What is Customer Loyalty?
Customer loyalty is a measurement of how likely a customer is to keep doing business with a brand. It’s made possible through a positive experience with the brand that creates a willingness to come back and buy again and again.
Why is Customer Loyalty important?
Improving customer loyalty is critical to business success. There are multiple benefits, from more consistent revenue and bringing in new customers, to positive reviews and recommendations. It can also be easier and more affordable to retain existing customers than attract new ones.
Strategies to enhance customer loyalty:
Focusing on Your Brand Promise
While there are numerous small and mid-size businesses in Australia, it’s their uniqueness that drives success. When customers come to your brand, they’re looking to have you fulfill a promise. Whether it’s to ease pain or speed-up a process, living up to your brand promise can keep existing customers around and bring new ones in too.
Consider your brand promise carefully. If you feel that you're fulfilling your brand promise but new customers aren’t coming in, consider creating a customer outreach campaign to explore how you could improve the overall brand experience. Happy customers send more customers.
Where Referrals Really Come From
Referrals can also be an area that deserves your attention as SMB purchasing decisions are heavily influenced by recommendations from other SMBs.
Companies in the B2B space can benefit from a model that makes it easy for its customers to recommend the business to other people.
As you look at your company’s current referral statistics, consider offering your customers a highly personalised service. In time you may find they’re no longer simply your customers just for the basic service you provide. They remain your customers because they perceive your business to be invested in their business. And that’s what really drives organic word-of-mouth referrals.
How Channel Partnerships Add an Untapped Layer to Loyalty
Channel partnerships are another way your business can foster growth, and through a similar value-added strategy to the previously mentioned referral strategy. Channel partnerships allow your business to bring additional value to your customers but through direct agreements with complementary service providers.
Channel partnerships can help to foster growth in your company when you think of them as a two-way street. Ask partners if they believe you’re the right partner for them and whether they’d view you as an equal.
Strengthen Relationship With Customers
Think about ways to strengthen your relationship with a customer. This could be through a reward program, giving extra perks or unique offers to return customers, or by communicating with them regularly via email.
Prioritise Customer Experience (CX)
One of the best ways to build customer loyalty is with great customer experience. Find out what customers think about their interactions with you and look for ways you can go above and beyond. Customers remember a bad experience, but they are also likely to remember companies that got it right too.
Promote shared values with your ideal customers
Companies are increasingly being asked to match their actions with their words and show their values. There are numerous reports and articles telling us that a growing number of customers prefer dealing with businesses that share their values.
Create a helpful community for customers
A great way to build customer loyalty is by creating a community that turn followers into engaged fans. Social media is a good place to start. Brands that engage most successfully with social media use it to directly communicate with customers and provide useful customer service.
Conclusion
The strategies above work together in symbiosis to help your business increase customer loyalty, thereby decreasing new customer acquisition costs through increased satisfaction and referrals. Both are good news for growth-minded businesses.