What are some of your strategies for retaining customer loyalty?

to retain loyalty; learn a bit about the client --may I call you by your first name?
or last?
do you have a family you are close to?
what do you aspire to that you love --now or coming ujp?

ask about them!!!

ask what you can do better.

start there..........

Customer loyalty is a relationship driven process. It's really driven by your employees desire to use their discretionary effort. What drives the effort, several things. You need to focus on Operational Excellence and People Excellence.
Providing great customer service is the Green Fees for driving customer loyalty. If you aren't providing great service, don't bother focusing on building customer or brand loyalty, it isn't going to happen.
When I think about companies that I'm loyal to, for example, Southwest Airlines. I think about what it is they do that makes me loyal. Great staff, great prices, easy to do business with, luggage arrives when you do, great staff. Now, that being said, I'd still be a loyal customer if the prices weren't as good, simply because the staff don't treat you like crap and your luggage shows up when you do.
Great service isn't always the driving factor, look at WalMart. They have incredible prices and mediocre service on their best day, yet, they have brand loyal customers.

The key is understanding what motivates your customers, is it service, price, experience, it really depends.

Most of the responses have reinforced that customer loyalty is based upon your relationship with your customer, and I can't disagree with that. Your profile doesn't tell us what business you are in, so I can't target my response to your particular situation. But, I'd like to point out a few things that many folks might not consider under the heading of "building a relationship".

When you place an online order with a company you have not done business with before, how does that company build a relationship with you? Well, you're not talking with anyone, so there's no relationship building going on there. You haven't asked any questions, so it's not that they're building a relationship there. But they are building a relationship with you. How?

They build a relationship with you in a number of ways:
1. They make your online experience pleasant. By that, I mean it's a user-friendly experience.
2. They make it easy to find the information you're looking for quickly.
3. The price is probably reasonable.
4. They tell you if what you want is in stock or if it's on back order.
5. They make the checkout experience as fast and efficient as they can.
6. They probably don't gouge you with their shipping & handling costs.
7. You receive a prompt order confirmation and a thank you note for ordering.
8. You are notified when your order will ship and when you can expect it to arrive.
8. You are notified when your order actually does ship.

..... and all this without anybody talking with anyone else or even exchanging email messages. But, your experience can make you a loyal customer - or send you to another company the next time you want the same item.

Now think about these same type of attributes in a situation where the customer is physically in your place of business. All of the points are not applicable, but most of them are - and you can build customer loyalty by just running a "heads up" business. John (the previous poster) has a good point, too - know what "heads up" means to your customers.

My business is measuring and improving customer loyalty so obviously I have given it a lot of thought. The answer to the question is really pretty simple.

There are three building blocks which allow a company to improve customer loyalty. For loyalty to occur and grow all three of these must be in place. Without all three, loyalty can’t exist. They are:

1. You must be seen as very, very good at what you do. No one will recommend a company to a friend unless the recommender thinks the company provides an excellent product and or service.

2. The business must have ongoing communication with customers. We must remain “top of mind” with customers. Loyalty fades when we are not on the mind of our customers. Even Nordstrom’s keeps in touch with customers so that when they need to shop, Nordstrom’s becomes the place they think of first. You don’t need to solicit them, just stay in touch.

3. You must be unique in what you do or how you do it. For instance, Southwest Airlines is building loyalty with their “bags fly free” campaign. By refusing to go along with the alloying practice of adding charges to the fee structure Southwest is building loyalty. This may be why they are the number one domestic airline in profitability and growth.

Although I mentioned that the answer is simple, it’s different for each business. I utilize a customized loyalty assessment which I call an organizational MRI. With it we probe these three areas determining precisely where you stand on each with your customers. It’s simple and pretty inexpensive to obtain your loyalty score. Please don’t confuse this process with satisfaction surveys, which are a complete waste of time because satisfaction doesn’t connect with financial improvement. Loyalty causes people to act and that action connects with your P&L.

The real pay back comes when you take some improvement action in the area where you need it. You will be rewarded with referrals and higher customer retention.

I guess it really is a pretty simple process to improve customer loyalty after all. The same process works with measuring and improving employee loyalty.

