There are customers, and then there are loyal customers. They are not the same. If you analyze your business, you’ll see that the loyal customers are more significant for your growth than those who buy once and you never see their faces/ credit cards again. Moreover, acquiring a new buyer costs five times more than retaining the old one. The numbers have spoken.
What’s interesting nowadays is that younger businesses are offering a much smoother customer experience (CX) than those who have been around for a long while. How so? Well, the natives are aware of the possibilities and requests of the modern (generation z if you like) buyer from the onset, and they optimize their business operation accordingly and from the start, while the “heritage” businesses might have to conquer administrative hurdles and their possibly bureaucratic heritage.
Thus, establishing and maintaining the relationship between your business and your customers is an absolute must, and should go without saying.
There are a lot of ways to implement the strategies we are going to talk about in this article, the aim of which is to maintain your customers and enlarge your business. This is achieved through a consistent and tailored relationship with your customers that only starts, not ends, with their purchase. Because a happy customer will talk. And in business, a word of mouth is everything.
First, let’s start by defining some key points.
The Three Key Points: History, UX, Humanness
- You need to know your customer’s (hi)story
- You need to offer an AMAZING user experience (UX)
- You need to remember that although you use machines to collect and analyze data, your customers are still people.
Understanding a customer offers you an invaluable insight into the behavior of the typical one, which you can use to leverage what might not be working flawlessly. Moreover, you can make quite a precise cross-section of why people buy, come back to buy more or leave without buying, never to return again.
Once upon a time, it was relatively easy to manage customers. People had only one option: a brick-and-mortar shop/ service, and no other choices. Nowadays, the channels have multiplied, so on top of your shop, you have social media, apps, podcasts, landing pages, websites, and emails to manage. So, it’s important that all of the above functions smoothly. By doing research on your customer’s history, you’ll get to know how they finished their action and what their buying habits are. Therefore, you can do the follow-up and create a custom-made experience for that particular person, which, in turn, will make them come back.
It’s essential though for all the channels to function at the top level, offering your customers a sense of immediacy and, ultimately, care. People should enjoy buying from you, not get frustrated. So, don’t make them fill in tons of (unnecessary) information to subscribe, always have an option to pay quickly without pushing them to create an account, and lastly, do the tailor-made approach to recommendations. It’s huge. If you show your customer that you know their taste, their shopping history, and their name on top of that, voila! You have placed your focus on where it should be. That’s great user experience, ladies and gentlemen.
The third key point underlines your customer’s humanness- people want to be seen as people, not generic data, even though you use it to analyze them and turn it into something more meaningful and relatable. It means that people want to deal with stuff that helps them solve their problems and fulfill their needs. Therefore, you should create a story that IS relatable and to-the-point, meaningful, and helpful. You should aim at that humanness.
Strategies to Accumulate Loyal Customers
There are several things your company should utilize, some of them are older or more obvious, some are fresh and popular.
Experts from web design Houston agency suggest to collect and track customer data through various CMR systems that help you with sales automation. Personalized emails (with the customer’s first name), push notifications across social media, and the safety of your data may sound obvious, but they are very important. Especially data security: you can’t afford to lose your customers’ trust.
But there are other strategies, like text messaging, live chat (bots) on one hand, and audience segmentation and influencers on the other.
An email is rather personal, but text/ Viber/ WhatsApp communication is even more so. Not to mention the responsiveness rate. Most people read the texts (and the like) almost immediately, so it’s more likely they’ll get it.
Chat is a lot quicker than having to call and wait to talk to customer service. On top of that, you can use it to present similar sales options, helping the customers make a decision. So it’s fast and personal, enough said.
Segmentation of the audience happens when you target similar customers with similar interests, focusing thus on their particular needs and catering to them.
Influencers are omnipresent and for a reason. Compare a company without a face, and a familiar face that you follow and admire, who will you trust better? They bring their following, meaning a focused community. It’s also subtler since there’s no need for forced promotions. Finally, trust is forged much faster.
Some other strategies to manage your customers more effectively is to offer some interactive material, as it’s fun, considering the generation of buyers. So don’t shy away from VR or some interactive surveys.
Conclusion
What is important to keep in mind is that people tend to incline towards familiar brands and products, for they’re tried, tested and trusted.
The number one reason why people move to the competition is that they feel neglected, not cared for. So it’s not dissatisfaction with the product or service in the first place, as you may think. That’s the reason you absolutely have to level up your CX game.
Valuing your customers, caring for their needs, experience, and security will lead to a happy customer.
And a happy customer will stay. Then you’ll be happy as well.
