The key to maintaining a thriving business rests in the ability to build a steady customer base. New customer are always nice to have, but keeping repeat business will make a bigger difference over time in the overall success of any business. Here are three ways your business can build a loyal customer base.
Communicate with Your Customers
Communication is key in any relationship. You wouldn’t expect your significant other to continue loving you if you never spoke two words to one another, would you? Your customers aren’t going to remain loyal if they believe they are nothing more than dollar signs to you; a source of revenue and nothing more.
This is perhaps the simplest step you can take to build a loyal customer base. Whether you send out an email newsletter once a week to update them on new products, services, or sales, or send out a monthly flier, communication is key. These messages don’t have to be advertisements for your business either. Communication can be as simple as a reminder card for a tuneup or health appointment, or a simple greeting card during the holiday season.
Make Customer Service a Priority
No company is immune to issues of poor service or faulty products; after all, mistakes do happen. Loyal customers will forgive these mistakes if they see your business go the extra mile to ensure that wrongs are righted when they occur. Customers remember two things about a business that shape their impression of the brand and desire to deal with it in the future: they remember being treated well and when they’re treated poorly.
Pay attention to customer concerns and complaints. When a customer lets you know they’re dissatisfied, it’s an opportunity to resolve the issue and improve your performance. Provide your customers with a clear and accessible means of communicating with your brand. For Pay Per Call marketing, for example, this would mean establishing call-routing criteria that quickly gets customer complaint calls through to your customer service team, rather than keeping them waiting forever on hold.
Offer Customer Incentives
If you really want to build a loyal customer base that continues to patron your business, offer them incentives to do so. The type of incentives you offer can vary by your industry and/or niche, and you can even test out various different types of incentives through performance marketing. Send out buy-one-get-one offers to some customers and discounted service/product coupons to another, and see which one works best.
Read More: How to Optimize Your Pay Per Call