If you’ve ever done anything by yourself, especially starting your own business, you will know that it can be quite tricky. It’s not because the job itself is hard, you’re likely very good at what and how you do things but it’s always the question of how to attract and keep your customers. The most valuable customer, you see, is not the one who spends the most once off, it’s the one who continuously supports you and shows loyalty toward your establishment. There are a few ways to create this brand loyalty within your business and depending on your image and set-up, some will be more advantageous than others. It’s up to you to see which option works best for your business and then take it from there. For now, this blog aims to shed light on a few different tactics you can make use of to improve brand loyalty.
Gift Cards Galore
You’ve likely already heard of gift cards, those nifty little things you’ve received from friends or family, but did you know, that this is actually an excellent way for you, as a business, to get more loyal fans? It’s not about buying them, it’s about encouraging them to purchase from you. There is a key difference and that is – motive.
The reason you want customers to purchase from you via a gift card is not that you want to give them something for free, as at the end of the day, as a business that creates their own gift card, you won’t be making much monetary gain from this transaction. However, the motive is far more about why you want the customer to buy from you and that is because you are confident with the goods you sell. You see, by offering them a gift card, you give them the chance to purchase an item with you, an item, that you know is excellent and that when it finishes, they’ll want to get their hands on again. This means that you are creating a system in which the customer, who receives the free gift card, then becomes a loyal buyer, simply due to the excellent quality of your products and there is no foul play in that. So if you have a great restaurant business and you’re registered with all the major delivery companies, you could offer a free doordash gift card to give people the chance to taste your delicious goods.
Also, the nice thing about gift cards, especially if you have a digital store, is that you can create them quite easily. E-commerce platforms such as Shopify or Wix allow you to create gift cards within a few seconds and send them directly to your customer’s email. You can even create them automatically, so with every purchase over a certain amount, the E-commerce platform registers that a new gift card should be sent.
Personalize Your Customer Service
A lot of businesses that are doing well today claim that their success is not because they offer the best product at the best price, although that helps, but rather that their success lies in the presence of their customer service greatness. They simply offer excellent customer service and no one can take that away from them.
Now, it’s crucial to know that you can’t just take what another company does and sell it as your own customer experience. No, you need to tailor it, to suit your brand and the types of customers you have. Unfortunately, it is not a cookie-cutter process but rather something quite serious that you need to take the time to understand. If, for example, you have a bakery and sell luxury cakes, that comes at quite the price point. You wouldn’t be able to navigate these customers through simple and colloquial speech, you’d need to assume the role of someone who speaks elegantly but also doesn’t take no for an answer. It’s a fine line and balances trying to make it through creating some customer service.
Furthermore, the customer experience that people have is impacted by the service they receive. Naturally, you want to ensure that their experience is suited to their specific needs but every person is different, so this is hard to do. However, if you approach it from the stance of experience managing people who are clearly upset with you, hence them reaching out to customer service, then you get to create quite a niche situation in which you can truly personalize this.
Create an Emotional Tie
Another thing you need to try to do is create an emotional tie, something that makes the person always think about your business. It must become synonymous with an event or a person. For example, if you take the business mentioned above with the bakery, you could try to work your way up for birthday cakes, making them super bespoke, so that the customer always only thinks of ordering from you. You can do this by either selling excellent cakes, offering customers the chance to add pictures or text for the birthday person, or even sending reminders. If you have an online store, you can send the customer a birthday message each year or even send them a discount code a week or two before their birthday, which might further encourage them to order their cake from you. Now, this is not cake-limited, this example was just used for the cake to explain this angle but you surely get the picture. There are many different ways to assume brand loyalty.
