(Image source: karosieben from Pixabay)
Gone are the days of winning a new customer a day and ensuring they’ll be back for more. If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve probably learned how difficult it is to attract and retain new customers. Customers come back for more when you continue to offer value. They’re not likely to stay with your brand if they do not find the right value in it for them. That’s why building sustainable relationships with them can be beneficial to your brand.
Today, markets are global. With the ever-growing number of businesses taking advantage of digital platforms to directly reach out to their target audience, it’s become more essential than ever to make your brand distinct.
A few clicks let customers compare and choose. Besides, customers are also more likely to share their brand experience – positive or negative – online rather than with a close group of friends. If their story is compelling, it may even go viral.
If companies want to thrive in such a volatile and dynamic marketing environment, building long-lasting relationships with customers becomes essential. Make sure that this goal reflects in every touchpoint with your business. It cannot be limited to a single department or project within the company.
Learning how to handle your clients effectively can in fact be a huge asset to your business. It’s not only about offering value through your brand. But in order to impact your ability to generate leads, attract new users, and keep them returning to your brand, it is vital to understand how to interact online and offline with them.
Foster client relationships through effective relationship management
Relationships are like the lifeline of brands. The brands with the strongest relationships are the ones that prosper and persevere. People come back for more because they feel a positive connection with particular brands. It is for precisely this reason that companies need to invest in their brands to make their customers feel like they’re a part of the story.
Shift the focus from traditional marketing strategies towards building valuable client relationships. Marketing and communication strategies need to be redesigned to make them more inclusive and customer-centric.
By acknowledging human interactions in the customer journey, effective relationship management combines the specific needs of customers with the brand’s identity. It’s akin to pairing the right customers with the right business if they discover value in what a brand offers.
For instance, a need-based segmentation can help you determine which segments of customers to target. Once you’ve identified these groups and their needs, the next step is to design communication strategies that address these needs.
This personal, one-to-one approach is key in retaining customers and instilling brand loyalty. Shifting the focus to the customers and acknowledging their needs and expectations will significantly foster strong, sustainable customer relationships.
Live up to the promises your brand makes
Ensure that your brand can deliver the value that your customers look for. So make promises about your product only when they can strongly live up to the promise. It’s hard work to design an honest marketing strategy but definitely worthwhile as it connects the right people with your brand.
When customers are given high expectations through marketing that cannot be met by the brand experience, they are left highly dissatisfied which can be a huge drawback for your business. In this scenario, a customer would see no reason to enter into future relationships with your brand even if you might meet their needs.
Using technology is one way to really step out and meet your customers in their journey with your brand. It opens up a dialogue between your followers and you, thereby keeping your social media platforms engaging and up to date.
Allow your customers to experience your brand
We often take customer interaction for granted once our products have found their niche. But interaction rates are more than just a number or a buzzword. Allow your customers to interact with your posts. Acknowledging customer interactions in a way that makes them feel important can truly boost the relationship they have with your brand.
Monitoring customer activity on your social media platforms can be a good start to understanding how they’re interacting with your brand. For instance, gauging the level of engagement helps you determine the level of customer satisfaction and identify potential unyielding features.
Increase your customer engagement by committing to be relevant and imaginative with their needs and desires. Exclusive interactions are all about making people feel a stronger connection with your brand than if they’d purchased your product online or at a store without any interactions.
Small actions such as personalised emails, direct comments and likes to their posts featuring your brand, shout-outs to special customers, collaborations, spotlights featuring some of your old or new customers, are simple yet effective ways to boost your interaction rate. Such interactions are also a pretty cool means to generate brand awareness.
Keep track of this important metric as it can paint a clear picture of how interesting you are to your customers. To ensure strong relations, it’s important to pay close attention to strengthening your customer satisfaction rate.
Customer engagement rates can tell you where you stand in holding your customers‘ attention. For example, low engagement rates can point at gaps in meeting your customers‘ expectations.
Address their concerns pre- and post-sales
Businesses work hard to win customers and retain them. But it can be easy to lose customers even without realising why they’re choosing not to return. So it’s good practice to regularly monitor and look out for signs across all touch-points that indicate issues your customers might be facing.
For instance, asking them how satisfied they are with your product and/or service, invites them to share their experience. It’s a simple exercise yet quite effective to help you understand how well your brand is performing.
Sometimes, even the most loyal customers might face problems while engaging with your brand. It’s important to call for immediate attention towards long-term buyers to avoid losing customers who’ve had a lasting relationship with your brand.
Offering a friendly, quick and attentive service to any of your customers is important to build sustainable relationships. Remember, this is irrespective of how many times they’ve interacted with your product.
Invite them to participate in your brand’s evolution
Again, show that you are listening to your customer’s needs. When developing your brand, gathering key insights from your customers can significantly improve the quality your brand offers to your valuable customers. It’s all about being relevant and impactful. Invite them to participate in this journey by asking for feedback, reviews and ratings.
It’s not about if their experiences are good or bad, but really about understanding how your brand addresses a specific issue that truly resonates with their needs and desires. Ask why they would or wouldn’t buy from you again? How could you improve and enhance their experience? What about their experience did they really find exciting?
The details in the feedback act like a blueprint to improve and innovate. Every piece of criticism or feedback can leverage how you want your brand to connect with your segmented audience.
Bond with potential customers by featuring how your brand provided a solution to concerns faced by others. Showcase positive customer experiences with your brand on your digital platforms.
Highlighting how your brand makes a difference attracts fresh attention. It also reminds your long-term buyers why your brand truly cares for their needs.
Finally, build loyalty from the foundation up
A relationship can only be sustained as long as it is nurtured. It costs businesses a lot to attract new customers. However, retaining them is what makes your brand strong and distinct.
No customer wants to feel like they are just a number to your business. So always keep a check on your customer’s behaviour to understand what matters to them the most.
Nurture brand loyalty by putting the most important data to work. Then follow up by continually optimising your customer’s experience whether online or offline.
When you work towards improving and providing high-quality customer service, you assure your customers that they’ll always receive great service from your business moving forward. In simple words, this is an act of building trust.
To some businesses, a handful of their customers drive the majority of their sales. Therefore delivering satisfaction is absolutely crucial – not just with every transaction, but with every contact with your brand – to create a healthy ecosystem for brand loyalty.
After all, loyalty represents your brand image. It narrates the story of the efforts you took to nurture a relationship with your customer.
We at izz.ai strongly believe in going the extra mile to build customer relations for life. Reach out to us at hello@izz.ai and let’s bring your brand closer to people through sustainable relationships.
