How to Create Customer Loyalty and Make Them Coming Back for More

One of the most challenging questions for online shops is (or should be) how to turn an incidental shopper into a loyal repetitive buyer. We all know the business wisdom stating that retaining a customer is 6 - 7 times as cheap as gaining a new one. But what can you do to make your customers come back?

Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.

Peter Drucker

Here are 3 tips to create customer loyalty that lasts.

1

Measure Customer Happiness

The very first thing you need to do is measure your customer’s satisfaction level towards your service. How happy have they been with what and how you deliver to them? What are the main problems they raise and how have you been answering to them?

From there on, your work should be a cycle effort in optimizing your service based on their feedback. Not only does this actually improve your service and/or product, it also shows your customers that you are listening.

2

Nurture Relationships with your Customers

Gary Vaynerchuk, writer for Entrepreneur brings a new concept to the familiar selling process. As Gary approaches it, selling to your customers should be grounded on a time-spread relationship that you develop with them. As in farming you need to devote time and resources if you wish to see something new blossoming in the future. This is especially relevant for all of those who are still hunting for customers with aggressive sales proposals.

There are two ground premisses for successful customer farmers. Firstly you should build relations with honesty, promoting and promising what you have and are able to deliver and providing it with an excellent customer service. Farming involves being daily present in your customers’ lives, feeding them with relevant information that connects to their interests and needs. Be a feeding source to your customers and make sure they come back to you when looking for information.

There are many channels you can explore for this, for example social media platforms. Engage in conversations where your main customers are present - e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest - and start following them. See what they are doing and try to personalize conversations as most as possible. You will impress your customers and bystanders when they see you taking so much care of those who buy from you.

See your customer relations within the necessary longevity scope. If you need to do what it takes to make sure they are still with you, just grab your phone and give them a call. It’s important to check how your customers are doing, thanking them for doing business with you and asking them about future developments. Finally, let your customers know you are always available to support them in any need.

3

Reward the Repeaters

Incentives and rewards are the best way to stimulate loyalty. The last but not least step you should be taking if you want to make sure your customers are coming back is to reward them for doing so. We’ve seen this since Pavlov and there is no other easier way to induce repetition then from rewarding this behavior.

Rewarding your customers does not necessarily mean you should be giving them monetary rewards all the time. Rewards can come in the form of discounts and coupons (usually the more attractive for your target) but sometimes, when thought wisely, offering extra features from your service, samples or other gifts might be much more effective in making customers repeat the purchase. A great example is Kiehl’s with its sample-based business model through which every customer is always given a fare amount of samples to keep trying. The sure thing is that customers are coming back, buying more than before.

Finding and keeping customers means allocating time and effort into small details, into farming a relationship, into taking care of your customer even when he is not buying from you. You will need to devote resources on things you might not need but which are essential to create a memorable experience for your customers. However, you should always be positive as in the end, it will all payoff with long-term, happy, referring and loyal customers.