By David Tomas, on 17 August 2023
Attracting customers and then building long-term relationships with them is one of the best ways to maintain your company's success for many years. To achieve this, customer service is absolutely essential.
According to a study from IDC that polled 24,000 consumers in 12 countries, 18% said that they would continue to purchase their products from a company that they had a positive customer service experience with, even if the products were not the cheapest option.
Therefore, building customer loyalty is an important part of any marketing plan. With that said, let's review 7 strategies to attract and keep customers.
How to Attract and Keep Customers
There are a variety of strategies and tactics that you can use to attract customers and retain them over time. We have compiled the list below to help you get started today.
1. Great Customer Service
One of the main complaints about customer service is that it can be robotic and unnatural, even when a customer is interacting with a representative as opposed to a chatbot or another automated service. This is because companies are often set on training their employees to memorize greetings, sales pitches, and apologies, while customers want genuine answers. In reality, the more complex the problem is, the greater the need for a customer service representative.
When talking to your customers, try to make the communication as natural as possible. Be sure to use their names, use humor if appropriate, and always be polite. Showing empathy will help you greatly when it comes to connecting with your clients.
Your objective must be to maintain fluid, responsive communication. Really listen to your customers because quality communication is something that will set you apart from the competition.
2. Know Your Customers
It's important for companies to really know their customers. You need to know the name of the person you’re talking to, what they are looking for, what their pain points are, and so on.
How can you get all this information? The key is to continue the conversation after the transaction. For example, if your company is B2B, you can search for client's profile on LinkedIn or for their website. Once you have this information, you can start thinking of ways to provide value.
In today's business environment, the easiest way to differentiate yourself from the competition is through customer experience, not just the products or services you offer. Giving the client an increasingly personalized experience will help them remember your brand.
3. Use Complaints to Your Advantage
Improving customer acquisition requires a change in attitude. Instead of thinking about complaints and negative comments as a nuisance, use them as an opportunity to know what your customers really think. It's better for a customer to complain openly than it is for them to stop purchasing from you without any explanation.
Negative reviews help you improve your services, give you the opportunity to redeem yourself, and help you avoid possible online reputation crises. You just have to learn how to handle them correctly.
The next time someone makes a complaint, take it as an opportunity to solve the problem. Listen and get the information you need. It also helps to apologize sincerely, thank the customer for sharing their concerns and promise only what you can deliver. If everything goes well, you will have managed to keep the customer.
4. Keep in Touch
According to IDC, 67% of consumers and 91% of companies believe that online and mobile services should be faster and more intuitive. To achieve this, you need to make sure to have regular contact with your customers.
Creating an ongoing relationship allows you to monitor how people feel about your brand and address potential problems before they surface. Here are some tips to help you get off to a good start.
- After relevant interactions, follow up by phone, email, or even social media.
- From time to time, send friendly messages to your customers to remind them that you are still available for them and have special offers.
- Create valuable content, such as articles or videos, and circulate them through your newsletter.
- Send a monthly email or newsletter with information such as product launches, events, and interesting content.
5. Build and Maintain a Mailing List
In order to stay in touch with your customers and clients, it's necessary to build up your database of contacts. This way you can send out communications that keep interested parties informed of what your brand has to offer and notify them about any special events, promotions and so on.
You can also segment your mailing lists to target different groups in your database. For instance, if you sell home goods you could send out emails about dorm room furnishings to your younger users who may be interested in those types of products, especially before the start of the school year.
6. Gain Customer Trust
If you get your customers to trust you, they will be much more satisfied and likely to be loyal in the long run.
- Be honest and always keep your word. If you promise something to the customer, you better deliver!
- Show your good intentions. Many times trust is broken because the customer feels that the company wants to take advantage of them
- Be flexible. As they say, the customer is always right. Even if they aren't, sometimes it's better to give in and see what you can do to work with them.
7. Use Inbound Marketing
Outbound marketing is based on going to where the consumers are and interrupting their daily life to showcase your products and services. It exists in the form of classic TV ads, banners ads, or spam.
Inbound marketing turns this marketing paradigm upside down. The idea is to attract customers to your website by offering valuable content that serves their needs. Through blog articles, videos, ebooks, reports, and more, you can convince users to leave their contact details and become leads.
8. Create a Loyalty Program
In order to keep customers in the long term, it's important to offer them something to demonstrate how much you value them. One way to do this is through loyalty programs. These programs are a way to reward the customers who have stood by your brand and may even spread the word about your products or services to their network of friends, family, and acquaintances.
There are many different types of loyalty programs, so see what would make the most sense for your business as well as appeal to your customers. Remember that loyal customers spend more than the rest of your customers, so make sure they are happy with the products and customer service that they receive.
