Your customers can do more than just buy products from you, they can be your biggest promoters and supporters. Very few business owners realize this, but if a customer finds a great product or a wonderful store, they’re going to tell others about it. They’ll share their find with their friends, post their appreciation on social media, and recommend the product they love to everyone who asks.
That’s a lot of marketing with little to no investment. So, how do you encourage this? How can you motivate your customers to love you and your products? Here are some suggestions.
Hire the Right People
One of the best ways to win fans amongst customers is to ensure that their experience with your company is great. That means, you need employees who’re experts at interacting with the customers, whether it’s face to face or online. You need to make sure that each and every employee you have in your company has some customer service experience.
You can arrange for seminars and training sessions to ensure this. Your customers won’t hesitate to share a bad experience with everyone they know. By making sure that all of your employees know how to deal with customers, you make sure that their experience is great.
Interact With Customers
There are some companies that like to maintain a distant relationship with their customers. That’s not always a great idea. You want your customers to like you, but if you don’t engage them, they’ll forget you. Sometimes, it’s a great idea to engage your customers personally and communicate with them. You can sent a personalized birthday greeting, or call for feedback.
If a regular customer walks into your store, you might even engage them in friendly small-talk. That gives the customers a personal connection to you, which is always a great idea. Customers tend to support and promote businesses and companies that they have a personal connection to.
Reward Loyalty
Most businesses already have programs in place to reward loyal, long-term customers. There are several ways you can do that as well. You can give them early access to sales, offer them special discounts, or invite them to special company events or launches. The idea is to single long-term customers out and show your appreciation. That would impress them and make them feel connected to your business. Once you establish this tie with your customers, you’ll notice that they bring in more customers.
Promote the Mindset of Customer Service
It’s a good idea to promote a customer service mindset amongst your employees. As we mentioned before, a customer should have a good experience whenever they interact with your company. That means, it’s not just the customer service executives that need to know how to interact with them. If people from other departments come into contact with your customers, they should be able to interact with them as well. The only way that would happen is if you cultivate the mindset to be helpful and treat customers well throughout the company.
