Successful customer loyalty management is one of the greatest challenges for companies. In contrast to the acquisition of new customers, which is often linked with high expenses, measures for customer retention are more cost-effective.
With a customer loyalty programme that is individually adapted to your advertising objectives, you create incentives for loyalty and at the same time increase purchasing power. Thus, your customers often voluntarily reveal their interests and enable you to contact them more efficiently through opt-ins. But which instruments of customer loyalty are really successful? In the following we will tell you how you can satisfy existing customers in a sustainable way and bind them to your company.
Customer loyalty through excellent service
The most logical but at the same time the most important measure to retain customers is to provide an excellent service. Be always available for your customers and signal your willingness to help them with questions and difficulties. You should also deal with complaints professionally. Make it clear that such an incident is not the rule in your company, but rather an exception, and reimburse the deficiency immediately.
Does a customer want to complain even though his warranty has expired? Instead of simply refusing, you can show them a new product at a reasonable price or offer to order spare parts. In this way you can increase customer satisfaction and at the same time generate new sales.
Try to keep the effort for your customers as low as possible.An excellent service includes besides punctuality, above all an uncomplicated order and easy reshipment. Customers remember companies that offer free return shipping particularly positively. Through security you can create trust, which is one of the most successful measures for customer retention.
Offer existing customers special features
Customer loyalty instruments should above all serve the customers themselves. Offer them something useful, such as bonus rewards and discounts. However, keep in mind that your existing customers should feel valued by your customer loyalty programme and not feel that they are being forced to buy.
Besides early access to new products, you can offer your existing customers special services, for example. Sweepstakes are also a popular way of retaining customers.
Another popular means for successful customer retention is to offer a bonus programme. The important thing is that besides short-term rewards, your customers can also derive long-term benefits from the bonus programme. Present small rewards immediately at the beginning and encourage your customers to make further purchases by increasing the value of the rewards as the customers move up in your tier system. This way you can constantly remind customers of your points and encourage them to stay loyal to your company.
On our Postando Business Portal you can combine your offline marketing campaign with QR codes. This is a simple way to send discount coupons or vouchers to loyal existing customers. With just one scan, they can unwrap your small gift and redeem it on a linked landing page.
Customer loyalty through individualisation
If you want to retain customers, it is essential that you address them directly and send them an individualised offer. Either the customer reveals his preferences himself and saves them, for example, in his profile, or you observe and analyse the online behaviour of the users anonymously.
Make sure, especially in written contact, to address your existing customers directly.
Our Postando Business Portal gives you the opportunity to create a very personal mailing online and send it in the form of a postcard campaign.
Because individual recipient groups can be easily segmented, it is possible to address different target groups directly and offer them appropriate content.
This gives the customer the feeling of being known and personally looked after.
Customer feedback
Ask your existing customers for their opinion and thank them for their feedback. This will satisfy them and increase customer loyalty. Also answer specific questions of dissatisfied customers. This not only enables you to create customer loyalty, but can also prevent negative evaluations.
The perfect time to make contact is the phase immediately after a purchase. In this way, the buyer confirms his decision afterwards and thereby deepens the bond to your company.
Community Building
Master the difficult task of community building. In this way you not only create a good atmosphere, but also a strong community around your product. In the end this contributes much more to the success of your company than a single click and purchase.
Not only the product level but also emotional elements are relevant for the community. Factors such as the sustainability of your company or the corporate philosophy must be taken into consideration.
Community building can be generated by forums or groups for exchange and mutual support, or through exclusive member programs. But offline events also successfully contribute to long-term customer education.
