3 Tips for Creating Customer Loyalty

It’s no secret: the most successful companies today get the lion’s share of their business from repeat customers. And for obvious reasons. Loyal customers, after all, buy more, spend more and refer others to your business. And it is much easier to sell products and services to someone who’s already had an experience with your company—and it costs far less than chasing after an entirely new prospect. That’s just Marketing 101. But how do you nurture your best customers to keep them coming back?Technology has helped, certainly—through the emergence of CRM tools, e-mail marketing, Web development innovations and social media, for example. But it takes more than technology to transform a buyer into a lifetime customer. It requires a mind-set genuinely focused on the customer, and much time spent putting oneself in her shoes. Here are a few tips to get you started.#1. Say “Thanks.”Sounds simple, huh? But you’d be surprised how many marketers fail to express any gratitude or appreciation to their customers, without whom, there would be no business, no paycheck, nor products or services to sell. In doing so, they miss a significant loyalty-building opportunity. In the digital marketing industry, we spend much of our time talking about how to leverage the latest technologies to build better relationships with customers. But I continue to be dumbfounded by the number of companies that miss the most basic step in the foundation of building a customer relationship: expressing gratitude. This need not be a complicated endeavor. Just a simple follow-up e-mail with a sincere, “Thank you for your order.” Or a note with the shipment: “We appreciate your business.” Better yet? Personalize your gesture. Address the buyer by name. Include a personal signature. You can never thank a customer too much. And one simple, genuine “thanks” goes a long way in building a good experience with your company and influencing a customer to return.#2. Gather the goods.A true loyalty program is nothing if you cannot personalize your communications to your customers, providing them with valuable information that is relevant to their individual needs, behaviors and interests on an ongoing basis. And that means you must first gather their critical data—whether through a registration or preference page on your Web site, or through their activity and purchase behavior on your site or in your store, for example. Find out the basics: are they male or female; what is their geographic location (no selling snow tires to south Floridians, please!); what have they purchased in the past; and what are their interests? Understanding your customers’ attributes will enable you to begin to identify customer segments so that you can begin to anticipate their needs, interests and behaviors.#3. Let the dialogue begin.Once you’ve gathered the data, by all means, use it. Deliver the appropriate message to the right customer at the right time, based on her individual attributes, preferences and past behaviors. E-mail is perhaps the best, most cost-effective means of communication to continue such highly personalized, meaningful conversations over time. And the more data you collect with each effort, the more relevant each subsequent exchange becomes. Personalize wherever possible—in your subject lines, headlines and body copy. Top-performing campaigns employ dynamic content—messaging and graphics individualized on the fly per e-mail in response to the recipient’s particular attributes and past behaviors—to deliver the most relevant information to the customer possible. And such tactics can produce wildly successful results.Of course, while these customer loyalty tips can go a long way in persuading customers to return, true loyalty is built over time and through trust. That comes from consistently providing superior products and services that suit your customers’ unique needs and excelling at customer service in every way. But the payback is well worth the effort.Al DiGuido is the CEO of Zeta Interactive, a full-service digital marketing company in New York. He can be reached at adiguido@zetainteractive.com.

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3 Tips for Creating Customer Loyalty

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