Celebrate Customer Loyalty Month: Top 5 Customer Loyalty Tips

If you are in the busi­ness of cus­tomer ser­vice and cus­tomer sup­port – take note: It’s Cus­tomer Loy­alty Month. What does this mean? Well, for one thing, it’s a great time to take a per­sonal and company-wide inven­tory of just how well you are treat­ing and ser­vic­ing your cus­tomers. How would you rate your cus­tomer loy­alty? Could it be improved? Chances are, it could. We have five tips to help you not only improve cus­tomer loy­alty at your com­pany, but to make your cus­tomers hap­pily loyal to your brand and company.

If your atti­tude toward cus­tomer ser­vice is that your role is to mit­i­gate dam­age, or to sim­ply put out fires and move on to the next prob­lem, Cus­tomer Ser­vice Month is a great time to re-think this thought process.

Cus­tomer con­cerns are no small issue, and if your cus­tomer has a prob­lem with your prod­uct, ser­vice, or the way a prob­lem was han­dled, con­sider this your new prob­lem – it’s not just a prob­lem hap­pen­ing to some­one else, but it’s an issue that now affects you directly. Does this thought-shift change how you’ll han­dle the prob­lem? It should. Unhappy cus­tomers tend not to be loyal cus­tomers for long, so con­sider how you can pos­si­bly solve their prob­lem in a way that you per­son­ally would be pleased with. Ask your­self – if this hap­pened to me, how would I want the prob­lem solved? What would be the best pos­si­ble out­come in this sce­nario? How would I want the com­pany to respond to me and solve this issue? As much as it’s in your power to do so, act and treat that cus­tomer accordingly.

J.C. Pen­ney was once one of the titans in depart­ment store sales. In 2012, sales fell by 25% and the for­mer Apple Stores’ leader Ron John­son, who was hired to spiff up the stores and increase sales, was fired. Among Johnson’s cited fail­ures was that he alien­ated cus­tomers, decreas­ing customer’s “loy­alty engage­ment lev­els” to a new low of 70%. (Com­peti­tor depart­ment store Kohl’s has a level of 84% and Macy’s is at 82%. At 65%, a brand is said to be on its way out.) One major flaw in Johnson’s strat­egy was elim­i­nat­ing the dis­counts that cus­tomers had relied on – John­son instead rolled out “every­day low pric­ing.” With the brand in peril, Myron Ull­man, J.C. Penney’s re-instated CEO, is des­per­ately bring­ing back the deep dis­counts in hopes that he can lure cus­tomers back and once again regain the loy­alty of cus­tomers who relied on Penney’s tried and true for­mula. Les­son learned? When it comes to reward­ing cus­tomers, don’t rein­vent the wheel; cus­tomers appre­ci­ate offers, dis­counts, and rewards.

When con­sid­er­ing cus­tomer loy­alty and how your cus­tomers feel about your ser­vice and brand, never assume that cus­tomers remem­ber or even know the large and small ways you are pro­vid­ing ser­vice. Keep your brand and ser­vice top-of-mind through e-newsletters, per­sonal emails, or even phone calls (depend­ing, of course, on the type of ser­vice you offer and the num­ber of cus­tomers you have). It’s not arro­gant to point out the ways you are help­ing your cus­tomers – it’s sim­ply a good prac­tice. High­light your rewards, make sure cus­tomers know how they can eas­ily con­tact you if prob­lems arise, and even pick “cus­tomer tes­ti­mo­ni­als” to drive home the point that your ser­vice is mak­ing a dif­fer­ence for other peo­ple, as well.

If you live in or around the Bay Area and have sea­son tick­ets to the Giants base­ball team games, chances are, you are feel­ing the love from the orga­ni­za­tion. To help increase cus­tomer loy­alty and ensure that fans will come back for repeat sea­sons, the Giants orga­ni­za­tion assigned per­sonal rep­re­sen­ta­tives to each sea­son ticket holder to ensure that the fan is happy with his or her expe­ri­ence. Yes, you read that right — every per­son who has a sea­son ticket has the per­sonal phone num­ber and e-mail of his or her very own cus­tomer rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Sea­son ticket hold­ers can sell seats for games they can’t attend, ask ques­tions, or even file com­plaints if some­thing such as their scanned ticket didn’t work when enter­ing the park. It’s per­sonal ser­vice at its best, and it’s just one way that the Giants have man­aged to keep their fans wildly loyal.

Do you send birth­day cards to your grand­mother, aunt, and/or sib­lings? How about your cus­tomers? If not, why not? When it comes to cus­tomer loy­alty, if your busi­ness involves more per­sonal rela­tion­ships with cus­tomers, make sure you write down their birth­days, anniver­saries, and impor­tant life events. Send a card, hand-written or per­son­ally signed, if pos­si­ble, and be sure to thank your cus­tomer along with your note of cel­e­bra­tion or con­grat­u­la­tions. Your cus­tomers will remem­ber this nice touch.

We hope that dur­ing Cus­tomer Loy­alty Month you put in extra effort to remind your cus­tomers just how much you appre­ci­ate their busi­ness. Post our 5 tips up in a vis­i­ble place, and prac­tice them, year-round. With per­sis­tent atten­tion to your cus­tomers, you’ll start to build not just loyal cus­tomers, but hap­pily loyal customers.