In the era of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn we all have
easy access to creating, reading or sharing user reviews about products and
services. So, how does this information overflow stack with customer loyalty?
If a customer reads awesome reviews about your competitor would he decide to
switch vendors or stay put and continue working with your company?
Things were quite simple before - the best advertising you
could get was your past experience with a company - if you were satisfied with
it, you worked with it and you changed vendors only when there was some big
problem with no solution. Now, however, people don't need a big problem to
switch sides, they can do it the minute they find out your competitor offers
something more. So, where is customer loyalty? Believe it or not, there are
still ways to make your brand stickier and your customers more loyal:
1. Keep your promise - if you are selling a product claiming
it does a certain thing and it will keep doing this thing - your are giving a
promise to your customers and you better deliver on it. Your customers will
demand the quality you advertise. The minute they find out your product doesn't
have the quality you assured them it will have, they will switch sides. No man
will say "Well, the product isn't what they advertise it is, but I'm still
not switching vendors, because I am loyal to this company. I am loyal to this
lying company.". And if something happens and your product isn't working
the way you thought it would - don't blame the customers, look into their
complaints instead and see what you can do to make things right. Which brings
us to our next point...
2. Over-deliver if you make a mistake - if you fail to
deliver on a promise - correct your mistake and over-deliver. Your product
isn't what you advertise it to be? Make a video for the social media where you
apologize and promise a new product that will actually work. Be authentic, show
customers that your brand is responsible for it's mistakes and they might give
you a second chance. And we'll say it again - never blame it on the customer.
If your company is a car, customers are the fuel. And we all know aht happens
when a car has no fuel in it...
3. Everyone is a customer - we all know there are different
segments of customers. Some can afford to pay more, some can not. Most of the
times, big customers bring bigger profit than small customers, but small
customers are more as a number. Believe it or not, there are companies that
will focus on bigger customers making their product exclusively for them, refusing
to sell to smaller customers. Eventually, smaller customers hit the social
medias and things go down for such exclusive companies. You want nothing like
this to happen to you, right? So, forget about exclusiveness and become
inclusive - sell to everyone and forget about prejudices, because small
customers are the most loyal customers.
More articles:
1. 11 Tips for Live Chat Agents pt.1;
2. 7 Examples of Awesome Customer Service;
3. Customer Service of the Future