customer loyalty requires empathy We took the first step – I showed you 15 reasons why customer loyalty is so important. Today I aim to give you tools by hand and to provide you with ideas on how you can retain your customers to you, your brand, your company, your products, your services. This article should inspire you to think about individual, suitable measures for customer loyalty so that you can turn your customers into regular customers who buy from you again and again, book your service, recommend you and help you with their feedback to continuously optimize your offer.
Listen carefully to your customers.
The basis of all customer loyalty measures is that you know what your customers want and need. What wishes, needs and requirements they have, what they dream of. What makes them doubt, what they are afraid of, what worries them. What makes your heart beat faster, which topics make your eyes light up?
You have to sincerely for your customers interested; they listen and read times between the lines.
Customer loyalty requires empathy.
Are you a fitness trainer and your customer are super stressed in everyday life? Then think about when, where and how you can train with her without putting additional pressure on her.
Do you offer culinary specialties that are extraordinary and quite expensive? Then, come up with ways to get your customers going without them having to buy a pig in a poke for a lot of money.
As an elective doctor, you demand a relatively high fee for the average citizen, which not everyone can afford but would still like to take advantage of. Maybe you can offer special tariffs, such as a family tariff?
Just try to put yourself in the shoes of your customers’ everyday life and use this to try to offer them the best possible solution to their problem or to what they are looking for.
34 ideas on how to retain your customers
Your customer loyalty measures can be as simple or unusual as your customers are unique and individual. With my ideas, I would like to inspire you, give you examples and provide suggestions on how you can bind your customers to you, your company, and your brand. Depending on the industry in which you work and how your customers “tick”, you will find the suitable options for you and your customers, of that I am convinced! Feel free to tell me in the comments below what you do to turn your customers into regular customers – I’m excited!
From my perspective, Wholesale Custom Packaging measures for customer loyalty can be roughly divided into six categories, whereby a lot of steps can usually be assigned to several types.
Customer loyalty through financial + material incentives
Admittedly, financial and material incentives are the most accessible tool for retaining customers – although the customers won in this way are usually not the most loyal. As soon as another provider offers a more significant incentive, they are gone. Still, it’s a possibility.
I would always prefer to add something “on top” as a bonus instead of giving percentages or discounts, thus making my service cheaper. You can use the following ideas:
Give small gifts in the form of a giveaway or special attention (comparable to a greeting from the kitchen)
- grant discounts and percentages
- run competitions
- install bonus programs
- do cross-selling: sell other products or services from your repertoire at a lower price or puthem on top
- up-sell: sell your product or service in a better, higher quality version and give it a discount or pack it on top as a goodie
1. Customer loyalty by caressing the ego
Let’s be honest: Who of us doesn’t like to feel puffed up? So I do! If someone flatters my ego, it can quickly wrap me around their finger. To complement the ego of your customers, you can, for example.
7: Get feedback (they’ll be flattered because you value their opinion)
8: Set a memorial à la the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for example, by naming your new dessert creation after a regular guest or by putting a sign with his name on his favorite table or armchair, etc.)
9: a VIP program brings to life
10: Send a newsletter with exclusive content (bonuses, gifts, etc.) for regular customers
11: send a handwritten card on anniversaries (customer’s birthday, a customer was with you for the first time, etc.)
12: rely on shortages (customer feels flattered because he has received something that was not available to others)
13: say thank you (if you mean it sincerely, thank you can work wonders)
Customer loyalty through the WOW effect
If you manage to get your customers to WOOOW, you can be sure of their attention and enthusiasm! Two things are ideal for this: surprise your customers and exceed your customers’ expectations!
14: As a doctor, you could remind your patients about their annual health check-ups with a friendly letter or phone call.
15: Are you a contact lens specialist? Send your customers a reminder when it is time for a new pair of contact lenses or when the care products should theoretically be used up.
16: Send your customers away from the usual significant events such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter or Mother (if already ALL were vying for the attention of their customers) a greeting card or small watch. What do you anticipate their reaction will be?
17: At the end of the vacation, your customer checks out of your hotel. You pull up his car, freshly washed. He certainly didn’t expect that. However, his expectations have been exceeded, and he associates your hotel with the very best memories – the chances that he will (regularly) return are relatively good.
Customer through trust
For some people, trust is the decisive criterion for wanting to commit to a service provider. It would help if you had a lot of security. Reliability is critical to them, and they prefer familiar processes and a friendly environment. The following ideas help to build trust and to retain your customers:
18: assign a fixed contact person to each customer
19: give your product, your brand, your service a natural face that your customers can trust
20: offer excellent service (sounds so bland, but unfortunately it is still not a matter of course)
21: take complaints seriously and get someone to take care of them
22: Provide your customers with absolute reliability – what you promise will be kept, because the train drives over it
23: give every customer relationship a personal touch – in the end, the customer buys you, not your product
Customer through the satisfaction of convenience
We, humans, are creatures of habit. We like to be comfortable without much effort. What can you do to satisfy your customers’ convenience? Some examples:
24: minimize the effort involved in getting your product or service
25: ensure fast, on-time, reliable delivery
26: Offer a free delivery service to
27: Offer multiple communication channels that your customers can use to contact you
28: offer a callback service at the desired time
29: remind your customers when something needs to be updated, replaced, serviced, etc.
30: Fill out forms for your customers as far as possible so that they have as little effort as possible
31: offer free parking right in front of the door
Customer through belonging
Everyone wants to feel they belong – be it in the family, among friends, at work, in the fitness center, in a club. And we are imitators precisely because we long to belong. So which bakery are you more likely to buy your rolls from where the queue extends to the shop or where there isn’t a single customer in the shop? 😉
To your customers a sense of belonging to convey, you can
32: rely on community building (be it through a Facebook group or a group that meets live once a month …)
33: convey positive values that your customers can identify with
34: Install visible signs, such as a branded polo shirt for each fitness customer or your order hotline for regular customers…
Individually suitable tools for customer loyalty
You see: the possibilities for customer loyalty are almost endless. The list of ideas could go on forever. But, with a bit of flair and creativity, you will find the right tools for your business to turn customers into regular customers. Of course, the cost of your customer loyalty measures must be in a reasonable proportion to the value of your products and services. The higher the value of your service, the more complex the customer loyalty instruments can be. In principle, it’s about the attention, the appreciation of your customers to get the feeling, “Nice, someone thought of me, someone thought something up.” But more on that next time.
In the next post, I would like to go into the emotions, behavior patterns and principles of customer loyalty. What deeply human needs and desires do you have to meet to turn your customers into regular customers? What do you have to consider psychologically being able to retain and retain your customers?
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