Customer loyalty: tips to build it and increase it

Customer loyalty describes the tendency of a customer to choose a product over another. Satisfaction is not equal to loyalty; loyalty is demonstrated through the customer’s action of purchase over and over again. A customer can be satisfied with the product but this doesn’t mean he is loyal to it.
You always want your customers to do something. You want them to visit your Web site, make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter. And once they have done it, you want them to continue doing it, to compensate the initial investment you made in order to attract them the first time.

You want to create a loyal customer that will guarantee a profitable behavior. The ultimate goal of customer loyalty programs is to gain happy customers who will return to purchase again and persuade others to use that company's products or services.

If your customers leave your company, you will waste a lot of money trying to get them back. You have to develop a way to identify high loyalty customers who are at risk, and take action before they leave you. This is accomplished by using the data customers create through their interactions with you to build simple models or rules to follow that generates you an alarm system. Behavior models help you see the loyalty status of the customer before it's too late.

That's why S4DS will tell you short tips to build customer loyalty, before it's too late:

• Communication: keep your customers actualized with information about your service or product, with newsletters, messages, etc.
• Customer service: Know your customer's needs and anticipate their wishes. Train your staff, a customer well treated will come back.
• Employee loyalty: if you are loyal with your employees, they will feel loyal to your company and will transmit it to customers.
• Customer incentives: Give your customers a reason to come back.
• Product awareness: Know what products are more demanded and keep these items in stock. Add to your products and service complement products, and make sure your staff understands everything they can about your products.
• Reliability: Be reliable. If something went wrong, let your customer know and compensate them for their inconvenience.
• Be Flexible: Try to solve customer problems or complaints to the best of your ability.
• Know their names: Get to know the names of regular customers or at least recognize their faces.

Following this short tips and offering a good product and service your customer loyalty will increase, bringing benefits to your company.