Image courtesy of Garry Knight

What is Customer Loyalty?

Mindshare.com defines customer loyalty as being more than customer satisfaction: “Loyalty is a higher-order measure of customer attachment than satisfaction. Loyalty involves an emotional commitment to your brand.”

If you are an online store or an e-product, how do you develop that emotional attachment to your brand? If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, how do you use online tools to continue your customer outreach?

How do You Build Loyalty with an eNewsletter?

1. Communication

Don’t limit your communication only to when customers enter your brick and mortar store or when you’re asking them to buy your product. Sending out helpful tips or “thank-you” discounts are a positive way to communicate with your customers.

2. Meet Customer Needs

The best way to meet customer needs is to listen to their questions and provide meaningful answers. Are prospects and clients asking about a particular add-on that you don’t carry? Perhaps it’s time to do that. If you provide a service, is there a common task that people are always inquiring about? Perhaps it’s time to expand your business to include that service. If it’s something you cannot feasibly add to your business at this time, is there a way you can answer the customers need with a tutorial or article? If so, that’s a great thing to add to your eNewsletter. Remember, for every person who has asked you a question about your products and services, there is at least one other person who hasn’t asked yet.

3. Customer Incentives

I use the term “incentives” but what I really mean are thank you’s. With an eNewsletter you have a perfect opportunity to target people who have purchased your products or services before. By offering your customer base special deals that you don’t extend to anyone else you are showing them that there are added benefits to being a customer. Think of it as “reverse customer loyalty” – now you are showing that you are loyal to their needs.

4. Product Awareness

If you have a new product or service that fills a common customer need, don’t be shy about getting the word out. If you’re choosing products and services that match up with your customers needs you are doing them a favor by bringing it to their attention. The trick is to present the information in several different ways – a graphic ad, an article about the product’s benefits, or perhaps 10 Tips and Tricks to make the product more useful.

5. Treat People with Courtesy and Respect

In many ways this last tip relates to everything else. There can be a fine line between providing just the right amount of information and bombarding your customer/client with too much. You don’t want to be the used car salesman of the eNewsletter world. Provide an easy way for them to unsubscribe and constantly solicit for feedback on your business and your newsletter. Find a balance that meets most of your customers needs. Remember, a little thank you once in a while can go a long way.

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Adding opportunities for prospective customers to interact with your business in a positive way allows you to gain trust as an online entity. Trust is fundamental when doing business online because without it many prospects?are unwilling to make that final step and part with their hard earned cash. By utilizing tools such as blogs and newsletters you can help cultivate a sense of trust that will encourage prospects to turn into customers. It’s something that I like to call pre-customer service.

Think of blogs and email newsletters as a means of chatting with your customers. In a storefront you would be able to encourage buying behavior by walking up to them and answering questions they may have about your products. Online you would do this by providing detailed information that is readily accessible.

You must go beyond providing a basic description in a catalog website because in many cases these are simply detailed sales pitches. Would you simply read off the side of the box to a customer in the store? Probably not. Most likely you would provide product comparissons, or describe different situational uses of the product. It’s these types of “store based” questions that will comprise the information you would put in your blog or newsletter.

If you’re using these techniques to enhance your storefront business you have a great opportunity to encourage casual browsers to buy. Consider how many people who come into your store who say “No” when asked if they need help and then they leave the building empty handed. Perhaps they like what they see but the time to purchase is not right. Maybe they do have questions but they feel uncomfortable asking. Instead of just walking away, hand them a business card that simply has your website address on it and a few highlights about what they can find there such as demonstrations, upcoming sales, and your email newsletter. In that way, you can turn the shy prospect into a customer, and then stay in the forefront of their mind when they are ready to purchase.