Building customer loyalty in four easy steps

Have you ever wondered what more you can do to ensure your customers stay loyal? Research shows that 79% of customers are more likely to move their business to a competitor within a week if they experience bad customer service. Retaining customers is a big fear amongst businesses and customer service is a major part of this. It might be easy enough to get customers to sign up to your service but keeping them loyal is a whole other ball game.

Over the past few years there has been a shift in the way businesses communicate with customers; a simple one-off email or phone call used to be enough. However, due to the rise in social media and transparent communication, today’s customers need more.

1. Engage in conversation

Start a conversation and keep it flowing! Simple as that. If there something you can help a customer with, don’t be afraid to jump into the conversation in a human and authentic way. Give them advice when they need it, or congratulate them on success when they have it. Make sure you listen to the conversation though and respond when it’s relevant, customers are more likely to think it’s spam if you respond with something off-topic. Your job at this point is not to sell the latest product to them but to engage in a genuine chat with them.

2. Help them to help you

Businesses that have taken to social media to help build meaningful ongoing relationships with their customers are reported to have more loyal customers, who are likely to spend ten times more on that brand in their lifetime. Being active on social media allows you to respond to questions quickly and easily. The conversations should always be relaxed, friendly and helpful. Any feedback given should be used to make your business better.  97% of consumers are more likely to become loyal if they know their feedback hasn’t just gone unnoticed.

3. Be there when they need you

83% of consumers prefer businesses who offer live or in-person support and are very likely to switch to a competitor if this isn’t offered. Customers support is not a 9-5 job. It’s an ongoing job that  might  be needed on a Saturday night or Sunday morning. Being able to respond to customers whenever they need is every customer’s dream come true. By not responding to them quickly, customers might think they are being neglected, which is something you never want them to feel. At Nimvelo, we aim to excel in customer support by offering live support via Twitter and live chat.

4. Always add value

When responding to customers always make sure you aim to  add value to their day, and go above and beyond what they expect. Make sure to always do more than your competitors do to help retain customers – giving more back to your customers is always more likely to lead to loyal customers.

Join the conversation…

What do you think is the most important thing that businesses can do to retain customers? Let us know what you do to try and keep customers happy and loyal.

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