Customer Retention & Brand Loyalty – Why should they play with you? Why should they STAY with you?

              So you have this great idea. You’ve gotten funding, you filled out all the necessary paperwork and you are officially a business. You even have a few people who want to buy what you are selling! Great! Now what?

               Some business owners are so focused on growing their customer base that they forget to do all they can to keep the ones they have. Customer loyalty is one of the key ways to keep your business thriving. Yes, you want to add to the pot incrementally, but first you need to decide how quickly you would like to grow, and how to retain the people you’ve got. Here are 3 ways to cement customer loyalty and help your business to grow at a rate that you can actually keep up with.

#1 Make sure everything new you introduce reinforces your brand.

From the moment a person steps foot into your establishment or calls you number, she should feel like she is part of something. Your brand is who you are, the message you deliver to the world, the “ word you want to own in the mind of your customer”. Don’t mess it up hoping that a new exciting product or service vaguely related to your original company goals will grab new people. Ultimately it may turn off your current customers and confuse new ones as to who you are. There is no need to follow trends. Set the trend. If you do see something out there that you would like to incorporate into your company, make sure it truly speaks to who you are. If not, there are ways to acknowledge a trend without allowing it to take over. Remember you should be in the job of creating experiences, not “Hey, lets see how many people we can catch by distracting them with shiny things!”

#2 Keep your customers engaged

Social media is a great way to keep your customers involved in your development. People love to support companies who they feel listens to them. Send out surveys via email, get customer opinions via Facebook, have contests for the best picture of a customer using your product or service via Instagram -to keep customers fully committed to your brand. Use Twitter as way to keep customers updated on new products or services- offer a prize to the first 20 people to retweet.  Give them a reason to keep coming back for more.

Fenix Social Media is a great resource for musicians and other entertainment companies to keep their fans feeling “like one of the family”. Of course you may not have the time or resources to keep someone on staff full time to handle it on your own, but they can maintain customer involvement on your behalf at a rate you can handle. ‘[Their] ultimate goal [is] building loyal, committed and engaged communities”

#3 Reward the people who consistently purchase your product or service.

A reward doesn’t have to be a discount. “What?”  Yep. Try something different like “gamification” instead. Rewards are positive responses to a particular action. In games you usually receive points or status levels, or physical prizes. The feeling associated with having “earned” these rewards keeps people coming back for more, and guess what? Most of the time, it doesn’t cost you much nor does it devalue your product or service by lowering the price. When you discount you tell your customer “ I’ve been marking up prices, just to make a profit” or “ This product wasn’t worth that much anyway, ha-ha joke’s on you!” which just confuses and frustrates the consumer.

                    If you are diligent with these tips, your customer base will remain strong. Because of your consistency, your loyal customers will see you as the ONLY option when looking for a particular product or service and the next time someone asks their friend or coworker “ You know, I am thinking about taking a dance class that’s fun, and effective. You told me you danced as a form of fitness. Where do you go?” The name of your dance school will fall effortlessly from their lips.