We all know that you can’t have a business without customers, and if you lose too many of them it will spell disaster for the future of your enterprise. After you’ve spent all that time and effort building your brand from the ground up, it’s essential to show your customers that they’re valued and appreciated. Here, we’ll run through some of the most effective ways to make your customers love you.
Never Make Assumptions
Sure, you may think that you know what your customers want. However, if you get it wrong, it can spell disaster for your company. One of the biggest reasons that small businesses fail in their first year is they try to create demand where there isn’t any, or they act on untested or unproven ideas that are unable to attract even a small demographic of paying customers. Don’t let yourself become one of these companies! Start off small, test out your concepts, and build your product, value proposition and so on around the precise wants and needs of your customer. This will not only give you a better understanding of what your customers want and need, but also opportunities to apply innovative methods of exceeding their expectations.
Stay in Touch
While the frequency can vary, every single customer you have should receive some kind of communication from your brand. At the very least, you should get in touch once per quarter through an email or online newsletter. Once a week with a standardized “opt-in” message can often be enough to do the trick. If these messages are centered around education and broadcasting valuable information, you’ll easily be able to build a mutually beneficial relationship with your customers over time. Aside from sending these kinds of updates out to your customer base, you should be giving them a good channel to get in touch with you whenever they need to. A constantly monitored social media presence is more or less a given these days. Aside from that, you should keep phone lines and live chat links that are always manned by someone with great customer service skills. Depending on your industry, you may want to use specialized video conferencing tools, for example telemedicine for Greenway. Keeping in touch with your customers like this will show you how much you value them, and keep them updated on any developments at your business.
Personalize Your Loyalty Program
If you’re running some kind of loyalty program at your business, you’ll obviously want to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. One of the best ways to do this is to fit the functions of the loyalty program around individual customers. Without violating anyone’s privacy, take steps to find out what your customers value in your business, and what they’re spending on individual products or services. Then, follow this up with rewards that give them greater access to the things they really want. Again, this will make your customers feel more valued, and spur them into coming back to you again and again.
