Top tips on improving customer loyalty
It’s been a funny few months for businesses. Not only was there the Brexit vote, but then a change in Prime Minister and an almost entirely new cabinet, not to mention the crashing of the pound and uncertainty in the property market. Whilst in themselves each of these occurrences might not have had a direct impact on many SME’s, the over-riding ambiguity surrounding Brexit itself has undoubtedly resulted in a dip in confidence generally.
Whilst we can’t do anything to control such outside influences on our businesses, one thing we can do to make sure we keep everything on track is to focus on what we’re doing and in particular, focus on our customers. Here are few top tips on encouraging customer loyalty.
Communicate regularly
These days there is an awful lot of ‘noise’ out there to catch the attention and potentially detract customers away from you. If you want to retain customers, you need to not only be promoting your services to potential new customers, you also need to keep in regular communication with your existing ones. If you are sending out regular communications, make sure these are personalised and tailored. For example, if you offer a number of different services, be sure to only send information that is relevant to each customer group rather than just sending everything to everyone. This will take a bit of data mining and customer segmenting, but it will be worth it.
Ask them what they want
Every now and then it can be a really useful exercise to gather feedback from your customers to see if they are happy and if there are any areas in which you could improve your service to them. Perhaps you would do this in the form of an annual customer survey, or else a series of impromptu phone calls. It may be that they report they are happy with the service they are receiving and don’t require anything else, in which case happy days! If there are areas of improvement that are suggested, however, do be sure to try and act upon them. Whilst it will not be possible to implement all ideas, there may be some gems. If you do make improvements based on customer feedback be sure to publicise this in some way – perhaps by way of a blog on your website or a newsletter to your customer base. This will show that you are committed to continual improvement for the benefit of customers and also that you listen to feedback.
Say thank you
Everyone likes a bit of recognition once in a while and why shouldn’t your customers be recognised for their loyalty? If you are going to show your appreciation by way of a gift, try to be a little imaginative and again, if you can do something personalised, all the better. Another way you could say thank you would be to host an event. This is not only a way of giving back to your customers, but also another opportunity to get in front of them. Nothing beats face to face communication for making relationships stronger and a party or gathering allows you do this with lots of clients all at the same time!
Although it may be a slightly tumultuous economic environment out there at the moment, breathing in and focusing internally on our businesses is one sure fire way to ensure we are delivering the very best we can to our customers, therefore improving our chances of keeping hold of them.
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