The Sunday Mail
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba
“The customer is not always right, but they are always the customer” – Shep Hyken
It is just three days after the famed love day – Valentine’s – and I hope most of you managed to spoil your customers to such an extent that they fell in love with your different brands. After all our motto for this day was “IF YOU FEEL IT THEN SHOW IT”. Therefore, a shopping love affair must be brewing with your customers right now.
While some customers are still hunting for the perfect gift to give their loved ones, organisations must take advantage of this and let their brands shine. It is also the perfect opportunity to turn these one-transaction spenders into the greatest and most vocal brand advocates.
Turning them into advocates is only possible if the organisation has a strong well-thought retention strategy, such as offering a positive customer experience on every customer journey, or having a strong employee and customer loyalty.
Here are some of the best ways to convert customers from one-time shoppers to regular and loyal customers.
Charm them and avoid a break-up
If your Valentine’s business day was good then the sales were at their peak, but remember the day has passed and you need to keep the momentum of high sales. Customers will always fall to their knees if you charm them up with something like a loyalty program. Give them redeemable points every time they make a purchase or every time they refer a spending customer.
For instance, if they accumulate certain points, they will get a certain discount in their next purchase. Newly referred customers can also get a special gift and be signed up to the loyalty programme. For starters they can get free delivery of their merchandise and a token of appreciation for doing business with the organisation. This will make them prefer doing business with you compared to your competitors.
Pop the question and tie the knot
It is never a good idea to have an idle customer database that languishes the customer, to the extent that the same customer will forget who you are and what you do. Always make use of the customer data base as well as checking their purchasing behaviour. The trend analysis will help you to not miss an opportunity to build a strong but long-lasting relationship with your customers.
Your line of business will determine the frequency that your customers should be knocking on your doors. If it’s a fast moving good or service then chances are they must be knocking more frequently and the opposite if they are not fast moving. If the trend is positive then its only wise for the organisation to open a business account with the customer especially if the customer will get to enjoy some benefits associated with being an account holder.
You can also tantalise your customers with great rewards for doing business with you, like an immediate discount if they spend a certain amount. If you offer loyalty programmes, reward them for signing up and encourage those not signed up to do so by giving them a token of appreciation on their initial sign up.
Make their day and show them that your brand is worthwhile by giving them a positive customer experience. Loyalty programmes that give them points after a purchase will encourage them to spend more and earn more points. OK Zimbabwe, always does this during their annual OK Grand Challenge where the more you buy the more get entry tickets and hence the more your chances of entering the different competitive categories. This means with more entry coupons one is assured of higher chances of being picked during the raffle. At the end of the day, it becomes a win-win situation.
Customers will likely come again to check out if there are any promotional deals that they can make use of. Organisations can take advantage of these visits and engage the customers as this is another opportunity to constantly be in touch with their customers. When they visit, always make sure that you open positive lines of communication and allow yourself to dig deeper and get enough necessary information about these customers. Positive lines of communication create ways to build better business-customer relationship. Keep them engaged and allow them to tie the knot with your brand through excellent customer service.
Do not go mute on your customers
Positive lines of communication must always be open. When organisations engage their customers, they must never go quiet on them again as doing this will be seen by customers as a sign that you have no interest in them.
The fact that these customers willingly signed up to the organisation’s loyalty programmes is a clear sign that they want to hear from you.
During their customer journeys, the organisation can use the onboarding process to find out more detailed information about the purchase behaviour. For example, they can ask the customer whom they are buying the product or service for. Such information, when given, will help the organisation to tailor-make their message to suit the right taste of the customer or end user of the product or service.
*Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments, suggestions and training, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461
