Customer loyalty programs are a marketing strategy where businesses reward regular shoppers for their associations with the brand.

It was found that more than 63% of all leading marketers use some form of customer loyalty programs.

Due to this unprecedented time (covid19 pandemic), people’s anxiety levels are high. During this situation, it is your duty to put their interests before your profits. You may face setbacks in the short-term, but long-term loyalty is sure to follow.

How can you bring about and maintain customer loyalty?

It is simple; with a little help from our comprehensive guide, and with the support of your employees and customers, alike, you will be able to soar through. Remember when you put your best foot forward, you will be met with their trust.

Like they say, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”

6 Ways To Strengthen Customer Loyalty In The New Normal

Let Your Customers Know That You Care

In these testing times, it is important to ask about your customers’ well-being. When everything around us is changing so rapidly, even a little reassurance can go a long way.

As a business, you can make use of automated email marketing programs to send out auto-generated messages and emails to your clients. Generally used for email marketing, these comprehensive and multifunctional tools will help you to get in touch with your customers.

You can also send them information in the form of brochures to show how your business has changed to cater to their needs better. Customers will surely appreciate this gesture and may turn to your business, for better services.

If changing your products or creating a new service is not a feasible solution for your business, you can initiate a new movement and extend your contribution to Coronavirus-affected regions.

Try to include your customers and clients in this cause, so that it becomes an inclusive affair where your customers can actively take part and you can come in direct contact with them.

Doing so increases the trust of your customers and will also make them stay with you longer.

Provide Personalized Experience

As a response to the COVID-19 outbreak, it is only natural that customers’ buying tendencies will have changed. Not only are we all staying indoors due to the widespread of the virus, but also choosing to shop online and buy only the essentials.

This situation makes it even more crucial to focus on customer experiences so that they do not forget your brand.

In order to retain customer loyalty, make sure you are catering to their personal needs, too. Give your customers a personalized experience to win their trust.

Set up more helpline numbers, and personnel handling those ends, to resolve more queries. Encourage your customers to make use of online platforms and to seek help from customer service executives.

The more you promote your customer service and encourage your clients to reach out to you, the more trusting they will be of you. In the long run, this trust will pay off in the form of loyalty towards your company.

There are many CRM tools and analytics tools available today which will give you minute details about individuals. With this information in your hands, you can find out who checked your products and send them personalized emails, too, to make them feel more inclusive.

Build A Strong Customer Engagement System

In the post-COVID-19 situation, people are looking for easier ways to do business. If you cannot provide a smooth and fast service, your clients will move on to the next best thing. In order to retain customers, there are a few things you can do:

• Improve the navigation on your mobile app and website. Your website should be easy-to-use and user-friendly. The website should also have quick links and direct access to all your products and services.
• Provide recommendations based on the users’ previous buying experience and browsing sessions. This will remind the customers of the products they may have forgotten to buy.
• Send email recommendations and check up on them regularly, especially if they have been inactive for a long time. A warmly-written personalized email can make your customer feel special.
• Provide more flexible buying options such as care packages, health kits, sanitizer packets, etc. Utilize the analytics tool to understand customer purchase trends and curate special boxes that will enable them to buy multiple products in one click. On special occasions or crises, you can also offer some discounts.
• Take recommendations and customer feedback seriously. People want to feel important, and feeling like they have been able to contribute to something will make them feel more positive about your brand. Send emails or give them a call to thank them for their time and valuable information.

Provide Services Round The Clock

Customers in this new normal are looking for quick solutions to their problems. If you are unavailable when they need you, it is highly likely that they will move to your competitor brands for better service, and no business would want that for themselves.

There are many ways to be available at your customers’ service. You can create a blog section or an FAQ forum with all the answers to commonly asked questions. In such forums, the user needs to only type in a few keywords to get directed to their answer. This also reduces the number of tickets generated daily, saving a lot of your customer service executives’ time.

Another way to improve customer service is to utilize AI-optimized chatbots, which work around the clock, without needing the intervention of sales or customer service employees.

These chatbots can be integrated into websites, mobile apps, and social media pages quickly and easily. With a quick “Hello!” from the bot, your customers can start getting their issues resolved.

You can also use the chatbots to suggest products, make recommendations, and direct them to relevant pages. Improved customer service can really go a long way in ensuring customer loyalty.

Make An Omnichannel Presence

Omnichannel presence means being available on multiple platforms. If you are running a retail or physical store, then making your presence online could bring more profits. Depending on what type of business you are, you can create relevant social media pages, too. Apart from being on mobile apps and websites, social media presence can change how your customers perceive you.

The key point to focus here is on being present where your customers are. This way, they will come across your posts regularly and may develop an affinity towards your brand. This will further lead them to develop loyalty.

An easy-to-use app or website will bring your customer in direct contact with your products. Your social media channels can be a way to talk about your brand’s ideologies and practices and to promote your products.

Cater To Changing Needs And Tweak Services Accordingly

By now companies have realized the necessity of altering business activities and practices to cater to the changing needs of the pandemic. Companies, which earlier functioned from office, are now working remotely.

In such a situation, customer needs have also changed; and businesses should change their practices to meet those requirements. For retailers or physical store owners, it is wise to move their business online. You can provide the same experience through a well-developed e-commerce site.

If you are offering other services, video calling and conferencing with your customer is also an effective way to deal with the new normal. Virtual services are also quite an effective way to ensure your customers get the same kind of service as prior to the pandemic.

Conclusion

During the COVID-19, businesses need to go out of their ways to retain and increase customer loyalty. The ideas mentioned above will definitely bring the desired changes. Add in some other solutions depending on your convenience, and you will get the perfect solution to retain customers in the long run.

NextBee‘s smart customer loyalty platform is embedded with rich features that can cater to all your business needs during this unprecedented time. To know more, feel free to get in touch.