According to the Center for Retail Management at Northwestern University, up to 15% of a business’s most loyal customers account for 55% to 70% of a company’s total sales. For this reason alone, it is imperative that you make your first impression with a customer count.
As a business, you need to enhance the customer experience and do everything in your power to ensure that each and every client will come back to your business when the need arises. Nowadays, it takes more than an overused, generic loyalty program to sway a customer. You need to be creative in your approach and provide value that your clients can’t find anywhere else.
Twelve members of the Forbes Agency Council discuss some of the more personal ways in which brands can increase their customer loyalty. Here’s what they had to say:
1. Listen To Their Feedback
Customer loyalty increases when you offer products and services that consumers truly value based on their feedback. Whether it is an experiential event or access to services to help them achieve their personal goals, we focus first on what customers tell us they would like more of from our brands. Then, we develop new products or expand existing ones to new platforms that serve those needs. - Bonnie Kintzer, Trusted Media Brands
2. Crowdsource Product Development
One simple, inexpensive way to increase customer loyalty is to make your customers feel like they're a part of the growth and development of your business. Instead of just allowing customer feedback to fall on deaf ears, use it to actually improve existing products or create new ones. Something as easy as running a contest where your customers get to pick the name of your upcoming product can make a one-time customer a lifetime fan. - Vinny La Barbera, imFORZA
3. Keep Delivering Value As The Market Changes
Point systems and online personalization can only take customer loyalty so far. Companies need to continue to deliver competitive value year over year if they want their customers to remain loyal. - Lisa Allocca, Red Javelin Communications
4. Focus On Building Relationships
Ultimately, brand loyalty is reflective of better service and relationship formation. This means adopting an attitude of helping solve problems, regardless of time or place, and making sure call centers and tech-driven automated response systems are easy to access and use. It is no coincidence that the least popular brands are those that make you solve problems on your own. - Peter Prodromou, Racepoint Global
5. Try Deep Segmentation
True data-driven, one-to-one personalization is complex and expensive. By using qualitative and quantitative research, as well data analysis on existing market behavior, companies could create fairly deep segmentation models that, when combined with some form of self-selection by the user, provide most of the experiential benefits of true personalization. - Justin Daab, Magnani Continuum Marketing
6. Start By Building Trust
Improving customer loyalty cannot be done without establishing trust. Before expecting customers to be loyal, brands need to earn their trust through content that adds value, which is achieved through identity-driven personalization and giving customers a purpose for interacting with your content. Brands should be building relationships, not just first impressions. - Preethy Vaidyanathan, Tapad
7. Encourage Creativity
Let people get creative with your brand. Running a contest on Instagram with a hashtag like #HowIBrew (if you sold espresso machines), would let the world see how your clients utilize your product and make their own caffeinated confections. Then, announce the winners publicly. Today’s personalization is much closer to reciprocity, the mutual respect between your brand and your customer. - Bernard May, National Positions
8. Capitalize On Social Loyalty
In today’s digital world, customer loyalty is heavily built through social media. Social gives brands direct access to interact with loyal customers, more than any loyalty program can. Consider special social campaigns that drive sales or another business goal. Reward customers who you directly interact with on your social accounts. - Lisa Arledge Powell, MediaSource
9. Create Valuable Content
People don’t hate seeing ads for products they love, want and need -- they hate seeing ads for products they don’t care about, hence the saying "bad marketers ruin everything." Break down your audiences by interests, age, gender, page visits, etc. Create a quality feedback loop and adjust based on an increase or decrease in conversions. We’ve lowered acquisition costs by 50% because of segmentation. - Josh Sample, Drive Social Media Saint Louis
10. Design Fulfilling Experiences
To drive strong loyalty metrics, first identify your most valuable customers. Uncover their intrinsic motivations to use your product and the scenarios that inspire them to return. Design an effortless and fulfilling customer experience. Dream up ways to surprise and delight them. - Allison Leeds Bucchere, wearelift.com
11. Partner With Social Media Influencers
Partnering with social media influencers to provide a unique package of products and deals to your customers will help increase engagement and authenticity. Working with influencers acting as brand ambassadors and creating meaningful content can help supercharge the potency of an existing loyalty program. - Jordan Edelson, Appetizer Mobile LLC
12. Send A Postcard
Nostalgia is where it's at. If you want to give a customer the feels, send them a handwritten postcard. It's easy to send an email but it takes time to send a handwritten note. Not many brands ever do this, so you will stand out in a positive way. Send a postcard -- it's been too long since your customers "really" heard from you. - Kirk Deis, Treehouse 51
