Customer Engagement Program

A solid, loyal customer base. It’s what every business owner wants. Repeat business is the life blood of any industry and entrepreneurs devote countless hours to chasing that demographic. Maintaining a loyal customer base is an ongoing struggle that requires regular attention. Implementing a few key strategies will go a long way toward engendering the loyalty of clients and consumers.

Keep in Touch

One of the best ways to keep customers coming back for more is to regularly remind them of your service or business. Regular contact with a customer base keeps a business in the forefront of those customers’ minds. If they have a particular business in mind, when they need the service that business provides they will naturally seek it out. Contact can be as simple as a monthly email newsletter. Letting clients know what’s going on with the company or business makes them feel as though they are part of it. Avoid the temptation to send too many newsletters. Inundating customers with daily emails will not engender loyalty. They are far more likely to unsubscribe from the mailing list if their inbox is clogged.

Make it Personal

Devote some time to individualized personal contact with long-term clients. Regular clients feel appreciated when a business owners takes time out to get in contact. In small business situations, this is an arguably simpler task. However, larger companies should not underestimate the value in a simple “Happy Anniversary” postcard. Put a system in place to track important dates in customers’ lives. Send an occasional handwritten note. This lets clients know they are more than just a financial transaction and in a modern world with limitless consumer opportunities, this can make all the difference in creating repeat business.

Give Rewards

Rewards and gifts, like personal contact, make people feel appreciated. Dozens of major successful companies have implemented some sort of rewards strategy, often times employ a third party rewards specialist. There are a multitude of ways to implement a rewards system. One of the simplest, and oftentimes most effective, is a points based system that allows clients to redeem these points for rewards. Rewards are just another way to show a customer they are valued. When consumers feel valued by a business, they are far more likely to continue their relationship with that business. Given that businesses are expected to spend 5 to 10 times as much to attract a new customer as to retain a loyal one, spending time on customer appreciation is a small price to pay.