In a recent meeting with an old friend, I learned she was caught up in a business imbroglio. As a concerned friend, I had to delve into the matter and see if I could help her out. I realized her company was facing significant issues retaining customers and finding new ones. There wasn’t much I could do, but it was a case of failure in their customer engagement strategy. 

I won’t blame my friend for not being able to engage customers since many companies find it hard to do so. She just needed to know acceptable practices. As someone working with NextBee, one of the finest companies designing effective customer engagement, loyalty, and retention programs, I had to assist her with what I could.

Customers are simple beings. They invest their trust in a brand and expect to be attended to. Brands need to show they value them and provide attention. Not that brands should begin to act as foster parents, but you must give them the time and special treatment they deserve.

The question is, how do you make your customers feel special

How frequently do you get in touch with your customers? Make it a habit to find excuses to interact with customers. A lot of brands forget the art of acknowledging. 

Once a customer has made a purchase – online or offline, keep in mind to respond to them with a ‘Thank You’ text or email message. That first interaction plays a critical role in developing a healthy customer-brand relationship. 

Not acknowledging your customers’ trust post-purchase is like receiving a gift you’ve always wanted and not paying attention. Not the social etiquette, right? Your customers won’t like it.

I appreciate brands that customize offers according to their customers’ interests. 

Of course, that means they have to put in a lot of effort monitoring purchases and tracking their footprints on their website, but all those efforts pay well in repeat customer visits and higher revenue. 

If you feel you don’t have enough resources to monitor customer activity, you can use tracking software, which will save you time and facilitate tracking.

A brand that develops customized offers and coupons based on its customers’ interests captures their attention quickly. Unless a brand can encourage its customers to return over and over again, it cannot expect them to advocate it to others.

Build Brand Loyalty First

Customers do not convert into brand advocates overnight. It is a gradual process, where constant customer engagement develops customer loyalty, ultimately building brand advocacy.

One of the right ways that many brands have now adopted to boost customer loyalty is to offer rewards in the form of purchase or reward points. Customers can accumulate and redeem these points to get a big discount on a future purchase. It gives them a reason to return to the brand frequently. Do you do this to develop customer loyalty?

Friction could be another reason why your customers are not turning into brand advocates. It would be best if you made it easy for customers to share and refer. 

Try out easy-to-share social sharing and referral widgets that make the entire process easy, converting shares and referrals in just a few clicks. 

Your motive should be to generate so much goodwill. It will enable your customers to not have any apprehensions about sharing your brand with the people they know. Advocacy will follow soon.