So, February is the month of love, it's the month within which we celebrate Valentine's day, so why not celebrate the love you have for your customers. You do love them, don't you?
Have you ever wondered why some of the most successful organisations have deleted everything from their performance dashboards other than the customer? It’s simple, without customers you don’t have cash and without both of those you don’t need an operation or people and you don’t have a business. So clearly its blindingly obvious to take care of your customer as your absolute number one priority. All you need to do is make sure your customer feels loved by you and the rest will take care of itself. Emotional connections with brands provide a much greater guarantee of continued loyalty than customer satisfaction and service. When customers engage with you, they have high expectations about how they want to be treated and they want to be treated like a valued partner.
So, what are the benefits of customer love?
When a business regularly shows its customers it loves them, that business also becomes a lovable brand and this has loads of benefits. You get referrals from your customers, evangelism, social sharing, testimonials, customer retention and loyalty, positive reviews and content generated by your customers. Your customers do your sales and marketing for you.
Think about a brand you love. You tell friends and family to try its products or services (customer referrals), you talk about how much you love them (customer evangelism). You follow their social channels and share interesting content the brand creates (social sharing). You write a review (testimonials), You choose this brand over its competitors regardless of price or convenience (customer loyalty).
So, what can you do to start spreading the customer love?
Ensure your products or services have a compelling purpose, everything you do should be for the good of the customer not you. Give your customers early or exclusive access to new products or services, special events and offers. Honour original pricing to existing customers when making price increases. Certainly, don’t start charging them more than you do new customers. We all know a brand or two that does that don’t we? Reward customers for loyalty and referrals.
Showcase your brand’s personality. It’s hard to love a business but it’s easier to love people.
Give your customers recognition. Spread the customer love, positively promote your customers, retweet customers’ tweets and show appreciation for the love they spread about you. Ask for customer feedback, never assume anything.
Say thank you. Take every opportunity to thank customers for their business. They chose to give it to you over your competitors and you should be grateful.
Surprise and delight your customers, add a bonus gift or provide free shipping or write a thank-you note. Everyone likes to feel special especially your customers.
Happy Valentine’s Day from all the team at CXY.
www.getcxy.com
