How to Get Loyal Customers Without Faking It

Measuring how well your brand serves customers is also key to the philosophy of Customer Success, an idea that’s become so popular that podcasts have sprung up about it.

Customer Loyalty and Customer Success are linked at their core by the belief that ignoring customers outside the traditional sales funnel is unacceptable.

Customer loyalty isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time to build a relationship and trust. Develop a strategy and stick with it. Here are 3 strategies to try.

The fallout from poor customer service may seem terrifying — and it is. But here’s the good news: great customer service is powerful, too. Nearly 70% of customers who receive good service say they would recommend the company to others and 50% said they would use the business more frequently.

The message is clear: do right by your customers and they will reward you.

When it comes to creating loyal customers, there aren’t many companies better to learn from than Zappos. They go all in with an entire Customer Loyalty Team whose goal is to “Wow” their shoppers. Zappos’ core values evolved over a number of years as it grew into an e-commerce giant, a story chronicled by CEO Tony Hsieh in his book, “Delivering Happiness.”

What’s the result? An astounding 75% of Zappos’ sales come from return customers. 40% of their new customers say they heard of Zappos from a friend or family member. Whether it’s staying on the phone for 10 hours, sending flowers or ordering pizza, Zappos does whatever it takes to impress.

Creating loyal customers starts by proving your own loyalty to them.

• Outstanding service creates loyal customers by showing that they’re valued.
• Make customer service a priority (no matter how large/small) – Getting it on your to-do list is Step 1
• You never know how far one positive customer experience will amplify your brand

Start by delighting, entertaining and informing. If you’re not already doing this, reconsider immediately. Inbound marketing in the form of blogs, newsletters and videos are powerful tools to keep your brand top of mind while helping customers get value from your product.

Buffer provides a great example. Their blog educates customers about trends, tips and best practices for social media and online marketing. These posts build loyalty by taking advantage of one of the most important strategies for retaining customers: engagement. That’s because engaged customers buy up to 90% more often than customers who are not adequately engaged.

By generating content that helps solves customers’ problems, Buffer also validates its brand in the eyes of the customer and establishes itself as an industry expert.

• Communicating with customers through inbound marketing maintains interest in your brand while supporting your sales funnel
• Setting up a brand blog is a simple first step for organizing content.
• Different channels require their own unique form of communication — always consider the medium

Fandom is inherently about connecting with people who have similar interests. Think about sports. Fans watch games together, talk about players, chat on dedicated forums and post on social media. Those sports fans are really just customers loyal to a brand, whether it’s the Bears, Yankees or Lakers.

But before you can create a community, you have to become a part of one first. The process should look like this:

1. Join. Familiarize yourself a community’s rules, observe its interests, and learn its customs.
2. Engage. Contribute to the conversation and create posts that answer users questions, then post your own.
3. Direct. Take control of conversations, post expert content and help the community grow.
4. Create. Begin building your own community and invite members to join you there.

An active social media presence is the first place to start building a community of superfans. But using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram aren’t just about racking up vanity scores. It also gives your brand a way to promote the content you create as part of your communication strategy.

Great inbound marketing makes for attractive and shareable posts that can help build loyal customers through engagement.

For example, Jay Baer’s research found that answering a complaint on social media can increase customer advocacy by as much 25%. On the flipside, in Sprout Social’s research, they discovered that 30% of customers who are shunned by brands on social media are more likely to switch to a competitor.

Here’s a question you should try to answer as you gain a better understanding of your customer community: what do they have in common besides your product? That question has led some companies to find unexpected ways to generate loyalty – like by giving to charities and even by encouraging consumers to NOT buy their products.

• A strong community turns customers into fans, organizes them around your product and satisfies their desire to interact with peers.
• Social media channels offer an easy entry point for building a community of loyal customers.
• Consider what other common interests your customers have and meet them on their home turf.

It may seem natural to devote the bulk of your resources to chasing new leads. But retaining existing customers should be an equal — if not higher — priority.

No investor will only ask you about your Customer Acquisition Cost – the next question (or in the same breath) will be about your customers’ Lifetime Value.

When you have customers who are deeply loyal, they amplify everything your brand does – and the absence of loyalty diminishes your efforts. For example, when a company like Netflix tweets something fun or interesting, the account’s fans interact and widely share the content.

Conversely, when an account with a less loyal following pushes something out, it doesn’t go nearly as far.

Note: a loyal following isn’t the same as a big following. 1 million followers is great, but if they’re bots or disengaged users, they’re not helping.

Perhaps the most desirable benefit of building loyalty is seeing a jump in your customers’ lifetime value. This refers to the total revenue brought in by a single account and is a vital metric for any company. Because it’s expensive to acquire new customers, motivating existing ones to return again and again can be an efficient way to boost profits.

One of the most-cited reasons that customers move to a competitor is because of poor service. In fact, U.S. companies lose billions of dollars every year to bad customer service. And after a negative experience, 58% of customers would never use the same company again.