What Makes A Customer Loyal – The 5 Most Effective Customer Loyalty Strategies In The World
Customer loyalty is the holy grail of business. How can you create that? Discover what makes a customer loyal with these powerful strategies.
Hi Trish Davies here to talk about what makes a customer loyal to you and your business.
Customer loyalty programs are a great way to drive repeat purchases and build brand loyalty. However not all loyalty strategies are created equal.
In fact, there’s an entire spectrum of loyalty programs; some are more effective than others.
Some brands focus on providing a great customer experience, while others implement rewards or points systems that may not be as impactful.
It’s important to know which methods will have the most impact on your business because different approaches produce varying results.
Understanding your target audience is key to creating the perfect strategy for your business and its customers.
That said, here are the five most effective customer loyalty strategies in the world today.
What Makes A Customer Loyal? – Surprise & Delight
The single most effective customer loyalty strategy is to surprise and delight your customers. This strategy is particularly effective because it’s completely personalized.
In other words, it’s not something you do for all customers; it’s something you do for a specific individual. When you delight your customers, you can almost guarantee that they’ll become brand advocates.
Also when a customer becomes a brand advocate, they increase the likelihood of others taking their advice and purchasing your product.
One of the best examples of this strategy was executed by WestJet Airlines.
The company was struggling to fill seats on certain routes. So they came up with an idea to offer tickets at the cost of their fuel costs.
Not only did this delight their customers, but it also made national and international headlines.
What this shows is that companies don’t need to spend a lot of money to delight their customers. Delighting your customers is all about making them feel special.
Know Your Audience
As we’ve already discussed, one of the most effective ways to retain customers is to surprise and delight them. However, if you don’t have a general idea of your customer’s wants and needs, it can be difficult to make them feel special.
The key to this strategy is to know your audience. You can do this by either conducting market research, or by simply observing your customers.
There are many ways to implement this strategy.
For instance, if you’re a coffee shop, you might want to give away coffee samples on the weekend.
If you’re a clothing store, you might want to offer a discount to customers who donate clothing.
Alternatively, you might want to hold a contest in which the winner gets a free product.
The key is to come up with something that is unexpected and will delight your customers.
Develop A Recognition Program
Another effective customer loyalty strategy is to develop an employee recognition program. With this approach, you’re targeting your employees.
Companies that have employee recognition programs tend to have higher employee retention rates as well as a lower turnover rate.
This is because it makes employees feel like they’re part of a team and like they’re appreciated.
When a company has a strong sense of pride, it’s more likely that they’ll put their heart and soul into the job.
This means they’ll be more efficient and effective, which translates to less turnover.
Furthermore, having an employee recognition program also benefits your customers.
An employee who is proud to work at your company is likely to provide a better experience for your customers.
This will lead to happier customers and drive repeat purchases.
Offer Exclusive Deals
Another effective customer loyalty strategy is to offer exclusive deals. To be clear, this isn’t the same as offering a discount.
With an exclusive deal, you’re creating a product that is only available to your most loyal customers.
For instance, if you own a clothing store and you have 10 t-shirts left in stock, you might want to offer those t-shirts exclusively to your best customers.
You can also offer exclusive deals for special purchases. This is a great strategy because it’s very personalized.
Your customers know that they’ve earned this special treatment, which makes them feel even more loyal to your brand.
How do you determine who receives exclusive deals?
You can look at what they’ve purchased in the past, their frequency of purchase, or their engagement with your brand.
Maximize The Gamification Effect
The last effective customer loyalty strategy we’ll discuss is to maximize the gamification effect.
Gamification is when you use game elements and techniques in non-gaming scenarios.
A great example of this is airline frequent flyer programs.
When you use the word “loyalty”, most people think of a customer who always buys from you.
When you use “gamification”, you’re targeting a different type of customer.
In other words, gamification is about creating an experience for customers who don’t typically purchase from you.
One of the best ways to maximize the gamification effect is to make your loyalty program easy to join.
After all, you don’t want people to feel like they have to play a game in order to buy from you.
What Makes A Customer Loyal – Conclusion
As you can see, there are a variety of effective customer loyalty strategies out there.
The key to making one of these strategies successful is to tailor it to your brand.
Successful loyalty strategies are unique and unexpected, and they’re sure to delight customers.
When customers feel appreciated and special, they are more likely to become brand advocates.
This, in turn, leads to more repeat purchases and more revenue for your business.
For more information on what makes a customer loyal check out my free training program called Build Your AU.
Register for the program here.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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