5 Ways for Small Retail Businesses to Drive Customer Loyalty

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There is one common misconception that often deludes marketers: customer loyalty equals customer satisfaction. However, a satisfied customer may have positive recollections of shopping with a certain brand, yet they won’t be inclined to buy again. Loyalty starts when a customer returns to make another purchase even if other brands offer lower prices or a more convenient location, to name just a few factors. The secret sauce of their decision making? It’s their experience during every ‘moment of truth’, from subscribing to price alerts to checking out their first order.

Today’s retail brands have to recognize this subtle difference in order to grow their business both vertically by selling more to existing customers, and horizontally by expanding their customer base. Luckily, the industry provides a wealth of cases to learn from. Based on best practices of enterprise software development for retailers, the following overview should suggest a few ideas on how to retain customers and ignite their loyalty.

Why Bother?

Today, shoppers increasingly differentiate retailers by customer experience as they are looking for superb service both during and after a purchase. They want to feel cared for, and this truly becomes a solid competitive advantage for brands looking to survive in today’s heavily populated retail market.

As customer experience is becoming a major battleground for competing brands, those who fail will likely see customer churn of up to 49% according to PwC, let alone the costs related to settling down bad experience issues. And bad experience lives much longer than a positive one, spreading across public review websites and social media. Would you want your house to catch this fire?

Bad experience aside, the cost of retaining a customer is lower than acquiring a new one. This can play out in numerous ways. A Temkin Group research shows that 87% of customers who had a good experience are very likely to buy again from the same brand, while 79% are very likely to recommend this company. Retention can become the source of a natural business growth, with each new referred customer costing less and less.

To build sustainable relationships, brands need to bring together their strategic thinking and technological prowess. These are two essential elements of competitiveness, where the latter means taking the digital channel to a new level of customer service and engagement.

Make Customer Journeys Seamless

To win the heart of a connected consumer, it’s necessary to ensure they will switch from one device to another seamlessly. This requires delivering consistent experience across channels and even across different shopping platforms within one channel.
Such consistency can manifest itself in various creative ways: from unified design across the web ecommerce store and mobile app to a shared shopping cart and personalized offers that ‘chase’ the customer from channel to channel. As a result, truly omnichannel brands get to enjoy increased engagement and, by extension, advocacy of loyal buyers who appreciate such brands’ efforts.

Study Your Customers’ Individuality

One of the little luxuries that small businesses can afford is knowing each of their customers personally, especially as they mostly operate locally and are tightly connected with their area and community. In this light, their eCommerce websites can become more than just web applications but powerful hubs for building and retaining customer relationships.

Integrated with customer data management solutions, be it a CRM system or some custom-made software, online stores will generate valuable insights about customer behavior and purchasing habits. Based on such rich details, small retail brands could both tailor their digital communication to a customer’s persona and come up with truly value-adding offers that will appeal to that customer’s most.

Focus on Emotions

Expectations are growing, customers are getting more demanding, and their purchasing—more impulsive. They make their decisions more and more by relying on emotions than reason, and earning loyalty is now also about provoking a strong emotional response. In this regard, loyalty and engagement go hand in hand.

For small businesses that are not ready to pay through the nose for dashing advertising campaigns, there is an option to provide their customers with as much freedom as possible, to invite them to become co-makers of the end product. Technologically, this takes us in the field of clever web applications with advanced customization options where customers could choose their preferred product configuration and customize it according to their taste.

Make It a Dialog

Supporting two-way communication is crucial for successful engagement. From personalized push notifications to pop-ups that talk directly to the website visitor, his or her browsing experience becomes less detached and more like a conversation. Online shopping platforms that support sign-ups also remember registered users’ names, so why not use it to kick off a chat with a personal touch?

Another important component of the loyalty-related campaigning is asking for customers’ feedback. Since satisfaction is a part of loyalty building indeed, tapping into customers’ ups and downs helps to bridge gaps, if any, and prevent the same problems in the future. Satisfaction surveys should be neither annoying nor straight in the face; still they should conclude every meaningful transaction between a customer and the store.

Make Sure You’re Always There

Never leave customers out in the cold. The more complex and functionally rich your digital outlets become, the more chances customers will want to get assistance to make the most out of the offering. For this, integrated customer support is indispensable. Make sure to provide versatile support channels, including a call center, email, live chat and the brand’s social pages. Self-service portals also become a number-one option among the new generation of customers, so don’t overlook this opportunity either.

And remember, digital experience is only one side of the coin. Customer experience in general extends beyond it, and if you happen to be a brick-and-click retailer, physical locations should live up and deliver on the same promises that your digital outlets do.

Maria Marinina
Itransition
Maria Marinina is a digital marketing manager with over 10 years of experience. Maria's primary focus is to drive business growth through increased brand awareness and lead generation.

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