You can’t have a business without customers. It’s as simple as that. Having a good customer relationship is the company’s priority. But in order to transform one-time buyers into loyal customers for your business, you must understand what it takes to gain their loyalty.
The customer is the one contributing the most to the company’s success. As a business, you can’t simply deliver good products with a smile on your face and expect them to do business with you forever. Customers today need to feel wanted and appreciated by the businesses they buy from. That’s why improving your company’s relationships with customers should always be your top priority.
One of the best ways to provide an unforgettable customer experience is to engage the customer in the process. Highly engaged customers buy more, promote more, and demonstrate more loyalty. Providing a high-quality customer experience is an important component in your customer engagement strategy.
Keeping the customers engaged can be done in so many ways:
Developing emotional connections. Showing the human side of the company by using team member images on social media or developing brand ambassadors.
Building a community or forum where users can directly interact and exchange their feedback as well as get informed of the latest updates of the company.
Innovating with the customers. Co-creation online or by holding a contest or hosting an event where the customers can participate and feel like part of the company.
As the author, professional speaker and management expert Kenneth Blanchard explains in his book “Raving Fans”, there is one thing to keep in mind –
“Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create raving fans.” -Kenneth H. Blanchard
I believe raving fans are better than any type of internet marketing. They are contagious in the best way. If you inspire your company’s culture to expect nothing less than creating raving customers, it will put the needed weight on customer service and how you interact with your customers.
Using a costumer-centric approach, priorities are:
- the customer is an integral part of the system for value creation
- the customer can influence where, when, and how value is generated
- the customer can compete with companies for value extraction
- there are multiple points of exchange where the consumer and the company can co-create value
When brands provide their audiences and customers with memorable experiences, their customers want to shout about it from the mountain top. They want to post their photos on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Someone choose to check into Foursquare and tweet to their friends. They want to tell the story. Everyone wants to share the experience so that others can come along for the virtual ride and get a taste of what it felt like.
If you are a marketer or a business leader wanting to create memorable brand experiences, I encourage you to start with the heart. Keep it simple. Put yourself in the head and heart of your ideal customer. What do you want them to feel like? What do you want them to remember? That is the first step to achieving loyal customers.