7 Ways to Create Real Customer Loyalty

Repeat customers spend up to 67 percent more than new customers. Plus, it’s up to ten times more expensive to try to attract new customers than it is to keep the ones already doing business with you.

Seven Ways to Create Real Customer Loyalty

1. Set Up Ways to Communicate With Your Customers

Frequent communication with your customers keeps you fresh in their minds and lets you pass along important information. 

Take the time to set up a database with contact information such as email addresses, mailing addresses, or phone numbers. Then you can send friendly reminders, birthday greetings, or a monthly newsletter.

Social media is another great way to communicate with your customers on an almost daily basis.

2. Provide Extra Perks for Your Most Loyal Customers

One of the best ways to reward customer loyalty is to give extra perks to your most dependable customers. Whether it’s the ability to skip the line, special meet-and-greets, or immediate seating, customers love getting a little something extra.

By setting up a reward system for the most loyal, you not only encourage them to stick around, you also give an incentive for other customers to strive to reach that status.

3. Consider Different Payment Plans

There are some businesses out there that are very seasonal and run into cash flow issues during certain times of the year.

For instance, a wedding shop usually receives most of their sales during the summer months when weddings are in full swing, but during the winter they struggle. One shop decided to offer a payment plan through which customers could start shopping in the winter, and pay a little throughout the months leading up to the wedding, rather than paying all at once.

This plan worked because it helped customers by giving them manageable monthly payments, and it helped the company by bringing in cash during an otherwise slow time of year. In fact, customers were so happy that they often referred the shop to others.

4. Provide Great Customer Service

One survey showed that in 2013, 51 percent of customers ended their relationship with a business because they were unhappy with the service they were receiving. 

Customers remember when they’re treated well, and they remember when they’re treated poorly. In either case, they usually tell their friends and family, and that can either mean more business for you or lost business opportunities.

5. Offer a Head Start 

If you want to start a customer loyalty program like coffee shops use, whereby customers buy a certain number of drinks to earn a free one, consider giving them a head start. This can be as simple as giving them the first two punches on the coffee card for free. If you give your customers a head start on the program, they’re more likely to stick around and finish it.

6. Don’t Forget to Smile

A study in the United Kingdom recorded the expressions used to greet customers as they entered a store, and then cross-checked with how much they spent in the store. The study showed that shoppers who were greeted with a welcome and a smile spent up to 67 percent more than shoppers who were not greeted this way.

7. Give Customers a Reason to Be Loyal

Recently, neuroscientists scanned the brains of Apple fans and learned that the same part of the brain that lights up when religious people think about their deity is activated when these customers think about their beloved products. This shows that if you offer a service or product that your customers think is the best in the world, they’ll be completely devoted with a passion that can’t be topped.

Edited by: 浪子

Bibliography

JT Ripton. (n.d.). 8 Ways to Create Real Customer Loyalty. Retrieved from 
https://articles.bplans.com/8-ways-create-real-customer-loyalty/