How to Make Customers Loyal
Created on 3 July, 2024 • Marketing & Business Communication • 73 views • 3 minutes read
In business, the frequency of communication and interaction with customers largely determines their loyalty to our products or services. For example, let's say you're a formula milk seller with two customers who have bought from you.
How to Make Customers Loyal
In business, the frequency of communication and interaction with customers largely determines their loyalty to our products or services. For example, let's say you're a formula milk seller with two customers who have bought from you. However, you treat these two customers differently.
For the first customer, you frequently contact them, ask how they're doing, inquire about their children's growth, remind them when it's time to buy more milk, offer promotions and useful tips, and listen to their complaints.
For the second customer, you rarely communicate or interact with them. After they buy your product, there's no follow-up. No promotions, not even a check-in to see how they are.
From these two different treatments, we can already gauge which customer will be more loyal to our product or service. To make customers loyal, we need to communicate and interact with them frequently.
However, building customer loyalty isn't as easy as it sounds. It requires a long process and significant time. But don't worry. Here, we want to share some tips to help you make customers loyal.
These tips can be easily and practically applied by anyone. To ensure these tips have an impact on your business, there's only one requirement: a commitment to practicing these tips consistently. If you are consistent, your customers will become loyal, God willing.
Tips to Make Customers Loyal
[1] Start with Your Product/Service
The first tip to make customers loyal is to start with the product or service you sell. Your product or service must have value for your customers. Initially, it doesn't have to be perfect. The important thing is that your customers are satisfied with your product or service and that it exceeds their expectations. If this is met, your customers can become loyal.
The type of product or service also matters. Products with repeat order potential have a higher chance of fostering customer loyalty than products that are only bought once in a long time. So, you need to identify the value of your product or service and design it to have quicker repeat order potential.
[2] Get to Know Your Customers Better
By getting to know your customers better, you can build more frequent communication and interaction. Nowadays, having just a name and address isn't enough to build communication with customers. You need to gather more in-depth information.
Imagine trying to interact frequently with a neighbor without knowing their daily activities, likes, and struggles. To make customers loyal, as a businessperson or marketer, you must know your customers better. The closer you are, the more frequent the interactions, turning customer loyalty from a dream into reality.
[3] Build Light and Continuous Communication
Once you know who your customers are and how they behave, start building light communication. Just because someone has bought from you doesn't mean you should immediately bombard them with offers.
While this isn't wrong, it can make customers feel uncomfortable, thinking they're just a target for sales pitches. Instead, start with light conversations, such as asking how they are, if they've received the product, or if they have any difficulties using it.
Light communication is crucial in the early stages of building a relationship with your customers. After that, you can provide tips or promotions. Do this continuously.
[4] Reconnect with Inactive Customers
Often, customers stop buying for a while, even if they value your product. This can happen because they forget about you or get busy with other activities.
To make customers loyal, you need to reconnect with those who haven't transacted in a while. You can do this through email or other marketing channels like social media, phone calls, SMS, or chat apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.
[5] Send Reminders to Customers
To make customers loyal, send them reminders. For example, if you run a repair shop, customers often forget when their next service is due.
By sending reminders, you keep yourself in their minds and prompt them to return for service. Continuously reminding them increases the chances of them becoming loyal customers.
Conclusion
These are our five tips to make customers loyal. Using consistent communication, understanding customer needs, and providing valuable reminders and follow-ups can greatly enhance customer loyalty. We hope you find these tips useful. See you in the next article!