Guest Editorial
By Lucy Reed
As an entrepreneur in the retail space, you know that great customer service is the lifeblood of your business. If your customers don’t feel valued, they might take their business elsewhere. Through dedicated focus, you can foster a better customer experience. In the meantime, these tips from Guy’s Creative Marketing will help you develop an impactful brand, connect with your customers on a personal level, and deepen your customer base’s loyalty.
Before Anything Else, Get Your Business in Order
Before you can start working on customer loyalty, you need to ensure your business is properly set up. Writing out a comprehensive business plan is a great first step, as this will help you align your goals and objectives. You'll also need to decide which structure best fits your company's needs – whether it's a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or corporation. Registering with the state as a Colorado LLC can offer many advantages such as limiting personal liability in case of legal disputes and providing flexible tax options. Having these elements in place will give you a solid foundation for growing and developing relationships with customers that will last over time.
Effective Branding
Branding can draw in your target customers—and when your customers feel like your brand reflects their values, they’ll be more likely to keep you in mind for future purchases. Perhaps you already have a coloring scheme, slogan, or other branding elements in mind, but you haven’t designed a logo yet. A great logo can convey your business’s unique offerings and foster brand awareness.
Top-Notch Customer Service
Today, many companies rely on call centers to provide customer service for them. If you run a small retail shop, you probably haven’t used this approach, but if you run a larger business, you may have considered outsourcing your customer support tasks to a call center. However, Business News Daily notes that there are several drawbacks to this approach—you’ll have little to no control over the call center team’s operations, and this could adversely affect the quality of service that your customers receive.
Instead, focus on training your employees to provide clear, personalized customer service. Kaizo recommends emphasizing empathy when you train your employees, tracking key performance indicators including Customer Satisfaction Scores, and setting and communicating service standards. You can also walk them through common customer interaction scenarios for practice.
Market Research
Want to stand head and shoulders above your competition? You’ll need to conduct ongoing market research to find out what other businesses in your niche are doing to get ahead! You can start by getting feedback from your customers, using customer relationship management software to analyze their consumer habits, and researching your competitors to find out how they go the extra mile to meet your customer’s needs.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads can be a great way to reach out to potential customers and promote your business. When creating an ad, you can target specific groups of people based on interests, demographics, and even location. You can also choose how much you want to spend on your ad campaign, and set a daily or lifetime budget. Additionally, you can use Facebook Insights to track the performance of your ads and see how they are affecting your business. To create a Facebook ad, use a free ads maker online. Choose from editable templates and add your own copy, photos, colors, and more.
Loyalty Program
Creating a loyalty program is a great way to encourage your customers to come back! For instance, you can set up a points program, which involves awarding your customers points for purchases and referrals. Once they have accumulated enough points, they can redeem them for a free product. Your customers will be encouraged to come back for more shopping!
Loyalty programs can be particularly effective if you have physical locations in mixed residential areas with high Walk Scores. These are areas where pedestrian traffic is high, so incentivizing repeat business from locals is an effective strategy. You can also use Walk Score maps to help you determine where a new location for your business can be effective.
Personalized Marketing
Personalizing your company’s marketing materials is a great way to connect with your customers on a deeper level. You can start by creating an email marketing newsletter that addresses your customers by name, and segmenting different emails based on their purchasing preferences. You can even develop personalized email subject lines! Depending on your target customer and brand style, you might want to craft your messaging with a casual tone of voice. This will give your customers the feeling that they’re in touch with a friend, not just a business.
Cultivating a loyal customer base takes time. A customer does not feel loyal to a business overnight—a company has to prove that they are reliable and reputable. With these tips, you’ll be able to inspire loyalty through branding, memorable service, targeted ads and marketing, and more!
Guy’s Creative Marketing takes an analytical approach to promoting and marketing your business and brand. Get in touch to learn more about the process.
