There are a few steps you can take to make sure that your customers aren’t apathetic spenders who return but don’t actively advocate for your brand. This includes focussing on your most loyal customers and integrating them as a part of your brand identity as well as giving them reasons to stay loyal.
Below are five tips to consider alongside your retention strategy that can help you to turn your returning customers into NPS promoters and brand advocates.
1. Excel at customer service
This should be obvious, but what is ultimately going to keep customers happy and loyal is the quality of the customer service you offer. Great customer service is friendly, reliable, efficient, fast and sincere. One bad interaction can make you lose the most loyal of customers, so it is wise to ensure that in the event that something does go awry, your apology is personal and sufficient. Customers are fickle, and if they don’t feel valued or prioritised it won’t take much for them to move on to a competitor or tell all of their friends how bad your business is. When a business offers great customer service (in-store, over the phone, via chat, and even self-service) customers really appreciate it. Constantly strive to find the gaps in your service so you can offer the best customer experience possible and make sure if something does go wrong, you are able to address it quickly.
2. Prioritise convenience
The customer effort score has become such an important feedback metric to many businesses because it is a great indicator of loyalty. Customers want experiences that don’t cost them a lot of time and effort because making a purchase or interacting with a business usually shouldn’t be the focus of their day. A great way to achieve this can be self-service options which eschew any wait times or need for interaction with employees. Also, saving customer details for online transactions or anything to help with the speeding up of check out processes is also really appreciated by customers. Anything that increases the ease of interaction goes a long way. Minor inconveniences can be a big deal, so offering great self-service options and speedy processes can make a huge difference to customer experience and retention.
3. Offer incentives
It is essential to have a customer loyalty program or rewards program that really works. Sometimes businesses have loyalty programs in place but the perks or rewards of being a member are unclear or not truly of interest to their customer base. Take an audit of your loyalty program to see if you are doing the best to give your customers what they want. What kind of offers do they engage the most with? Are they most receptive to flash sales, surprise gifts, event invites or freebies? Offer your most loyal customers exclusive incentives to remind them that they are a specifically valued group and encourage other customers to join the loyalty program to also reap its benefits. Also, incentivise them to invite new customers with discounts or offers so that they do some of the customer acquisition work for you.
If a customer loyalty program doesn’t work with your business, you can always offer perks to existing or potential customers too that aren’t exclusive but help them to fall in love with your brand. Everyone loves a discount or a free gift so promote them well (and often), and if they’re great the customers will come back for more.
4. Have an engaging social presence
Every company has a different social media strategy these days, but you don’t have to be hilarious on Twitter or post fabulous professionally shot Instagram photos to get your customers engaged. Social channels can be a great source for listening to your customers and starting a conversation with them. This can mean responding to complaints or concerns or thanking those who are saying great things about you online. This can cultivate an online community for your brand that anyone can see. Your voice on social media should align with your brand identity elsewhere as customers value consistency. You should employ social listening tools so that you can respond promptly as customers really expect you to engage on social media like a real person, which means quickly and often.
You can also use your loyal customers to gain amazing content. Consumer generated content is amazing in that it is cost-effective and encourages customer engagement online by creating brand ambassadors out of your every day happy customers. It makes your customers feel special when you share their posts and can lend to your company’s online presence and the creation of an online community for your brand. Encouraging the sharing of CGC can also increase the great things said online about your brand through testimonials and online reviews which is, of course, important as the value of word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer recommendations cannot be emphasized enough.
5. Say “thank you”
Let your customers know that you appreciate them. The most loyal customers deserve your attention and recognition even if they are consistent in their support of your business. Too often, the detractors get all the attention because losing a customer is costly. But it’s nice to remind the customers who are consistently happy with you that they matter too. This can mean offering incentives, as emphasised above, but sometimes just a note of thanks, an unexpected bonus like expedited shipping, extra loyalty card points or early access to new products can be really appreciated by the customer. Customers enjoy a bit of personal attention and personalisation and it isn’t difficult for you to offer this to them. Reinforcing that they matter to your business to them will, in turn, strengthen their loyalty to you and their likelihood to spread the word about how great your business is.
