Your customer’s experience with your business is what determines whether or not they will be back. Customer loyalty is becoming increasingly valuable to businesses as time goes on, and for good reason. Consumers want to frequent and support the businesses that they feel are reciprocating the appreciation right back to them. Businesses should focus on the customer experience for many reasons, and here are three of the top reasons why it’s so important:

• Stronger Customer Loyalty

Because existing customers spend 31% more with businesses than new customers do, they are better for your bottom line. Loyal customers are worth 306% more in revenue than one time customers, over their lifetime purchases with your business.  Nearly half of loyal customers will continue to do business with a company, even if they end up having one bad experience with them. 

Giving customers a reason to come back to your business in order to gain more loyalty from them is a huge reason why businesses should be heavily focused on the customer experience. 

• Happy Customers are Your Best Advocates

Word of mouth reviews from customers are the best way to attract new customers to your business. Nobody is going to give a (positive) word of mouth recommendation to their friends or family members if they didn’t feel that their experience with your business was worth raving about. Delighting your customers with a great experience each time they work with you isn’t just valuable for keeping that customer coming back, but also for the new customers they will draw to you through their recommendations. 

Over 75% of consumers agree that word of mouth recommendations are the best way to know whether or not they want to work with a business. Make sure your customers are speaking highly of your business!

• Stand Out from Your Competition

Because almost 90% of consumers read online reviews before determining a business to work with, standing out from your competition (in a good way) is a pretty big deal. People will be drawn to your business if they see that most of your customers are having positive experiences with you each time they work with your business. Customers hear about businesses that stand out from the crowd, and their names become familiar and comfortable to consumers who haven’t even worked with them yet. For example, Amazon is known for their incredibly generous customer return policy. People feel comfortable ordering from them knowing that they will be able to return an item with no issue if it doesn’t work out. Of course not all small businesses can compete with that sort of policy, but having something that sheds a positive light on your business to help you stand out from the crowd goes a long way. 

These are 3 of the top reasons businesses should focus on customer experiences. Customers value strong customer service and positive experiences now more than ever before, and businesses should work hard to make a name for themselves as someone that customers are delighted to work with. 

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. If any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add, please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!