Effective strategies for improving customer loyalty

This article was authored by Cindy Mielke

Author bio: Cindy is passionate about the incentive industry. In addition to her role as Vice President of Strategic Partners here at Tango, she is a Certified Professional of Incentive Management who proudly serves on two industry boards. When she’s not working, Cindy enjoys spending time with her family—including three cats, two dogs, and a horse—and sharing her love of nature as a Nebraska Master Naturalist.

When running a business, landing a new customer is a significant accomplishment. Injecting more revenue into the organization while simultaneously growing brand awareness is crucial for long-term growth.

However, while making that first sale is important, the real work of keeping that customer long-term just begins. Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done.

Building strong customer relationships requires real effort. It demands an ongoing commitment to continuously deliver on promises, listen to feedback, and focus on turning a single transaction into a lasting connection.

Below, we’ll cover various strategies you can use for your business when trying to improve your customer loyalty.

Personalizing Your Messaging

If a customer subscribes to your email list, chances are they think the brand offers enough value to stay in contact. However, the last thing they want is to just feel like they’re another number.

Generic marketing messages that are obviously intended for a wide audience can come across as cold and often don't leave a great impression.Taking the time to personalize your communications to each of your customers can have a much more positive impact. It shows that they’re worth your time and resources to answer their needs directly and aren’t just another statistic padding the business’s numbers.

The good news is that personalizing brand messaging doesn’t need to be overly complicated. One place to start is by always addressing the individual by their first name instead of using a default placeholder. While this may seem insignificant, this attention to detail can make a lot of difference in how the messaging is received.

Always Providing Exceptional Customer Service

It should go without saying, but to keep your customers around for the long term, you need to provide them with exceptional service. Unfortunately, even for businesses that take all the right steps in this regard, it’s only a matter of time before they need to deal with someone who is unhappy.

Instead of letting these moments frustrate you and your teams, an unhappy customer, it’s a perfect opportunity to let your brand shine. Even when you don't have the perfect solution top of mind, by showing customers you understand their concerns and that you’re willing to work with them until they’re satisfied stops smaller issues from escalating into larger ones.

Building a Community Around Your Brand

When building your brand, it’s important that your customers associate it with more than just the products or services you offer. You can help create a community around your brand that allows customers to express themselves and be heard. When you build a real brand community, people start to feel like they're a part of your business’s growth journey, not just another person you're selling to. This creates a special kind of connection that not a lot of businesses do well.

To get started in this direction, try looking at social media as something that's useful for more than just ad targeting. Treat it as a space for real conversation with your current or potential customers. Ask your followers questions, jump into the comments to respond to their feedback, and make interacting with the business genuinely worthwhile to them.

Creating Sustainable Loyalty Programs

Creating a customer loyalty program is a great way to encourage customers to continue making purchases with your brand. When designed the right way, these programs can be a low-cost strategy for showing your customers just how much you appreciate their patronage while also giving them a clear incentive to stick with your brand versus others.

Although some brands have very complex loyalty program structures, you don’t need to invest significantly in them to make the right impression. Using a basic points system associated with various purchases is often the best way to get started. As customers earn more points over time, they can then redeem them for a number of different rewards, such as gift cards or discounts on future purchases.

Showing Thanks in Different Ways

Establishing more loyalty from your customers doesn’t always require grand gestures. Sometimes, a simple, personal “thank you” can go a long way in helping your customers feel valued. Although you could include a gesture like a promotional code or gift card with your thank you note, giving a handwritten card can often mean a lot more to customers and isn’t something that every business spends the time doing.

Thank you cards help add more personalization to a business relationship, helping both businesses and their customers think outside of transactional elements and place more emotion into the equation. This helps build longer-lasting and more authentic relationships with customers as the business grows.

Gaining More Direct Feedback

An important element of gaining more loyalty from your customers is to make sure you’re continuously delivering on their expectations. If you don’t ask your customers what they need, you’ll never know how to continue to “wow” them.

Customer feedback is an important aspect of building great relationships. By sending a simple feedback survey after every purchase, you can start to collect valuable information from your customer base that helps you improve various aspects of your business.

Still, simply collecting customer survey data is only part of the process. You also need to have an open mind when reviewing the various data points and not be afraid to make certain changes based on the suggestions given. 

When you actively act on the feedback your customers give you, it tells them that you really care about their perspectives and are willing to evolve your business over time to meet their growing expectations.

Build More Loyal Brand Followings

Gaining more customers is always an important goal to have, but it’s also important to take the necessary steps to build and strengthen customer relationships over time. By following the strategies discussed, you’ll ensure you create more loyal brand followings while helping you to grow and sustain your business long-term.