It is not a secret at all that nowadays the number of companies giving us different services is just incredible. Today we do not have problems because we can buy and order anything at any time of the day. For this reason, it is more and more difficult for companies to keep a customer. Every day new companies appear, offering something original and progressive. Such a tendency only hardens the task of keeping your customer’s loyalty. However, some values can help you attract a client to be with you for long years.
Company story and values
One of the most important things for creating a brand is to have something behind your product. It can be anything that would arise greater interest and support among clients. The most successful companies offer not just a product but positive emotions that you, of course, cannot buy but can get by buying a particular product. A bright example can be a worldwide-known European furniture brand Ikea. Nobody will deny that this is an outstanding brand that makes nice furniture, uses high-quality materials; besides, gives excellent prices and service to its clients.
However, Ikea also creates a positive atmosphere. If you go to their website you will see numerous photos of furnished rooms with people smiling or enjoying their time (usually in a family circle). As a rule, people look happy and satisfied, as if they are living their best life. It sounds rather primitive but it works! This is an image that grows in every potential buyer’s mind upon seeing these marketing visuals: by buying their products I will also feel happier! To say more, if a company has a rich, long, or bright history and carries important values, it will have more chances to find loyalty among future and existing clients.
Personal brand
Personal brands play a significant role in building a company. If you analyze, you will see that the majority of brands have somebody behind them. Numerous beauty, clothes, swimwear brands are made by some celebrities or bloggers. We can just remind you of Kim Kardashian and her numerous brands, like SKIMS for lingerie and KKW beauty for cosmetics. And, as you know, they are extremely popular, new collections are launched and sold out in a flash. So, if you, for example, already have thousands of active followers, it is not reasonable to miss the opportunity to create a profitable business.
That is to say, nowadays, if you are about to set up a business you should seriously consider an idea of increasing your popularity on social platforms first. And you should not be skeptical about this, even luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior present their bags to bloggers for accessing new channels for promotion. Thanks to the impact of these influencers, there are waiting lists created to buy that bag.
Customer’s needs and tastes
To get customer loyalty it is crucial to take their needs and tastes into consideration. First of all, they will be pleased that your personnel or your website navigation helps them to identify what they need. Secondly, if you build trust, it will be convenient for them to discover something new using your services and products. Thirdly, you can sell more goods.
Development
You should constantly work on improvements of various kinds. If you do not have a website, create it. If you have a website, enhance its features. But you know that simply having a website is not a key to success. People should see and of course, use it. Thus it requires promotion. Your online business should work. Of course, you can wait until it becomes popular in a natural way, but there are no guarantees; besides, why wasting your time and losing an income?
Rewarding programs
We do not doubt that companies highly value their most loyal customers. We are sure that you can name a lot of cases when people buy clothes at the same boutiques for years and bring their children and grandchildren there. Of course, if they are loyal to your business, your store would be the first thing to come to their mind when they require a particular type of product or service. But it would be even better to thank them for their loyalty with some reward except for the usual discount. You could present something from your assortment or maybe a bottle of nice champagne or cheese set to your favorite customers without any occasion. But speaking about occasions, there are restaurants which send presents to their guests for their birthdays even if they do not visit them on the same day.
Comfort
Making your client feel comfortable should be beyond your top priorities. Of course, it is more about technical nuances, such as special features to enhance user experience if you work online. However, if we are talking about offline business, as they say, the sky’s the limit. For instance, you can make your business dog-friendly. You cannot imagine how convenient it is for clients to forget about having to leave their pets at home before visiting your place. Then, if you have a beauty salon, you understand that people often spend even half of the day there. Take care of beverages and snacks for your customers. If it is not rentable for you, you can carry on negotiations with cafes and restaurants in the neighborhood, take their menus and leave in your salon, so your customers will have an opportunity to order something. Think about the option of providing several services simultaneously. You and your clients can save time and better manage a working day. Make your business comfortable for your customers and they will be thankful to you.
Be flexible and listen to your clients
Unfortunately, a lot of business owners believe that they know better and do not listen to their customers’ opinions. It is one of the greatest mistakes you can make. If many people complain to you about some problem, if you are a professional, you cannot allow yourself to ignore it. But if you want your guests to speak out, you should give them a platform for it. Of course, you can tell your employees to check on the reviews, but they will forget half of them and you will not have an opportunity to make a deep analysis.
Post-purchase service
When people invest in any products, it is natural that they do not want to part with them quickly. For this reason, successful and reliable companies give their clients a perfect post-purchase service. For instance, when people buy the Ajax security system, they also get an application where they constantly get notifications and promptings about working with it.
But it is not always about technology. It can also be about goods that fall under a luxury category. For instance, if you buy a Cartier ring, you get an opportunity to fix its size one time, polish it several times, of course, for free.
All in all, customer retention is a hard thing that is gained for years. But if you know the secrets and keep to the values outlined above, success will be not long in coming.
