What Builds Customer Loyalty?

There’s only a finite number of Customers available for you to sell to. That’s the truth, no matter how big your reach, there are only so many people out there. A business that’s burning through its Customers as if they were disposable can only keep on going for so long, you need Customer loyalty if you want to be successful in the long term.

We’ve previously established all the ways in which Customer loyalty helps your business to grow and thrive, now let’s focus on how you can go about generating that loyalty.

Customers Must Trust You

The loyalty Customers show brands is the result of an ongoing relationship between the two, and like all good relationships it’s built on trust. If you want your Customers to be loyal, you need them to trust you, and for that you need to be trustworthy.

Being perceived as an expert in your field is an excellent way to go about this. The chances are good you know a lot more about your industry than most of your Customers, so put that knowledge to good use. Guide them, help them, and reassure them that they’re in safe hands.

Be reliable as well, broken promises and missed appointments will shatter the trust you’re looking to build.

You can also borrow some of the trust they have in others using reviews and testimonials. People trust people, show your Customers people who trust you and let them share that trust with others.

Engage Your Customers

Another key element of building Customer loyalty is moving beyond the transactional and creating engaged Customers. Fueling up a car at the servo may make you a Customer, but you’re probably not engaged and excited to be there.

What you really want is a conversation, a relationship built on more than just exchanging money for goods and services. Loyalty programs can build engagement if they get Customers thinking about your business even when they’re not actively purchasing from it.

The biggest driver of engagement in the modern business world, however, is social media. If you don’t have a social media presence, many Customers will flatly dismiss you.

Being on social media allows you to break down the barriers that divide people and businesses, letting you approach them on their level, as one of them. Share with your Customers what makes you human, as well as exciting new developments in your business, and build yourself an audience that’s engaged with your brand.

Be Consistent In Your Branding

Your branding refers to a lot more than just your logo, it covers the entirety of the Customer experience.

A consistent visual identity sets Customers at ease, it reassures them they’re in the right place, with the same people as have always been running your business.

A consistent Customer experience means that they’ll grow to expect that experience every time they interact with you. Deliver on that expectation and they’ll feel confident in returning again and again, as well as in referring their friends to you.

Know and Be Known

In order to ensure everything else is effective, you need to know your Customers. Treat them not as transactions, but as people.

Learn what they love, what they value, what they detest. Make sure you know why they came to you in the first place, and what keeps them coming back. All of this is important information that will help you make everything else work so much better.

This also goes back to what we were discussing about social media, the importance of sharing some of yourself with your Customers so they can see that you’re a lot like them.

This is a relationship you’re cultivating, and that means it runs both ways. If you want to know your Customers well, you need to also let them know you. Shared values and experiences will form a loyalty that won’t soon break.

A loyal Customer base is one of the best things a business can have, and while building one will take some dedicated effort, the results are well worth it.