By Koushi Sunder, CEO of Stemless
Did you know that businesses that maintain brand loyalty can grow their revenues 2.5X faster than their competitors? That’s mainly because about 65% of most companies’ revenue comes from repeat business.
After the pandemic, stores need to focus more on marketing that helps build strong brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is your business’s most powerful sales tool. Keeping a customer is substantially less costly than acquiring a new one.
Brand loyalty becomes possible when retailers make the effort to foster and cultivate personalized customer relationships.
Customers are loyal to brands that represent higher quality and better customer service. It’s important to note that price isn’t a determining factor in their choice. Customers are willing to pay for quality.
Brand loyalty is about how customers see your brand, while customer loyalty looks at how much they spend. Customer loyalty also tends to be more costly than brand loyalty as it heavily depends on offering discounts to keep relevant.
How to Build Brand Loyalty
We’ve put together a list of 5 key ways you can start building loyalty with your customers.
1) Stellar customer service
83% of customers say they would switch brands because of a bad customer service experience. In a saturated market, customer service might be the only thing that sets your brand apart from its competitors.
Providing stellar customer service is an investment that drives brand loyalty. When you listen to customers’ concerns, they’re more likely to come back again. Knowing that you’re listening and willing to act on their needs helps build trust and confidence in your brand.
A customer’s lifelong journey with your brand starts with a simple greeting. Learning about your customers helps improve their experience.
2) Take feedback
To cultivate brand loyalty, you must be loyal to your customers first.
Great customer service includes access to user-friendly ways to submit feedback and register complaints. When you ask customers for their thoughts, it shows you care about them and what they need.
As a business owner, you can send out surveys or request 5- star reviews from your brand-loyal customers. But it’s crucial to remember to keep an open mind about the feedback you receive.
Customers are more willing to invest in your business if you value their opinions.
Actions speak louder than words. Listen to your customers’ ideas and show them you care by making the changes they suggest.
3) Reward loyal customers
Your business benefits from brand-loyal customers because loyal customers yield higher conversion rates. Brand-loyal customers have an average conversion rate of 70%. New customers have a conversion rate of 5% to 20% (Smile IO).
Retailers can drive brand loyalty by rewarding repeat customers with personalized experiences. The loyalty platform you choose should provide the robust customer loyalty analytics you need to evaluate customer behavior trends.
Brand-loyal customers shop regularly because they’ve already had positive experiences with your brand. Through rewarding them, you’ve made their shopping experiences even better.
A loyalty program gives customers reasons to keep buying from you. This is especially true around the holidays, when customers are generally in a more giving mood. Combine that with personalized customer service and your customer interactions should improve significantly!
4) Connect with customers digitally (not just in store)
Your customers have gone digital. To keep your customers engaged with your brand outside of the store, make sure you’re reaching them at home too.
Cultivating an online community is key to driving brand loyalty for your business. When you add a loyalty program to your business, you let customers connect with your brand more.
Customer loyalty apps also give you the opportunity to share behind-the-scenes information about your brand or products. This will create a strong digital community that encourages customers to keep coming back to your brand.
We know that building brand loyalty takes time. Giving your customers multiple methods to connect with your brand will help expedite that process. Other ways to keep your customers engaged with your brand are:
- Automated birthday texts
- Engaging with them on social media
- Publishing a newsletter
- Offering subscription-based VIP programs
- Optimized hashtag
Hashtags help you connect quickly with customers and make them feel part of your brand. Show customers you understand them with personalized customer experiences and social media.
5) Be loyal to your customer service team
When you’re building your customer service team, prioritize candidates who will support your loyalty-driven mission. Customers want to support brands that treat their employees well, but they also want to see employee enthusiasm.
Qualtrics says that happy employees treat customers better. If you:
- Let your team make decisions
- Show them respect
- Offer a good work-life balance
- Pay them fairly
They’ll provide great service, making customers stick with your brand.
How Stemless Can Help Build Brand Loyalty
We want to help you build your small business’s brand loyalty. At Stemless, we know that it takes expert innovation, detailed analytics, and intelligent loyalty management platforms to maximize customer retention.
Turn new customers into repeat business and boost current customer engagement with our loyalty marketing platform.
If you have a physical store or sell online, Stemless helps you connect with customers. The Stemless Loyalty App empowers your customers to check their point balance, redeem rewards, or update their personal information online.
Book your demo today and see how Stemless can help you deliver meaningful loyalty experiences to your customers.
FAQs
Q1: Why is brand loyalty important for businesses?
A1: Maintaining brand loyalty can lead to 2.5X faster revenue growth compared to competitors. Approximately 65% of a company’s revenue comes from repeat business, making brand loyalty a crucial sales tool.
Q2: How can I reward loyal customers?
A2: Reward brand-loyal customers with personalized experiences. A loyalty program can increase conversion rates and encourage repeat purchases. Combining rewards with exceptional customer service enhances interactions.
To learn more about the benefits of loyalty programs for your business, explore this blog post:
Embracing Automated Loyalty Programs for Small Businesses.
Q3: How can Stemless help me build brand loyalty?
A3: Stemless offers innovative solutions, detailed analytics, and intelligent loyalty management platforms. Our Loyalty App empowers customers to track points, redeem rewards, and update information online.
Book a demo to explore how Stemless can help build your brand loyalty.