5 Ways to Improve Customer Loyalty

Loyal customers enable predictable revenue, stick with a business through hard times, and ensure that a company stands the test of time.

Overall, customers are becoming more loyal to the brands they love. However, only a couple of brands get to win out. The brands that earn loyal customers offer a great product or service, but they also go above and beyond for their customer base.

These are five excellent ways to outpace your competitors in the race for loyalty.

How to increase customer retention rate

1.Prioritize Customer Satisfaction

Just one bad experience can make the difference between losing a customer and keeping one for life. To give your business an edge, make customer experience absolutely essential to every element of your company. 

Keeping existing customers depends on making sure each one knows just how important they are to you. Make sure that everyone in your company knowns customers come first in every aspect of business. 

Reward initiatives that show exemplary attention to great service, like an employee sending a personalized card for a client achievement.

2. Give Cause Marketing a Try

If you want to improve customer loyalty, cause marketing is a great way to succeed. Cause marketing can draw in new customers as well as improving retention. 

Corporate giving has increased by 15% in two years for good reasons. Younger audiences are more likely to demand that businesses engage with causes that they care about.

In fact, 71% of millennials will pay more for something if they know some profits will go to charity. Cause marketing doesn’t just increase retention–it increases revenues.

3. Make Things Easy for Customers

The easier it is for a consumer to engage with your programs and buy what you have to offer, the more likely customers will be to buy again and again.

• Incorporate cause marketing into your Google My Business page. Simplify donations and remind customers why they love your company by incorporating donation campaigns directly into this essential local business platform.
• Use social media to the fullest. Let customers contact customer service, inquire about products, and engage with your company, all from the social media platforms that they’re already on.
• Trust the consumer. Will you lose a little bit of revenue to unethical customers? Yes. But the rewards in customer retention are well worth the sacrifice in some income.

4. Build a First-Rate Loyalty Program

You’re trying to build customer loyalty, so it should come as no surprise that a loyalty program isn’t a bad idea. Discounts, special offers, and customized gifts all help people to feel like you care about them. The more that people feel you care, the more likely they’ll be to love your brand.

5. Talk to Your Customers–and Listen to What They Say

Listening to your customers isn’t just good for loyalty; it’s essential for business success. The stories that your customers tell about the impact that your company has made in their lives is one of the most potent drivers of loyalty. 

Stories are exceptionally powerful, perhaps because stories show problems and solutions in a way that is universally compelling. The stories your customers tell are stories of your company solving problems—these stories are indispensable for building loyalty.

Customer Loyalty Examples

How to increase customer loyalty in retail

To keep your customers engaged with your brand amid retail trends, you need a strong brand message tied to something people believe in.

Lucrative clothing companies like Kenneth Cole don’t just produce clothes that build brand loyalty–they support causes that their client base cares about.

How to increase customer loyalty in restaurants

Making diners love a brand isn’t complicated, but it isn’t easy either. Chick-fil-A earns the top spot for customer service again and again because of polite employees, cleanliness, and a general sense of hospitality.

Take Steps to Improve Satisfaction

If you’re worried that your company’s client satisfaction isn’t up to par, start making changes now. If you’re not working hard to improve the loyalty of the people who care about your brand, you risk losing their loyalty.