5 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty

How loyal are your customers and clients? Unfortunately, this is a metric that many small business owners overlook, focusing strictly on those initial sales instead. But if you’re able to build loyal customers, you’ll have an easier time upselling and re-selling to the same individuals.

Publish Online Reviews

One effective way to build customer loyalty is to publish reviews from past customers on your website.  According to a recent survey conducted by the market analysis firm Dimensional Research, 90% of respondents said positive online reviews affect their buying decisions, whereas 86% of respondents said negative reviews affect their buying decisions (source).

Get Personal

As noted by Forbes, establishing a personal relationship with your customers can help build loyalty. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should buddy-up with your customers, but rather speak and connect with them in a more personal manner. This can be done by personalizing emails to include the recipient’s name, zip code, or other identifiable information. Elements such as this may seem insignificant, but they go a long ways in creating stronger relationships with your customers.

You can use Infusionsoft to easily customize emails for specific groups. For example, you can send an email to a group of customers who purchased something from you and announce a new version of that product / service.

Loyalty Rewards

Loyalty rewards programs have become increasingly popular in recent years, and for good reason: they encourage consumers to visit the store/business in the future rather than taking their money elsewhere. Chances are you’ve seen or even used a loyalty program before. They are used by major retailers like Best Buy, Kroger, Publix, and even restaurants like Subway. Although there are nuances between the different loyalty rewards programs, they all share the same basic principle: to reward customers for their loyalty (hence the name). Some businesses may give special discounts, whereas others provide free gifts and swag.

Go Above and Beyond

Running a successful small business is no easy task, and it’s even harder in competitive niches/industries. So in order to keep customers coming back to your business, you need to go above and beyond the call of duty. Take the online shoe and apparel company Zappos, for instance. One of the reasons why so many consumers choose them over the countless number of other online retailers is because they offer free 2-way shipping. If a customer isn’t satisfied with their order — regardless of the reason — he or she can mail them back at no cost.

Things like free 2-way shipping and even free 1-way shipping are incredibly helpful in building customer loyalty. Shipping things the same day or the very next day an order is placed also instills loyalty because the customer knows his or her order received attention right away instead of languishing for a few days before it was fulfilled.

Follow-Up With Customers

You shouldn’t ignore your customers once they’ve placed an order and paid their money. If you want them to come back (hint: you do), follow-up with an email to see if they are happy with their new product. If a customer has a problem, follow-ups such as this are helpful in resolving them, which can subsequently prevent negative reviews from appearing.

Many businesses reach out to customers who post negative reviews and try to resolve their problems in the comment section. This is beneficial in two ways: first, it repairs a relationship with a customer, making him or her more likely to shop with you again; and second, other customers can see the interaction on your site and see that you took the initiative to solve a problem.

How do you build customer loyalty? Let us know in the comments section below!

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