Retention and Customer Loyalty depend on communication. Every time you communicate with a customer, even it's just getting your logo in front of them, you're asking them to value your product or services. Perhaps you’re reminding them of good customer service that they recently got. You create an opportunity for them to ask about ancillary services. More than anything else, you create less room for competitors to steal them away from you. Customer communication IS customer retention.

We are in the process of refining our customer loyalty program. Traditionally we have used printed mail outs, occasional phone calls and very few emails to keep in contact. We wanted a more organic and informative value add method of building loyalty. So we are looking at a Digital News Letter - which is not focused on our company or products but more of an industry information feed. Online blog for support and industry updates or tips. Social media for conveying messages. We sought out ways to keep in touch with our clients when they are going about their daily work, neither party really going out of their way. These initiatives if implemented effectively should help build loyalty.

I have always tried to make a point of doing something other than the “industry norm”. The industry I am in has a very poor reputation for customer service. I make a point of touching base with my customers (try for in person – resort to phone/e-mail as necessary) on a regular basis. Customers like to be able to contact someone that is not a “800 number”.

In addition, I work on distributing informational e-mails on a semi-regular basis. Some of them are promotional, but most have something to do with best practices. It seems like a small thing, but a good portion of my customers engage me on them.

Last but not least, I try for the customer retention before they are even a customer. I try to assist them with anything I can even if they are not a customer. More than a few times this has resulted in either them becoming a customer or they referring someone to me that has become a customer.

Customer retention is all about relationships. If you can build a relationship with your customer you have made a customer for life, this is a gurantee. Every week I call 10-20 customers and just chat whatever it is that connects us. This isn't superficial either, I genuinely enjoy talking with my customers. I take the time to make sure I'm not just doing business with them, I try to make business just a small part of our relationship.

For the customers that just don't like to talk or that I can't connect with, I make sure I know what they need and enure they get it on a constant basis. Sometimes I call to say I found this product and I think it would work with you goes a long way even though you are making a sale.

I think one big mistake is trying to out do the competition, you know what makes you better than your competition so just keep doing that. I find the mentality that whatever the competition is doing, we have to do and do more of is just broken. Don't try and beat them at their game.

So yeah, building relationships is the key to my customer retention program.

~Matt

Provide the best possible customer service and find pertinent, related products or services to offer to current clients.

Keep a current list of the Top 10 customers with a plan to personally contact them on a regular basis. Typically, 80 percent of my business comes from 20% of my customers. I have a plan for more time with the top 20% and use drip marketing more for the other 80%. Also ask a top Executive to make sales calls with you to your top 5 accounts. You get amazing results and loyalty.

All of the above is excellent information.
I would add, first, it surprises me how many companies don't know who their customers are, an obvious first step.
Next, the buying cycle consists of awareness, need/want, trust, purchase and referral. Be able to identify where in the cycle your client is and provide reasons to move to the next phase. Eric pointed out how important purchase accessibility & ease are to a sale.
Lastly, asking for referrals scares many people, but a sure way to test if a customer is satisfied with your product/service is a referral request. Should it not be forthcoming, your customer is probably not as pleased with you as you think.

I truly agree to Paul Murray. Customer retention is indeed very crucial in a competitive environment today. First of all the way a customer is welcomed creates a perception in the customers mind on the type of service he/she would receive. In addition, being cold or over friendly of course would put them off and in many circumstances would arouse suspicion. An employee who is thoroughly conversant with his or her product and who has had exposure through training or his/her own experience is the best employee a customer likes to be associated with.

Any queries on the product or a similar competitor, if answered well and to the expectation of the customer would definitely make him/her feel confident in wanting to finalise the transaction there and then rather than hunt for another company. Trust me this customer will come back over and over again since trust has been built.

After the purchase has been finalised, on time delivery be it within the confines of the office or delivery to a pre-arranged place would imply efficiency and again customer would be very happy indeed. Like has been mentioned by all the members above after sales service what i would call, is not only about rectifying a fault with a product but also a follow up on whether or not the product met the expectation of the customer and how to improve on it.

in addition wishing a customer on their birthdays or special occasions doesn't cost much and as a matter of fact reinforces an organisations position. Unfortunately many organisations or companies implement the one size fits all policy which i differ because every customer is different and would like to be attended to and treated individually.

