Loyal customers help business thrive! According to a study by the global business consulting firm, Bain and Company,”a 5 percent increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75 percent!” In addition, loyal customers are likely to recommend your business to friends and acquaintances. Retaining customer loyalty is not hard to do – all you need is a little TLC.

Exceed expectations: This is a no-brainer. Remember when you walked into an establishment and were greeted someone with a happy face who was there to help you when you needed it? Your experience there probably put a smile on your face, didn’t it? Apply the same techniques that made it a memorable experience to your business culture. If you have an online business, make sure you keep your customers updated on their purchase at every step. Confirm payment receipt, thank them for their purchase, provide them with an invoice, and give them tracking information. If something goes wrong during or after a transaction, make sure you help them until their problem is resolved. This doesn’t require any extra money, just some extra time and patience.

Treat your customers like friends: You don’t have to invite your customers to your house to make them feel special, but friendly small talk always makes someone feel remembered. You definitely won’t remember every single detail of every customer that you had a conversation with, but small talk never hurts if you recognize a face. If you own an online business, make sure that every returning customer sees a ‘welcome back’ banner on the landing page of your website.

Keep them in your inner circle: Make sure that you maintain a customer database with their e-mail and mailing address along with their last purchase so that you can keep them updated on various promotions and discounts. You can also send them e-mails about products, services and special promotions that are related to their last purchase. Before you send any e-mails, please brush up on e-mail marketing ‘best practices’

Celebrate with them: Take your customers’ birthday information and send them a personalized card or e-card with a special discount or coupon for their birthday. You can be sure that some customers won’t let a perfectly good coupon sent especially for their birthday go to waste.

Encourage feedback: Invite customers’ criticisms and let them know that you want your products, services, and customer service to meet their needs. You’ll be surprised of the great advice you get from customers and many of them would be happy to give you their two cents or praise your business. But don’t just stop there -implement what’s been recommended!

Turn that frown upside down: Save for utopian societies, not every customer you serve will be completely happy with your products or services. If a customer is upset or disappointed, offer some options to assuage their concern, be it a discount on their next purchase, store credit, a gift certificate, etc.

Create a loyalty program: Membership, customer loyalty, or point accumulation plans works like a charm. According to ntouchloyalty.com, “studies show that customers who belong to a loyalty program visit twice as often and spend 4 times as much as those that don’t”.

With these simple tips, you can easily get many customers to come back time and time again. You don’t need to implement these ideas all at one time. Rather, just pick a few that fit your business model and try them out! It certainly can’t hurt, right?

Source by Nadia M.