The Little-Known Strategies You can Employ to Establish Better Customer Loyalty and Retention

The kind of relationship you have with your customers can make or break your business, and you must find ways to build on this relationship and improve it. There has always been a lot of talk about customer loyalty and retention, and one cannot exist without the other. The simple fact is that once you have found a way to improve the loyalty of your customers, retaining them is a result. But the bigger question is: how can you then establish better customer loyalty and retention? We’re talking about going beyond loyalty programmes and VIP perks. Here are the little-known strategies you can employ.

• Be consistent with providing an excellent experience

With consistency, you can establish better trust. Your customers will know exactly what to expect from your brand, and they will depend on you to deliver the proper results based on their expectations. Without consistency, your interactions with your customers will be a ‘surprise,’ and keep in mind that in a business transaction, no one likes surprises at all.

You can maintain consistency by building various procedures and processes to welcome new customers on board, and follow this with the proper communication. Pay attention to your social media platforms and channels and your web processes and assets, so your customers can get help via different channels. You can also map a schedule for follow-ups and milestones, so you and your customers have the same objectives and have a shared outlook and responsibility.

• Make it convenient to get the service they need

If you’ve ever been put on hold, it’s not very pleasant, is it? This isn’t just true when someone is on a call – it’s true on all channels. Have a good understanding of what your customers need, especially in terms of how you can answer their questions and resolve their concerns, as recommended by an expert customer experience consultant from TheLoyaltyWorks.co.uk. Make it convenient for them to get the service they need, and more than this, make sure you can answer their questions and resolve their problems quickly and with empathy.

• Maintain records of past issues and communications

You can also adopt a CRM system for storing notes on past issues and communications with your customers, and you can even include your customers’ requests and preferences. With a complete history and detailed information of your relationship with your customers, you can serve as a true partner and show them that you appreciate and respect their issues and concerns. More importantly, it shows them that you are mindful of what they want – and this goes a long way.

• Make use of reciprocity

Reciprocity can enhance customer loyalty, and various kind acts help produce a feeling of ‘returning the gesture’ and repaying kindness with another act of kindness. You have to know that there are two types of reciprocity – one is ‘trumpeted,’ and the other is ‘surprise’. You can use both; for instance, when you surprise customers with a gesture or gift, such as sending them free tickets or freebies. Trumpeted is when you do something that can show that you are exceeding expectations. It doesn’t mean you will showcase this on social media or a report; one example would be to give a customer advanced access to a feature or product before it is launched.