Winning loyal customers does not necessarily take huge marketing budgets. When it comes to customer loyalty, it’s small gestures that get appreciated the most and remembered.
Adding a simple personal touch to every interaction you have with your customers has a big impact on how they perceive your brand.
Loyal customers are a very important asset of any business. As statistical facts prove, up to 15% of a company’s most loyal customers account for 55-70% of the company’s total sales. The numbers are quite impressive.
Let’s take a look at how you can win greater customer loyalty with a few small personalized gestures.
Notify your clients when a product they searched for is available in stock
It is common practice for many ecommerce buyers to browse different websites, compare products, features and pricing before making the final buying decision. Sometimes after looking at the details they decided to buy from your site, and only later noticed that the product they needed was out of stock. That’s when the option to be notified of product availability comes in really handy. They may not be pressed for time with this purchase and opt-in for notification, instead of having to return to your site to check your updates. This will save your potential customers a lot of time and they will remember your website for convenience.
Customize your landing pages based on the customer’s history of interactions with your website
For example, if the customer is returning to your website more than once, give them a welcome message and offer product suggestions based on what they browsed for or purchased from you before.
If they are coming to your website from an email link in which you made a special offer to them, gave discount coupon or notified them of new products, acknowledge this by saying “thank you” for reading your email and welcome them back to the site.
Offer your customers what they like
Encourage your customers to share their tastes and preferences by asking them to take surveys. Their feedback will allow you to deliver a more personalized and memorable user experience.
Another way of personalizing your ecommerce interactions is to allow the users to customize their subscription settings. They should be able to select what type of content and product offers they wish to receive from your company. This will make sure that you are delivering information which is of interest to them.
Send your customers a post card
Stone age, you say? I don’t agree. The effect that such a personal gesture has is proportionate to the level of effort that it takes to make it. It does take time to choose, to sign and mail a card, but it takes a rare human being to ignore or forget such a nice and personal outreach. Especially in modern times as less and less companies are doing it, it’s a good way to stand out and be remembered.
Give your customers’ a birthday present
A birthday is a great cause to connect with your clients. Send them a discount coupon or some present. For example, for my birthday I received from one company a link to a bookstore in which I could select and download a free ebook. I think it was a nice gesture and surely it made me remember this company, as well as their partner bookstore, because I found and saved a book which was interesting and useful to me.
Include a hand-written note if you are shipping an item to a customer
Having received a few of these myself, I find them to be a really warm gesture. It always leaves an impression in my memory. What can you write in such a note? It could be something very simple, like “I hope you are having a great day today” with a smile. Or you can reference a past conversation with a client if it feels relevant.
Another good idea is to include your business card in your shipment, or perhaps a few business cards or coupons from your partners whose products/services are relevant to your customer’s purchase.
Chat with your customers online
Adding a live chat widget to your website allows you to address customers’ issues instantly and gather more information about them.
For example, live chat tools with a real-time visitor monitoring feature show you where the customer has come from, how much time he or she spent on your website, what pages and for how long they viewed etc. With so much information on hand you can provide much more efficient help to them in less time. It also helps to strengthen your relationship with customers.
Send transactional follow-up emails
You can send a post-purchase email to your customer and thank them for shopping with you. It is good to personalize your messages based on the information about the customer available to you.
For example, if the customer mentioned in a live chat or phone conversation with you that they are buying a product for their child, you can ask in your email how their child enjoyed the product. In most cases some personal customer information will be available to you to create a personal touch.
Additionally, you can include other personalized product recommendations based on the purchase transaction.
I hope this short list have given you some ideas to ponder over and consider incorporating in your business. I am sure you already have your own strategy for winning the loyalty of your customers. Please share your personalization tips in the comments below.
Thank you for reading.
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Provide Support is a leading customer service software provider, offering live chat and real-time visitor monitoring tool for businesses: www.ProvideSupport.com
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Hey Maria,
Your blog is a good resource for business information, I am learning a lot. The guides are really useful too.
Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you for your feedback! I’m glad the information is useful to you.
Personalized and direct communications with customers always help brands in building loyal customer base and eventually that helps in more conversions and sales. Understanding customers preferences and interests and presenting the landing page, products or services accordingly is really important and all big e-Commerce websites do this today. It’s not about selling always but it’s all about building relationships.
Agree with you, Soumya! Thank you for your comment.
Thanks for sharing amazing article with us.Newsletters, thank you emails, surprise emails, and exclusive deals are just a few of the types of emails that can be used to engage a customer on an ongoing basis.
Thank you for your feedback, Himani!
Providing exceptional customer service in your bank or credit union is important, helping to attract and retain customers in a competitive landscape. As technology becomes more robust and customer-buying habits shift, banks and credit unions must be constantly looking for areas of innovation and ways to meet the demands of a t-century customer.
Thank you for your comment.
Conveying this value to customers is far more effective than blindly sending out discounts and deals. Inducing loyalty requires brands to motivate people to embrace them, and interact with a brand beyond transactions.
Thank you for your comment. Agree with you that giving value comes before discounts and deals in earning customer loyalty.