3 easy ways to retain customer loyalty

there exists a whole plethora of tips on how to build customer loyalty

be honest and reliable;

do your best and exceed expectations;

offer bonuses and individual approach;

be customer focused, etc.

You might find some of these statements irrelevant — depending on the nature of your business, its strategy and your personal beliefs. However, there are 3 ultimate techniques that can guarantee you customer loyalty.

Useful product or service. Regardless of what you are offering to clients: custom furniture, real estate services, or cars — your product or service must satisfy your customer's needs. And not merely satisfy — it must totally eliminate them with the means of utmost efficiency. Your clients' expectations change all the time, and the only thing that remains always there is the question: "How will this make my life easier". Always strive to improve your product/service to exceed your clients' expectations.

Quality service. Even the best product on the market can easily become an issue in terms of customer loyalty, if customer service leaves much to be desired: clients would give negative feedback, spoil company's reputation and simply leave... This doesn't mean you have to please everyone, but keep away from ignoring the disadvantages either — even if you are offering the lowest price.

Here are a few ways to improve the quality of service:

Adjust automatic SMS notifications about order status.

Thank customers for choosing your company (by regular or electronic mail) and offer them a discount or a unique offer on every important event.

Adjust automatic birthday greetings for clients.

Create the effect of continued engagement instead of the effect of random occasional orders. Employ drip marketing, for instance.

Focus on details. Use CRM to collect and store information about your company's clients in order to customise their customer experience and build human relations instead of "buyer — seller" relations.

Trust in company. This is probably the most difficult part. For trust is built during years, and can be lost in the blink of an eye as a result of a wrong decision or action. Never exaggerate the advantages of your product or service and keep away from misleading your customers. Let's suppose you made an objective assessment and helped your client to choose a car or a flat, or maybe advised them about what supplier to choose. Next time this client will ask you for help again (or recommend your service to their contacts) because you met their expectations and, therefore, raised the level of their trust.

Trust is of crucial importance in the modern market of overwhelming supply, that forces consumers to study all the minor details when purchasing a product/service. Your goal here is to qualify as a reliable expert providing honest and high quality assistance in a difficult choice.

Every time Diane needs to rent/buy/sell a flat, she will ask company X for help because she has positive experience with it, which makes her believe that she will not be swindled, the commission will be moderate and her question will be promptly solved.

how to spot loyal customers

Collect feedback and reviews, analyse them, especially the negative ones, which are most frequently submitted. In order to get more reviews, you can send a request to assess the service right after each sale takes place. This request may look like a link to the page where clients can click "Like/Dislike", assess the service as "Recommended/Not recommended", and leave comments. You can also ask them about the prominent features that made your product valuable to them: outer appearance, delivery speed, quality and speed of service.

Adjust automatic SMS notifications with service assessment request in the CRM.
Use APRO CRM reports to register and analyse customer experience.

Use these simple life hacks to build long-term customer relationships.

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