It might feel strange that in a world that is going digital that we are emphasising the importance of customer relationships. However, more than ever before our customers crave a personal experience with the companies they interact with. The more connected you can become with your customers, the more they will remain loyal to your brand. Remember, it is easier to retain a customer than win a new one. Therefore, if you want to succeed in this highly digital world, you will need to use this technology to offer a personalised and emotional experience.
Personal rather than mass consumption
It is easy to market to a mass audience. At least it feels more manageable. You scatter shoot your marketing out to a massive number of people and hope that some of it sticks. There is no sense of knowing your customer, but you might get some return.
Yet, however much you spin this approach, it does not sound efficient or even rational. What is better is to make your customer feel like you know them and speak to them directly. A mass email will annoy them and likely end up in the junk. It will also make you look lazy.
Instead, if you use your analytics and a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, you can personalise your communications. This can be something as simple as sending a personalised birthday email. Imagine how easy this would be to do for existing customers, whose date of birth and email address you store on your CRM. You could automate the process. It is even possible to send out a discount code as a birthday gift, helping make the customer feel special.
Be better than they expect
Part of making a customer’s experience of your brand powerful is surprising and delighting them. You need to make them feel that you have gone above and beyond. If you meet expectations, you will be lost in the crowd of all the other people doing just what was asked. To stand out and gain lifetime loyalty and word-of-mouth testimonial that are so valuable.
Sit down and work out the time, effort and money of going beyond expectation and then the benefits gained from increased loyalty and reviews. The return on your investment will exceed your expectations.
Customer retention before everything else
Customer retention is going to win you more ground than attaining new customers. Therefore, you need to commit investment to marketing techniques that put your existing customers at its core. It may be tempting to take these customers for granted and to go out and seek ever-increasing growth. However, while you are chasing the unicorn of the brand-new customer, you may have let the horse you had in your stable go loose.
Record your customers’ details and pay attention to the behaviour they demonstrate. Use this behaviour to direct your marketing efforts. Significant brands now have a customer experience officer at the C-Suite level. This is the level of importance you should be putting on the retention of your existing customer base.
Loyalty schemes need some thought
You might be thinking that lifelong loyalty means you need a points system. Consumers now have a dozen or more loyalty cards and even more loyalty apps. You are not going to stand out amongst this crowded field. Therefore, you need to be more imaginative in the way you try to reward loyalty. Banks and credit cards lead the way in such programs, as they have created partnerships with businesses who offer cashback with each purchase. You don’t have to be so grand. You could provide a gift card for recommending a friend or a mystery item for those who exceed a set spending limit.
You will need to show some creativity to make the most of loyalty schemes. You need to think about your business and how it stands out as different. If you are a coffee shop, then a card receiving a stamp with each purchase, which ends in a free coffee is standard. How can you be different? Could you offer more points to those people who make a return visit within the same day? Costa has had some success with such a strategy.
The short takeaway
Customer experience is an essential ingredient for success in today’s volatile world. Even though the digital world seems to work to keep us apart, it makes us crave being closer. Therefore, your customers want to feel special. If you want to excel, then you will need to give them the surprise and delight they crave.
