Nurturing healthy customer relationships is one of the best ways to encourage sustained growth in your business. They are your anchor in slow market conditions and can always be relied upon to keep your business afloat. But how can you maintain customer loyalty and keep them from turning towards competitors? There are several ways to accomplish this and most of them involve responding to your customer’s action or inaction intelligently and engagingly. Here are some tips to achieve that.
Engage Customers – Wisely.
Some business owners don’t really engage customers well. Some bombard them with constant emails and marketing materials while others only remember them once in a blue moon. The trick is to find the right balance and time your engagement correctly. You need to engage the customer after they’ve signed up for a service or purchase a product, but you need to give them time to evaluate it.
For example, Amazon sends an email to a customer a few days after a purchase is made to prompt a review. This allows the customer to experience the product, form their opinions about it and give the right response. It’s the timing of this email that facilitates customer engagement.
Similarly, some companies would send an introduction email with details on how to use their product, the details on their service, etc. The intention is to help the customer even after they’ve made a purchase. Customers will always appreciate that.
Listen to Your Customers– Everyday.
This isn’t an easy advice for a busy business owner to follow but it does have merit. This is solely because your customers expect you to respond promptly to their complaints and feedback. According to some surveys, customers expect a response from the company just 60 minutes after they’ve first posted a complaint on social media. They also expect response for bad reviews on review sites promptly within a day or two.
If you don’t do this, your customers will be disappointed and start questioning your customer service. Slight delays in response are acceptable, but long delays or no response at all is unforgiveable. That’s why it’s vital to keep an eye on what your customers are saying.
Figure Out What Your Customers Like – Maintain it.
Letting standards drop will only harm your business. There are several reviews found online in which a customer comment that the services or the products used to be good but the quality has dropped over the years. This is the worst thing you can do to your loyal customers. Loyal customers stick to you and your company when you provide good quality products and services.
They develop an attachment to the company. The onus is on you to maintain that quality because these customers are usually the ones that would tide you through market uncertainties. Through a series of polls and surveys you can determine which services and products are most valuable to your customers. After you have that information, you can use it to improve your products and maintain high quality. That’s one of the best ways to ensure customer loyalty.
