For any business owner, there is one thing that is absolutely vital to success:
Customers.
No customers means no sales.
No sales means no revenue.
No revenue means no profit.
And no profit means a failed business!
Getting new customers is good and important. However, what is even more important is repeat business. Loyal customers will not only make a one-time purchase but will keep coming back and will spread the word.
Repeat customers become free advertising as they rave about you. And this kind of word-of-mouth advertising is highly effective as people care more about the referrals of their friends and family than about any kind of self-promotion you might put out.
So how do you generate this kind of customer loyalty? How do you keep customers coming back? Here are a few tips!
1. Care about your customers
Don’t think of your customers as numbers, or as dollar signs.
Think of them as human beings with emotions, goals, desires, wants, hopes, and dreams. Foster a sense of empathy and care in your heart so that you treat each customer like a VIP.
Think about how you can best serve your customers in all your interactions and policies.
2. Create amazing experiences
Peter Shankman in his book Zombie Loyalists (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) discusses the importance of creating the best experiences possible for your customers if you want to create a “rabid” fanbase.
What can you do to make a memorable interaction? How can you exceed expectations?
Maybe it means throwing in a free item just because.
Maybe it means free shipping for customers that purchase a certain dollar amount.
Maybe it means remembering who your customers are and asking them about their kids, husband, etc.
Maybe it means giving a refund even though your customer waited too long to return the item.
Whatever it may look like for you and your business, if you go above and beyond for your customers, they are likely to notice and become loyal fans.
3. Keep things fresh
Are your interactions getting stale?
Are your live sales the same ol’ same ol’?
You should always be thinking of ways to keep things fresh so that you can keep customers’ interest and keep them wanting to come back.
Give them a reason to return!
This will look different depending on your personality and your audience but here are some examples:
- Do “theme nights” – Paris, patriotic, summer, Halloween, etc. – and keep people guessing what your next theme is going to be
- Enter everyone who comments on your live sale in a drawing with the winner to be announced at the next sale
- Tell funny stories about your week
- Google search YouTube challenges and see which ones you could try during your sales (and let people know beforehand what you’re going to be attempting so that they want to be there to watch)
4. Send reminders
Many customers might just need a little reminder to come to your sale or to make another purchase with you. You can send reminders via email, Facebook, texting, or any other means you have at your disposal.
A text alert system such as ours at Mobile Text Alerts will allow you to send out mass reminder texts to your customers so that they’re aware of your live sales (or any other information you want them to know). Since texts have a high read rate people will be likely to read your message, and thus more likely to attend your live sale or event!
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These are just a few tips you can implement to try to win repeat business and earn customer loyalty. Go ahead and experiment and see what works for you and your customers!
