One of the biggest challenges businesses face nowadays is maintaining customer loyalty. With so many options and competition, both online and offline, maintaining customer loyalty is more difficult than ever. But there are a few simple ways you can increase customer loyalty by applying a few key principles. Here are five ways you can maintain the loyalty of your customers.
Anticipate what your Clients Really Want
If you want to maintain customer loyalty, you have to be proactive more than reactive. When you manage to fulfill your clients’ wishes before they even ask shows an extra level of care for your customers. You don’t need to be a psychic either; just do your homework on your core audience and find out what they really need.
A restaurant in Chicago recently installed a policy that does just that. Instead of putting up a sign on their restrooms asking customers to notify them in case their restrooms needed more attention, they decided to check the restrooms every time customers used them to make sure that the next customer would not have to deal with a mess caused by a previous user.
Be Patient when Hiring
If you want to be renowned for your stellar service, it’s important to be extra careful when hiring and make sure you hire people who have the same state of mind. A single unresponsive or careless employee could destroy your brand image. Make sure you modify your interview questions and focus on the prospective employee’s human side. Make sure that you take the time to hire people who have the wellbeing of customers at heart and make it their personal mission.
Try to Establish a Personal Connection with your Customers
We all remember the Cheers jingle “Where everybody knows your name”. While it was a TV show, the principle is still very important when building customer loyalty. Anonymity may make your clients feel like just another number. As a matter of fact, some people will frequent establishments simply because of the personalized service, even if it means paying more.
While technology might be a challenge if you have a small operation, it offers many solutions that will allow you to replicate the “at home” feeling. Computerized client tracking and an attentive staff can help your customers feel comfortable and establish a personal connection, no matter the size of your business.
Conclusion
Establishing customer loyalty doesn’t have to be rocket science and can be done if you follow these few simple tips. The most important part is making sure that the service is personalized and that your customers truly feel attended to. This can be done through computerized client tracking technology and by making sure that you hire employees who have the same care for customer service as you do. Also, make sure that you go the extra way and try to anticipate your clients’ needs before they arise. This way, you’ll show that you really care and you’ll be able to build a loyal customer base in no time.
Featured Image
