Did you know that businesses that maintain a high level of 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.
In a post-pandemic economy, it is more important than ever before for retailers to invest in marketing programs designed intentionally to boost brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is your business’s most powerful sales tool because 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 defined as repeat purchases from a brand due to customers’ perception of the quality and service of the brand compared to its competitors.
Brand loyalty differs from customer loyalty because customer loyalty is measured in dollar signs, not customers’ perceptions of your brand. Customer loyalty also tends to be more costly than brand loyalty as it heavily depends on offering discounts to keep relevant.
Are you ready to join the winner’s circle?
Here’s how to build brand loyalty:
We’ve put together a list of 5 key ways you can start building brand 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. Customers who feel like their concerns are being heard are more likely to become loyal, repeat customers. 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. After that, getting to know your customers and providing them with the opportunity to give your business feedback are great ways to improve your customers’ journeys.
5) 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. By asking your customers for their feedback, you’re showing them how much they are valued and how dedicated you are to their needs.
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. Don’t just say you care about customer satisfaction. Be sure to consider your customers’ feedback when making business decisions and show them you mean it with changes they’ve suggested.
2) Reward loyal customers
Your business benefits from brand-loyal customers because loyal customers yield higher conversion rates. According to customer data, brand-loyal customers have an average conversion rate of around 60% to 70%, while new customers have a conversion rate of 5% to 20%.
Retailers can drive brand loyalty by rewarding brand-loyal 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 can boost repeat business by incentivizing customers to consistently buy your products by offering future discounts or special gifts. 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!
When you have brand-loyal customers, you can make informed decisions and effectively plan your business’s marketing efforts according to your customers’ needs.
3) 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 make a customer loyalty program part of your business plan, you’re giving your customers the option to continuously interact with your brand.
Customer loyalty apps also give you the opportunity to share behind-the-scenes information about your brand or products, as well as interact with your customers. 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 are a powerful marketing tool that help you interact faster with your customers and it provides them with a sense of belonging to your brand. Show customers you understand them with personalized customer experiences and social media.
4) Be loyal to your customer service team
When you’re building your customer service team, it’s important to prioritize candidates who will further support your loyalty-driven mission. Customers want to support brands that treat their employees well, but they also want to see employee enthusiasm.
According to Qualtrics, engaged employees who are part of a company culture that values them are much more likely to extend the same positive treatment towards customers.
Give your people autonomy, respect, a good work-life balance and fair pay and they’ll give you excellent customer service experiences that lead to lifelong brand loyalty.
How Stemless can help build brand loyalty
We want to help you build your 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.
Whether you have a brick and mortar retail store with walk-ins or an e-commerce operation, Stemless provides the infrastructure to engage your customers when they’re with you, or at home. 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.