Tips to Drive Loyalty at Every Stage of The Customer Life Cycle
A product has a lifecycle after which it is best discarded. One cannot say the same of customers nor do it to them. Customers are the lifeblood of business and need to be kept pumping to prevent coagulation and clotting leading to a possible business heart attack. Here is how you can keep them loyal at all stages.
A prospect has to be pursued and wooed but not to the point that he feels alienated by the pressure. Ease him into the customer slide by inviting him to sign up at website or at ecommerce site and promising something in return.
This done, proceed with emailing interesting newsletters that directly inform and indirectly have a call to action to buy and become a customer or take a trial of a product and once he does, follow it up with attempt to persuade him to go for the full-fledged thing.
At this point a customer may put products in a cart and abandon it but this is the right time to plant a message or a coupon code that will prevent abandonment. If he buys thank him profusely and then offer something to make him a loyal customer, such as a reward point.
Retaining customers is like marriage and involves persistent hard work. It does not do to be complacent that you have a customer and where will he go. This is what you can do to retain an individual who has just become a customer:
Thank him with a welcome email which he appreciates no doubt but it is not sufficient.
Keep in touch by sending newsletters and encouraging him to stay signed him by promising great offers in upcoming newsletters for existing customers.
Wish him a happy birthday or marriage anniversary or greetings of the season or festival greetings as the occasion may be. Words may not be enough. Gift him some bonus points he can redeem.
Ask opinions through feedback forms or surveys—even telephonic surveys are great because which person wants to spend time typing out forms? Customers feel great when they are asked for advice from you on how to improve your business. Makes them feel important, you see.
Egg them on with special offers and attempts to cross sell by sending personalized recommendation emails and when they do buy give a reward to keep them in the buy cycle.
Get them to become your salesmen. Incentivize them with even more rewards if they recommend your product to others and get you buys and more customers.
Things can go sour in a relationship and your customer may be thinking of leaving. He may not even tell you. You can gauge it from no activity in his account or an issue he has raised and which has not been settled to his satisfaction. Prevent him from leaving because acquiring new customer costs more than satisfying the existing customer on the point of jumping ship. Get him back and persuade him to stay on board.
Better still, engage a loyalty expert to design, implement and handle all these while you focus on running your business. He manages customers and you win.
