Compared to first-time customers, returning customers spend around 70% more money on products. The key to creating a successful business is encouraging customers to return and develop loyalty to your brand.
As easy as this may sound, getting them to come back is one of the biggest challenges companies face. So in this post, I’ll share my 6 top tips to encourage repeat business and build loyalty to your brand.
But first, let’s look at why repeat business is crucial to growing your business.
Why Is Repeat Business Important?
Repeat business or customer loyalty is crucial in building a successful business in more ways than one, including:
When customers develop a sense of loyalty to a brand, they’re often willing to spend more money or even wait for their favorite products to restock. So, with that being said, let’s look at my 6 top tips to encourage repeat business:
1. Provide Exceptional Customer Service
Research shows that 60% of millennials have shared their experiences on social media. Providing exceptional customer service isn’t only a proven way to get customers loyal to your brand, but it can also encourage them to share their experience with their network.
For this reason, it’s crucial to provide exceptional customer service, so customers share their positive experiences with your brand instead of negative ones. In addition, this will also make them more likely to return and do repeat business with your company.
For instance, responding quickly to inquiries is one of the best ways to increase customer retention. Other factors, like providing a good user experience on your website or sending personalized birthday messages with a special deal or discount coupon, are also excellent ways to get them to come back for more.
2. Create a Customer Loyalty Program
Creating a customer loyalty or rewards program is another great way to encourage repeat business and boost sales. Not only do loyalty programs promote repeat purchase behavior, but they also tend to make customers spend more money.
To get started, all you need to do is gather customers’ information and then reward them with special discounts or freebies when they make a second purchase or after collecting a certain amount of points.
For example, 7 Eleven’s customer rewards program (7REWARDS) encourages customers to earn and redeem points in exchange for free snacks and drinks. The ability to work up points to redeem a freebie can motivate existing customers to buy more.
Also, remember to offer special rewards for members who refer customers to your business. These are your most loyal customers vouching for your products, which you should nurture a bit extra. You can do this by developing a so-called referral or affiliate program.
3. Hand Out Incentive Coupons
Handing out coupons for future use is another excellent way to get customers to do repeat business with your business.
This helps you capture people who might not have returned for a second purchase. The simple act of offering them a coupon with 10% off on their next purchase, can motivate them to return and buy more from your business.
In other words, this gives them an incentive to return when they otherwise might not have a reason to.
4. Leverage Personalized Email Marketing
Email marketing is the best strategy for building long-lasting relationships with existing customers and prospects.
Research has shown that conversions from email marketing outperform both social and organic search traffic. One reason is that you can segment your email list based on interest and purchase history and send highly targeted offers. And you can also approach prospects several times and build trust for your brand.
As your relationship grows, you can promote more products and offer incentives to encourage repeat purchases.
5. Eliminate Registration Barriers
Just like email marketing, encouraging customers to register for an account on your website is an excellent strategy to boost repeat business.
When requiring customers to register for an account during checkout, you get access to all the personal details you need to create personalized marketing campaigns.
However, the downside of forced account registration is that some customers may see it as a barrier and leave your site before making any purchase whatsoever. To fix this, you can enable guest checkout on your site for people in a hurry that don’t want to sign up just yet.
6. Ask for Customer Feedback
If you want to succeed and grow your business, you need to know where you’re lacking and what you can do to improve in these areas. For instance, 94% of online shoppers reported that a negative review made them avoid visiting a company, which makes it crucial to avoid negative reviews at all costs.
The best way to avoid negative reviews and figure out how to better serve your customers is simply asking them what they think about your products or services and give recommendations on improvements.
A simple and effective way to ask for feedback is by setting up an automated email including a customer satisfaction survey that goes out a few days after the purchase. Also, adding an easily accessible section to leave reviews on your website works well too.
Remember to keep track of your online reviews and respond to them, even if some are negative. Responding to reviews shows existing and new customers that you care about them and are committed to improving and serving them better.
Finally, providing a good answer to a negative review, where you take responsibility and trying to solve the situation, can make customers choose your products over others despite the bad review.
Wrapping Up
Getting repeat business is about building trust and nurturing existing and new relationships. You need to make sure you’re doing the right things by listening to your customers. In addition, developing a loyalty program that gives customers an incentive to purchase more from you will also make them stay around for longer.
Syed Balkhi is an award-winning entrepreneur and online marketing expert. He is the co-founder of OptinMonster, WPBeginner, MonsterInsights, and WPForms.