Loyal customers are 30x more valuable to your business than one-time customers. Why? Because they’re always coming back, they tend to spend more and they refer their friends and family members to you. 

Most business owners believe the majority of their customers are loyal, but if you take a closer look at your data, you’d find that isn’t the case. The scary part is that about 50% of loyal customers say they would leave a company for a competitor who was able to stay more relevant and better satisfy their needs (according to hubspot.com). 

The good news about all of this is that there are many things businesses can do to keep their customers loyal to them:

Engage

Do you expect to stay close to friends you never talk to? Probably not. The same applies to your customers. The relationships you build with your customers will last only as long as you work to build them. Customer engagement is important for all businesses, especially those in the service industry. Why? Because businesses in the service industry are always needed and usually in an urgent time-frame. This makes those engagements with customers necessary for your business’ growth. Your customer engagements should follow certain guidelines to increase effectiveness:

• Engagements should be regular and strategically-timed
• Engagements should be through the right platforms to reach your customers: text, email, social media
• Engagements should be targeted and provide valuable information to customers

Incentivize

Everyone loves a customer loyalty program. Earning points toward a certain percentage off their next service or even a free future service makes people much more likely to come back. Your customers are not only getting quality service from you but also gaining extra incentives back each time they use your business. Your customer incentives could look like:

• $ for referring friends and family to your business
• Points to gain discounted future services
• Exclusive coupons and discounts reserved only for loyalty members

Stay Relevant 

As previously mentioned, many customers say they are willing to leave a business they have been loyal to in order to go to a competitor who stays more up-to-date and can meet the customers’ needs. In today’s technology-driven world businesses should be utilizing messaging bots and texting to interact with their customers. Allowing your current and potential customers to reach you anyway that is most convenient for them is a big deal in today’s world. Staying relevant means your business is continually updating products and services in an effort to meet your customers’ needs. People use social media every day, and businesses should too. The point is, your business needs to be where your customers are. 

If your business is struggling to show up where your customers are and you find yourself coming up short with customer engagement, schedule a free demo with us today. 

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!​