Building customer loyalty

Most businesses know it's more profitable for them to retain current customers than to market to new ones. That's why it's so important to build customer loyalty and focus your marketing efforts on making sure your customers are satisfied.

The following are a few sure-fire tips for building customer loyalty.

Be committed to customer service.
Many loyal customers will tell you that it's not just the products that keep them coming back, but the commitment the company has to customer service. Strive to provide excellent customer service by working to first determine, then understand, then meet the needs of your customers. This is probably the best way to build loyal customers.

You can also provide excellent customer service and help to build customer loyalty by guaranteeing your products and services and having a satisfaction policy. This way, your customers know that not only do you have confidence in your products, but you are concerned with their happiness as well. Put your guarantees in your marketing materials and make sure they are detailed. For example, if you require a receipt for refunds, make sure your customers know that so there are no surprises.

Get feedback
Another great way to build customer loyalty is to make sure you are providing them with the services and products they need and want. For this reason, it's important to get feedback from them. Send out email surveys or fliers, or leave customer comment cards in your shops. You might even offer a little incentive for returning a completed feedback survey. You should also make it easy for them to provide it to you. Have links in your website where they can leave comments, and make it a point to respond to all feedback.

Listen to feedback
It's important to note that once you get feedback, you should act on it. Customers like to know you are taking their suggestions and needs into consideration, so do your best to implement all suggestions that make good business sense. When customers see that you are doing your best to meet their needs, they are more likely to continue to give you their business.

For example, let's say your customers have expressed interest in a tech support hotline. Your marketing efforts will have helped you determine what they needed and were interested in. From there, you can establish the service or product and then market it to other groups and customers. In addition, make sure you're aware of problem areas. If your customer service is being rated as "fair" or "satisfactory", you might want to step it up a notch.

Be available.
You can meet the needs of your customers and market to them at the same time by being available to them to take suggestions or solve problems through such means as customer support hotlines or tech help, like live chat or other means. This way, you can market other products or services to customers while still serving to maintain customer loyalty.

Have customer appreciation sales.
Showing your customers that you appreciate them and their business will also help you with building customer loyalty. So, occasionally have customer appreciation promotions and sales at your business.

Customer loyalty means that even with competitors, your customers are committed to your business and will continue to do business with you. But building customer loyalty takes time and effort. These tips will help you to build loyalty in your customers.