Why are customers drawn to you? Maybe its because you offer a fantastic product or service. Or perhaps, you provide them with top-notch customer service and your brand just seems to stand out. There is a buzz going on about your brand that just keeps people coming. Whatever the case may be, it is important you earn and maintain your customers’ trust and loyalty.
Earning your customer’s loyalty is no magic, but simple business strategy. Here are a few guidelines that will teach you basic principles to earn your customer’s trust:
Know Them
The easiest way to earn loyalty and trust from your customer is to take time out to know them on a personal level. It is not enough to know their physical appearance and buying habits, but you must understand their likes and dislikes. As it happens, many business owners don’t know much about their customer’s needs and this is a challenge to their sales team. It is important to reach out to your customers beyond the business transactions and learn about some of their personal issues or desires. As an entrepreneur, this will help you tailor your brand better, to suit their needs and earn their long-term trust, assurance and patronage.
Engage Them
No business owner can be guaranteed of their customers’ trust simply by hiring beautiful sales girls or by giving huge discounts on their products. Different of factors influence a customer’s buying behaviour, and it is important to strategically engage your customers to earn their loyalty and eventually increase your sales.
How do you go about this? With the current advancement of technology, you can harness the power of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and so on, to connect with both existing and prospective customers. Update your social media pages frequently and upload content that are both credible and applicable to your patrons.
Respect Them
Your customers are the key factor to your success. They make or break your business. With this in mind, customers are not to be exploited to make a few sales only to be dumped afterwards. If you exploit your customers in any way, they will eventually realize this, stop trusting you and will ultimately refuse to patronize you. It may also shut future opportunities for your business due to negative feedback.
It will save you a lot of headache to respect your customers, to be sensitive to their needs and pay careful attention to their feedback. You must always have it in mind that your customers are the engines behind the success of your business.
Be Consistent
You don’t solve your customer’s problem once. You don’t create one viable product today and hold up for the next 5 years. You don’t update your Facebook now and leave it cumbersome for weeks or months. If you must earn your customer’s trust and loyalty, you need to socialise, interact and constantly engage them. You must see your customers as friends whom you are steadily keeping in touch with.
Make a conscious effort to regularly update your social network pages and connect with your customers. Send valuable updates to them about your products and services, and keep them informed about the progress of your business in general. Overtime you will earn their trust, become successful and maintain your credibility.
