Lockdowns and quarantines brought on by the pandemic have impacted almost all aspects of the retail industry.
Customer loyalty is one aspect that saw a major shift – it could have been due to customers being forced to try new brands out of necessity or gravitating towards a brand because of the way the company handled challenges of the pandemic.
In fact, a Mastercard study about customer loyalty and engagement in the COVID era found that 74% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that demonstrated concern and provided excellent care for customers during the pandemic.
During this time, customers’ expectations of what they consider a satisfying user experience shifted, engagement levels and priorities changed, they were introduced to new brands, and lifestyle changes were abundant.
Let’s look at how brands can build customer loyalty in these changing times.
Build Your Brand
“Build your brand – I cannot emphasize this point enough. Seth Godin once said ‘People don't buy goods and services, they buy relations, stories, and magic.’ Your brand is your superpower, build a strong brand that your customer identifies with and they will choose you over similar products and services every time,” says Samantha Patil, Founder & CEO of Well Traveled, a club for travel lovers.
“So many companies are focused on the quick sale. Play the long game with your customers, build trust, provide value before they purchase, and build a relationship with them – this will pay off in the long run by creating trust and brand loyalty.”
Keep Customers Coming Back
Considering that it can cost five times more to attract a new customer, than it does to retain an existing one, keeping your customers coming back is the best scenario for consumers and brands.
“In order to keep customers coming back, you need to invest in them. This means taking a data-driven approach to understanding customers – going beyond age, demographic, or location. It’s analyzing habits, emotions, expectations and anticipating the customer’s needs in the micro-moments that make a big impact on their experience,” says Mona Champaneri, Managing Director of Experiences and Product at Kin + Carta, a B-Corp certified technology, data, and experience consultancy. “Focus on continuously adding value to the end user, whether you are driving customers through an e-commerce transaction or increasing productivity of employees. Moving the user up the value chain is where the most impact can be made.”
Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%, according to research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company.
“Customer loyalty is determined by the bottlenecks they face as they interact with a brand. Making the customer experience journey seamless and frictionless through all the digital and non-digital touch-points is how you keep customers coming back,” adds Champaneri.
49% of companies say keeping customers loyal over long periods of time is their top loyalty program hurdle, according to the same Mastercard study.
Create A Community
“It’s important to build an intentional community for your customers. The online space is busy and only going to get busier. Skepticism is at an all-time high. When you create an intentional space for your customers to safely exist, you get loyalty. Since we moved our community to Circle, we've seen retention go up 33% since the heart of COVID-19,” says Meredith Noble, Co-Founder & CEO of Learn Grant Writing.
There are many ways to create a community for your customers. A unique way to do so is through your beta tests – a win-win for customers and companies.
“Beta test with your most active customers. An easy way to build more consumer loyalty is to spend extra time with your most active customers. These customers may be the ones who have the most repeat purchases, the highest order values, or perhaps they are the ones who are most active on your social channels. Reach out to them and gather feedback on new site designs, new products, and ongoing initiatives before they launch to the public. Not only will you receive valuable feedback, but engaging one-on-one will also give your customers a deeper sense of belonging with the brand. These customers then become even more evangelized, and will be more likely to tell friends and colleagues about the brand,” says Caley Adams, Founder of Wildes District, a design studio that specializes in launching and scaling e-commerce brands.
She also recommends utilizing Instagram polls as a tool to engage audiences and involve them in product development. “For instance, you might put new colors, products, or styles to a vote and see which items are upvoted the most. Not only will customers be excited to have a say in new product development, but you'll get priceless feedback.”
Building customer loyalty can help companies grow more quickly and be more profitable, which can be the differentiating factor at difficult times.
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November 23, 2022 at 10:01PM
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How Brands Can Build Customer Loyalty In These Changing Times - Forbes
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