can do this:
1. Gain Trust
A lot of customers come to your store looking for one specific product. When they purchase that item they don’t have much of a reason to return. We already know that repeat customers are your shop’s best friends. Though they may not make big purchases, over time, the revenue from them will top revenue from big one-time customers. Compared to first-time visitors, repeat buyers are willing to spend 67% more money on your products.
The question is: How to make them return?
The number one answer is to gain your clients’ trust. You can gain trust by implementing a loyalty program. It’s a classic and most effective way to encourage repeat business, which is why all the big brands already do it. For example, you can offer your clients a card with a discount on every third purchase as a reward. Not only does the loyalty program encourage repeat purchase behavior, but it will also increase the average transaction size.
2. Offer Personalized Customer Service
Personalized customer service stands for finding out and delivering services that cater to the exact needs and wants of your clients. The relationship between businesses and clients is constantly evolving. One of the ways to improve this relationship is by making tailor-made solutions for your customer’s problems.
Get to know you clients. Find out their demands and needs and offer them complementary products to one they already bought. When our customers want us to build their website, we offer them maintenance service. Or to make it more simple – when they buy chips, offer them complementary drinks. Also, it’s very important to be available to your customers round-the-clock.
3. Email Marketing 2.0
If you haven’t used it yet, it is a perfect time to start. With email service providers like MailChimp or GetResponse, you can access powerful automation tools and analytics. First, you will need a triggering caption. Something that will capture the attention of your clients. It means that you can’t just send the same emails to everyone, spamming them with thousands of emails that don’t match their interests. You should send emails based on a customer’s behavior.
*BONUS TIP: When a guest joins your email list, send him a welcome mail. Welcome mail should be something useful to them. You can send a $10 coupon, or some other bonus they will find useful enough to engage.
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4. Listen to Your Clients
“Customers who had a bad experience with a brand, but the company fixed it, are more loyal than customers who never had a problem in the first place.”
Feedbacks are valuable to your company and as soon as you accept that, you will have benefits from them. Every time a customer sends an email to your customer service team they are providing you with valuable information. It is up to you whether you want to hear it or not.
No matter if they are reporting a problem or asking for new service – it will improve your customer loyalty program and get more benefits to your business. Understanding the way your clients are seeing your products will help you adjust it to their needs. At the end, you are selling it for them.
5. Provide Customer Service Training to All Employees
If this sounds like a waste of time for you, you are on the wrong page. Customer service training is key for your employees to understand customer mindset, the way they think and feel about your products or services. Start the onboarding of your new employees with customer service training to make them familiar with customer-focused strategies. The very next time you will be implementing new services or products, your employees will be able to recognize the customer’s best interests. Customer service training will also make non-customer-facing employees become more familiar with users’ needs by removing the barrier between them.
