Five Ways to Build Exceptional Client Loyalty

Businesses can still succeed and grow in a challenging economy. If you have a loyal client base, even in a slow business cycle, your businesses can enjoy continued success. It is not unusual for a business to survive and prosper during a difficult period.

Sometimes companies need to spend more than they have in the past to generate brand awareness and stay top of mind. When a business is not growing, it’s time to become more ingenious and work harder on a strategy for growth, which often involves some spending. But before you reach out for brand new clients, consider your client base—past and current.

Your existing customer is the best source of future growth, either directly or in the form of referrals. Loyalty is a subject that has always drawn interest in marketing circles, and research supports the idea that loyalty is an exceptionally strong motivator. Feeling loyalty is not a flickering or fleeting moment; it is an intrinsic, emotional feeling and belief in each of us which drives action and activity.

Companies send out satisfaction surveys all the time, but research indicates satisfaction is not a motivator. The Better Business Bureau website posted an article that stated “satisfaction is the base price of admission.” This is because satisfied customers don’t necessarily return. Dissatisfied customers rarely, if ever, return, but satisfied customers are satisfied only until someone else makes them more satisfied. As a result, they are not particularly loyal. You don’t want your clients merely satisfied, you want them to be ecstatic. Otherwise there is no pattern of repeat business, nor will people go out of their way to recommend your company to someone else. You need to make your customers loyal and if they are not being loyal, find out why.

As a starting point, follow these tips with your clients to build loyalty:

1. Have a series of positive interactions over time
2. Be exceptional with your work, your product, and your staff
3. Create a relationship with your customers via ongoing communication
4. Do one thing differently from everyone else which will set you apart (brand positioning)
5. Ask if they would refer you and if not, find out why

When you ask what can be fixed, sometimes they will say nothing. Other times it might only be one or two small things, but it could point the way to turning your client roster into a group of cheering, business-referring loyalists. At Industrial Brand, we specialize in building brand identity, websites, and communication around the goal of creating and maintaining loyalty for our clients, and for our client’s clients.