Attracting customers and retaining their loyalty is the key to success of any business. If customers do not keep coming back to you and do not advocate your organization, then you will need to continually attract new clients simply to replace that lost customers.
The customer satisfaction can be achieved in a few simple steps. You have to know your customers’ needs, desires, problems and give him the best solutions to build long-term relationships.
The largest influence on consumer loyalty is customer service. Recent research suggests that 46 percent of people feel that their loyalty to a particular company is driven by the customer service they receive.
It would be fair to assume then if a business achieves excellent product quality and gives good customer service then it will flourish and ultimately increase its profits.
Firstly it is important to understand how your customers feel about the customer service they receive when they contact your company. If these important calls are being handled by staff in a call center, do the operators relate to the customer easily?
Are they able to deal with any inquiry quickly and efficiently? Can they answer other questions relating to your business without passing the inquiry on to a third party? Perhaps more importantly, do they enhance the relationship between your company and the customer?
High levels of customer service can only be achieved by actively engaging with your customers. Furthermore continually identifying their needs and adjusting your product or service in line with their requirements can open up future revenue streams and develop new markets for your business.
The Reasons Why Customer Loyalty is Very Important to Your Business
Whether you own a little pop corner shop or a worldwide software business, customer loyalty is very valuable to you.
When speaking of products it is often referred to as “brand loyalty.” Investing time and energy in promoting customer loyalty should be an integral component of any business’ marketing strategy.
When business people think of “marketing” in general, they tend to focus on activities targeted at attracting new customers. While expanding your business’ customer base is a crucial undertaking which you must work towards with clearly defined goals.
The importance of retaining existing customers mustn’t be overlooked. Working toward promoting customer loyalty (or brand loyalty) is critical to your goal for many reasons. Here are 5 reasons why customer loyalty is important to your business.
1. Repeat Business
Loyal customers, almost by definition, will purchase your goods or services again and again over time. Depending on what type of business you have and what the sales cycle is like, you may end up selling more to one loyal customer in a year than you might to even 10 first time customers.
2. Greater Volume
As you build relationships with your loyal customers, it will become increasingly easy to sell to them in higher volumes. This may happen naturally, or you may choose to incentivize the process for your customers. In any case, higher volumes mean greater sales, which translates to higher overall profits.
3. Cross-selling Opportunities
Customers who exhibit brand loyalty have a relationship with your business. They trust you to provide quality products and customer service. This creates a great opportunity to fulfill more of your customers’ needs than the traditional ones you currently meet.
You can make sales to loyal customers across product lines and thus increase your overall sales volume without needing to focus so much on attracting new customers.
4. Protects You From the Competition
The more loyal your customers tend to be, the safer you will be from the draw of the competition. Establishing strong brand loyalty can make you practically immune to competitive forces. This is especially important in places where new players enter the marketplace often.
5. Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Loyal customers can also bring you, new customers. Customers that have great relationships with businesses tend to talk about it. Happy and satisfied customers who keep coming back to you are very likely to refer others who may need your product and/or services.
These days the rhythm of lifestyle is very fast and it’s very easy to lose customers. The good news is, loyal customers are much more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt and/or overlook errors. If you maintain the level of customer service and quality that it takes to achieve brand loyalty in the first place, your customers will be willing to forgive you when bad things happen.
Also, a Great Principle of Marketing says that it’s much better to keep satisfied the customers you already have than try to attract new customers.