Customer Loyalty – Is there a such a thing?

Make your existing customers feel special

It’s a well-known business fact they keeping your existing customers is far less expensive than winning new ones.  In fact, there are numbers quoted as high as 6 times as much.  Therefore, it may be a big mistake to invest all your time focused on generating new business to the point that you forget about the ‘cash cow’ your ‘low hanging fruit’ your existing customers.

It is also a big mistake to focus only on providing good customer services.  Customer Service is dead, now Customer Engagement is the driver for long term business relationships.  Engage with prospects and customers, build meaningful relationships, get face to face if possible, listen to them, understand them and provide value for them.

How?  There are numerous ways in which you can engage with your existing customers and many of them can be automated so once it’s all set up you do not have to be physically involved, yet the experience you are providing will help towards building a strong and positive emotional state that makes customers feel connected to your business.

Here are a few for you to consider:

• Newsletter, new menus or an invitation sent to a list of your customers every month, personalised to them.  Include a special offer but only for those existing customers.

• Put together Monthly tips and ideas on how to use your product or service, how to get more value from what they have purchased.  Many food distributors use this concept I have a spice shop sending me monthly recipe ideas, that also require me to purchase a different type of spice.

• Send invites to live events, streaming product demonstrations, webinars or send links to videos to explain a new product or service offering.

• Send out a poll or survey to establish what else you can do for the customer, their likes, dislikes and thoughts. Better still create a poll on Facebook and ask for opinions and ideas.  We recently placed a poll on the Facebook page of a well-known fish and chip shop on the Costa Blanca asking about deliveries whilst closed during COVID-19.  They had an incredible response and increased follows to the page, as all these people wanted to be kept aware of the outcome.

• Train your team of staff, to actively engage with customers as they enter a shop, restaurant or Bar. Acknowledge, greet them, good old fashioned ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ engages people.

Whatever you decide to do to achieve a level of ‘Customer Engagement’ make sure you maintain your contact or live interaction on a regular basis.