Finally empowering a customer is what many organisations fear because of many reasons such as with holding of information or probably the sales person or customer service agent not having adequate information on the organisations products. Empowering customers by giving them information on what they want you to listen and engaging them in a courteous chat would really be of great help in the overall retention of the customer.

Retaining customers happens "after" the sale, yet most activities are only intended to engage the customer into a new sale. Provide value afterwards, offer repeat receipts, and stay in touch. Reward your customers for repeat purchases, offering "first time" customer deals doesn't send the message that you're after repeat business.

Create a system that keeps your brand in front of your customers all year long - so that when they are ready to purchase again, they are thinking of you. I call it S.I.T. (stay in touch) and it's a 30-step plan to keep in contact.

Some ways to connect after the sale are by sending invitations, providing information of their areas of interest and making introductions.

Having a plan in place ensures that you always know what the next 'ping' is, otherwise, the only time your customers hear from you is for the next transaction.

While I agree with all that has been written, I would point out thayt customer loyalty begins with employee loyalty. The better you take care of your employees, the better they'll take care of your customers. So I suggest you start with getting and keeping your employees engaged such that they will keep your customers engaged. One way to avchieve this is to invest in your employees--provide their interactive, live, customized training, not once, biut ongoing and often.

I want to quote here Richard Branson who said very nice if your employees are happy your customers will be pleased. And be excellent in everything you do!...

We have three key principles that promote customer loyalty:

1. We treat every customer as if they were our only customer
2. We continually provide meaninful information (not just
sales offers) to existing customers so that they maximize
the value of their solution.
3. We personally contact each customer at least quartely to
review how things are going.

In summary - providing superior client service keeps customers loyal.

@Barry Knaster

Barry, what your doing is building a relationship with your customers that's built on trust and caring, the bi-product is superior client services. This is where so many companies get confused, they focus on the steps to service, not realizing that it's really about relationships.

Great replies being posted here! I think keeping your customers engaged is a big factor in dealing with this issue.

Many times our focus is on new customers, which is important, but engaging current customers shows them we are still thinking about them. Providing great information on topics they care about, sending thank you notes for referrals and even asking them how we can better serve THEM can make a huge difference in tackling this issue.

Customer retention is crucial to any business because they are coming back and hopefully it is because they trust you and you listen to them. I think these are critical to retaining business. Many people look for new customers and tend to forget that their clientele can be returning customers who bring you new business.

If a customer trusts you they will come back to you with new business with little effort from you. If you listen to what your customers want, construct a solution that is beneficial to your customers and deliver as expected the results will produce satisfied customers who have just started a new business relationship. ...and they will be back :)

Carlos Davila
www.wsiwebvision.com

Three definitions are needed - Customer = a person who is in the habit of dealing with your business in which case do you have buyers who are in the habit of dealing with you.If we think of habits it takes a longer to form them as break them so you have to give a buyer a great experience every time they come to you.
Second definition - buyers buy is the active part of the relationship. Why will someone buy from your business rather than another. Find those keys and you can build loyalty but at any time let them down, annoy them or demean them, you will find them looking for somewhere else to buy from
And finally - trust is something we often give quickly but we then look at the little things that break trust so loyalty means every experience needs to be valued and every time there is a contact, it a privilege of the business to have the contact.
Trite but true - you would not exist in business if someone did not buy from you so the more special you make your buyer's feel, the more they will buy from you and the greater the loyalty they will have.
Roberta Budvietas
www.getoutofstuck.net

A few ways to retain customer loyalty is to always be upfront and truthful. I am in the Transportation Industry and at times we do run into problems on pick ups or deliveries. A driver breaks down, gets delayed in traffic extending the eta for delivery....it's best to state the problem and offer a solution to the customer upfront to ease their fears and assure them you have their best interests at heart.

Another tip is to find common ground with the customer. Understand their industry and how you can best help them serve THEIR customer base. Always take action to improve their experience using your service. The more valuable you become as a person and company to the customer the more they value your service.

Last, you should reward your best customers with recognition in a news letter or special promotions. In my industry a free local delivery or considerable discount on an invoice is a welcomed gesture to our customers showing that we appreciate their business.