How to Craft an Above and Beyond Customer Experience that Cultivates Brand Love and Loyalty
When you consider some of the biggest brands in the world, like Starbucks or Apple, with some of the most devoted customers in the market, you can see how important brand love and loyalty are to a company's long-term success.
Unfortunately, many businesses place a greater emphasis on recruiting new consumers than keeping existing customers loyal to their brand.
Don't get me wrong: new consumers are always wonderful for business. However, increasing the lifetime value of current customers can account for the majority of your continuous revenue because satisfied customers are more likely to spend more and suggest your product or service to others.
Let’s dive right in and explore the many ways to create a positive customer experience and increase customer loyalty for your brand.
What is Brand Loyalty?
Brand loyalty can be described as a series of consumer behaviours. It means that people are dedicated to a brand by making repeated purchases and supporting it above others, sometimes regardless of price or accessibility.
Companies benefit from this greatly. Customers essentially become brand ambassadors that rave about a product or service, becoming loyal advocates that help generate good word of mouth.
Consumers who acquire brand loyalty are more likely to become repeat users and encourage their family members and friends to buy from that particular brand.
Here’s 5 things to consider in order to increase brand love and loyalty for your brand:
It starts with the product. Consistently provide excellent products or services.
Seems quite obvious. Yet it’s the most important. This is how you build trust. Providing an excellent product is the easiest way to ensure that your customers keep coming back to you for more. Ensure that at all times - they can count on you to provide them with the best quality.
Not only will you gain free word-of-mouth marketing as a result of this, but you'll also find that clients who value excellence will be prepared to pay higher for whatever it is that you sell because they trust in your brand.
2. Provide top-notch customer service
As poet and civil rights leader Maya Angelou famously stated,
“people will never forget how you made them feel, even if they forget what you did or said!”
Many of the brands you see today with millions of devoted consumers got there because they are focused on keeping their customers happy with the product, service, and personnel.
Excellent customer service improves customer retention, and repeat customers are more valuable because they spend about 70% more than new consumers.
There are various techniques of improving customer service, and they include:
Increased Personalisation
Personalisation is an excellent approach to increase client loyalty. It helps your customers feel more connected to your company. A personal touch like a handwritten note for example gives the the impression that you not only care about them but went the extra mile for them. if you’re a small or medium-sized business with a smaller consumer base, personalisation is considerably easier.
Personalisation can be done in various ways, including greeting customers by name in person or via email, sending unique birthday messages, and more, and can increase consumer loyalty to your company and brand.
Hire Highly Trained Customer Service Representatives
According to research, customers are more likely to share a bad experience with a business than a positive one; thus, recruiting adept personnel at customer service cannot be overstated.
Your staff must have excellent communication skills, empathy, and the ability to solve customer-related difficulties, among other things. If you're just starting out and can’t afford to outsource or hire somebody for this, make sure to put time aside out of your schedule to really concentrate on this.
Set the Company's Standards and Abide by Them
Set the company's customer service standards and ensure that everyone in your business abides by them.
Provide the tools and training that employees, and especially customer service agents, require in order to provide exceptional service.
Ensure Employee Satisfaction
Employee happiness and customer satisfaction are linked because happy employees are more ready to delight consumers. Ensure a positive business culture and work environment, improve the employer-employee connection, and ensure employee well-being to raise employee happiness.
Manage Customer Expectations
Customers have high expectations, but guaranteeing the world might not be the greatest strategy. What happens if you can't keep your word? Be open and honest with your customers. Tell them exactly what to expect and work hard to surpass their anticipations. Clients will stay faithful to your business if they perceive that you are prepared to go above and beyond for them.
3. Offer Payment Plans
Unless your company caters to a specific demographic, you should always assume that your consumers will not always be able to pay in full for the product or service you provide. Offer your customers an opportunity to pay for products or services in instalments rather than all at once, which helps solve this problem. Allowing clients to pay with more popular methods such as Apple Pay or PayPal may also be beneficial.
4. Get Feedback
Receiving client feedback and acting on it improves customer satisfaction and makes customers feel like they are a part of the business's decision-making process, giving them a personal connection.
In addition, feedback is a great way to identify risks and make better decisions.
5. Create a Rewards Program
Everyone loves a freebie. Discounts, gifts, giveaways, coupons, and rewards are just a few of the things you could implement into your strategy.
Rewarding your consumers is a great way to keep them happy and also drives them to share their great experience with others.
The Wrap Up
Brand loyalty is critical to a company's long-term success. They contribute to boosting the lifetime value of current customers, which accounts for the majority of your ongoing revenue because happy consumers are more likely to spend more and recommend your product or service to others.
Increase brand love and loyalty by consistently giving exceptional products or services, providing top-notch customer service, offering payment plans, receiving and using consumer feedback and rewarding your customers.