Loyal customers are crucial assets to your business. The best part is it is easier and more cost-effective to retain existing customers than acquire new ones.
Statistics show that a mere 5 percent increase in customer retention can increase your profits by 25 percent. Similarly, customers who are satisfied with your customer service can spend more on your products.
So, winning your customers over with an impeccable customer experience can increase loyalty and help grow your business in the long run. But how to build long-lasting customer relationships? There are many ways, but we've listed the top 5 in this post.
Who Are Loyal Customers?
Loyal customers show a positive attitude and behavior toward your brand after purchasing your products or interacting with your services. Referrals, reviews, and purchases can detect such attitudes and behavior.
Similarly, when such customers continue to choose your brand over your competitor's, you establish loyalty to your brand. Besides that, loyal customers show the following habits toward your business:
- Make repeat purchases even if you increase the price.
- Avoid interacting with your competitors.
- Constantly react to your posts and participate in your social media campaigns.
- Provide constructive criticism and positive feedback.
- Promote your products/services among Family and friends.
Building Long-Lasting Customer Loyalty: 5 Must-Follow Ways
Now that you know the importance of building long-lasting customer loyalty, you're probably wondering how to apply the same to your brand. From using a virtual call center solution to setting up a comprehensive reward program, you have endless options that can help increase customer loyalty.
Here, we've listed down some of the best tried and tested strategies so you can choose the ones that fit your needs and budget.
Strategize Customer Service Across All Touchpoints
While customer service is usually deemed as the job of a single department, that's not the case. Instead, almost every organization department is responsible for ensuring a flawless customer experience.
Moreover, the majority of consumers will return for another purchase after having a positive experience. To make sure every department stays in the loop and maintains a positive outlook, there are several measures you can take as an organization.
These measures include making your website accessible by providing a comprehensive FAQ page and contact details. Similarly, adding a complaint or survey form can help your customers reach you easily in case of concerns.
Another way is to provide omnichannel contact options so your customers can easily reach you. Remember, human resources work better than AI in most cases. So, using a remote call center solution or working with a professional customer support team can work wonders.
Often existing customers need after-sales assistance. For example, the product manual might sound too technical, and on-call support would serve the purpose. Here, an experienced customer support team with a good grip on the product can address product-related concerns without taking too much of their time.
A customer who always gets the right support is likely to stick to your brand. There's a possibility that satisfied customers will share their experience on social platforms and increase your chances of winning more loyal customers in the future.
This is the reason why businesses, especially multinationals, have been investing in remote call centers with the capability of 24/7 assistance. With remote call center software running in the background, the agents can easily access the Company's platform from any remote location and provide real-time assistance to customers.
Besides that, building personalized email templates and integrating resourceful chatbots can also help customers make crucial decisions regarding their purchases on your website.
Curate Enticing Loyalty Programs
Even if you're selling a high-quality product or service while providing impeccable customer support, your competitors can easily catch up with you. You must give them a unique incentive to stay loyal to your brand.
Look at it this way. What makes you choose one shop over the other if you're shopping in-store? Mostly because the products are cheaper or you can get discounts as a frequent visitor.
That's what loyalty programs are all about. Show your appreciation to loyal customers by organizing a loyalty program that rewards them with points, coupons, and discounts.
Not only does this create a positive outlook for your brand, but it also ensures the customers will come back for repeat purchases. Also, rewarding them for referrals works to rope in new customers, creating a win-win situation for you.
If you want to stay ahead of the competition in online marketing, you need to know what they're doing and how you can do it better
Collect Valuable Feedback Through Remote Call Centers
To build lasting relationships with your customers, you'll have to listen to them and cater to their needs. Research shows that 70% of Americans spend more with brands after having a good customer experience.
Collecting valuable feedback and improving based on it will make your customers feel valued and respected, further strengthening their relationship with your brand.
Mainly, working on customer feedback gives you a second chance after you fail to satisfy your customers in the first place. That's why feedback is nothing short of a goldmine for your organization.
You can use survey forms, email review requests, and even place segmented calls through remote call centers to collect feedback. Then, if you make improvements based on the feedback, send them follow-up emails or place calls to let them know their query was solved.
Use Social Proof
Let's face it; a customer is more likely to believe the word of another fellow customer than your own words. Collecting positive reviews and customer testimonials is an important aspect of your marketing strategy.
First, you'll have to reach out to your customers and collect their reviews. You can do this through social Media campaigns or by introducing survey forms on your website. The good idea is to incentivize customers to provide reviews for other customers to see.
Secondly, using the right tools to display these reviews effectively on your website is crucial to entice new customers. You've worked hard to satisfy customers and collect the right metrics, so your hard work should be reflected in your website.
One good way to show customer engagement is through infographics. You can use stats to show:
- What features got the most attention, and why?
- How many customers have been satisfied?
- How many of them needed some assistance?
- How many customers are keen on trying more products?
Now, all you need is to simply publish the infographic on your website. You may want to promote it on social media as well. It'll help clear any doubts and persuade new customers to click the buy button.
Focus On UX
Let's say you visit a website through a social media platform only to find it messy and confusing. Would you ever take trouble visiting the website again? Maybe not.
The same goes for your customers.
To make sure your customers choose to visit your website over others and maintain loyalty to your brand, you should develop a flawless user interface. Apart from enhancing your loading speed, you should also target font clarity and improve website navigation.
Besides that, do your best to declutter your landing page so that customers can easily find what they need without having to scroll too much.
Is Building Customer Loyalty Important?
Yes, building customer loyalty using calculated strategies is important to maintain a positive brand identity for your business. Mainly, creating loyal customers means you will continue to generate business through repeat purchases and referrals.
Similarly, loyal customers are less sensitive to price fluctuations and keen to use their loyalty rewards. They don't switch to your competitors.
Not only do loyal customers have higher conversion rates than new ones, but your brand can also experience the following benefits:
- Save up on increasing website conversion rates.
- Enjoy natural referrals and positive word-of-mouth.
- Experience a lower return and refund rate.
- Have an easier time testing and marketing new products.
- Frequently get recurring orders.
- Receive organic testimonials and reviews.
Conclusion
Wrapping this up, building long-lasting customer loyalty requires thorough research and effort. It is crucial that a customer who visits your portal feels valued and appreciated. Whether you approach them through a remote call center for feedback or offer discounts on their purchase, your strategy should work on bringing them back.
Once you have developed a loyal customer base, you can reinforce the relationship through social media and email and have them rope in new customers through referrals.
Remember, when nurturing customer relationships, try to provide value for their time and money while maintaining consistency.
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