Every entrepreneur wants loyal and dedicated customers. The dream is to have patrons who choose to come back again & again and who, over time, develop a personal identification with the product or service that they use.
Below are important tips to build and sustain customer loyalty.
Develop relationships not engagements
The reason why people return again and again to the same product or service is that, over time, they have developed a close relationship with that product or service. Unlike casual engagements or interactions, relationships are established through credibility, confidence, and trust. To build the relationship value of your product, you must first recognise the relationship value in your product.
Use what you learn to improve what you do
The fluid and fast-moving pace of today’s commercial market-place dictates that if you are not moving forward you are moving backward. Entrepreneurs are always seeking a competitive edge that will attract new customers and ultimately increase their market share. To stay relevant, you need to constantly innovate. Don’t just do it to be bigger, do it to be better.
Don’t compromise quality
If you produce high-quality products, customers will not only buy them, they will tell others who will buy them as well. The credibility that comes with a word of mouth advertising is not only priceless to you, it is also absolutely free. Don’t be tempted to cut costs or corners; maintain a relentless focus on making a great product.
Fix it when it goes wrong
If you have parted with your cash to purchase a product or service it is reasonable to expect that product to meet your expectations. But what happens if it doesn’t? For any customer, the next best thing is for the producer or supplier to rectify the problem quickly and effectively. As a supplier, you need to pay just as much attention to rectifying a product ‘fail’ as you do to securing a product ‘sale’.
Give your product an effective social media platform
A social media presence is the price of admission if you want to be taken seriously in the commercial market-place. But you need to have more than a presence, you need an effective presence. The social media market-place is absolutely saturated with vendors of every description and the noise can be deafening. To be heard above the din, you need to be saying something that no-one has heard before.
Don’t just duplicate what others are doing- do it better
Observe the practices and behaviours of those who seem to have cracked it and look to replicate the best market standards in your area of operation. Better than that, look to improve on the best market standards. Don’t re-invent the wheel, but be prepared to raise the bar.
