Ways of Turning Your Existing Customers into Extraordinary Brand Advocates

Acquiring customers is good. Keeping customers is how you stay in business.

For small business owners, an excellent state is to create a customer base that generates new customers. Not only will loyal customers revisit themselves, they’ll also turn into a linchpin of your marketing efforts.

•              88% of consumers read reviews to determine the level of quality of a local business

•              72% of consumers say that positive reviews help them to trust a local business more

•              Only 12% don't read reviews

Consumers trust other consumers a lot more than an unfamiliar brand. Listed below are 7 ways to turn your current customers into your company’s most vocal advocates.

1. Encourage them to create online reviews.

You need to decide what makes sense for your business. Some brands supply benefits for positive reviews; others purely mention it at brick-and-mortar locations or in emails. The point is to carefully remind your satisfied customers that a review from them will mean a lot, without being manipulative.

2. Use email marketing to increase brand loyalty.

Email loyalty campaigns are amongst the best emails you’ll ever send. 72% of email marketer’s rate email loyalty campaigns as very effective and 21% rate them as considerably effective. That’s a high percentage of marketers who rely on email for customer retention. Include things like useful, newsworthy, or money-saving content in your email campaigns to motivate subscribers to forward to their friends and family.

3. Be proactive about customer service.

Offer customer service before they even request it. This is the type of customer service that spurs serious brand loyalty and evangelism.

4. Make beneficial content and present it at relevant times.

During customer service phone calls, in the body copy of customer support emails, or on your website and blog, put links to follow-up articles that respond to logical next-step inquiries. One example is, if you’re detailing the way to build an initial profile on your app, offer follow-up content that describes ways to use the profile’s more advanced features. It’s all about being a step ahead in the customer trip.

5. Inquire about what they need.

This can be as formal or informal as you choose. You can either set up a one-time or ongoing “meeting of the minds” among your most loyal customers, or simply just ask for feedback in person, over the phone, or on digital media when interacting with customers. The thing is to have feedback on how you’re doing and what products could be more desirable.

6. Take some short-term profit losses in exchange for long-term benefits.

Although it costs a lot more to receive a returned item or comp a service, it’s still cheaper than having to gain back that customer’s commitment all over again. Worse, a disgruntled customer may harm your SMB’s reputation on social media or review sites with long-lasting results. Chalk up these short-term losses to the long-term benefit from keeping a brand advocate.

7. Constantly make advancements to your core products and offerings.

There's nothing much easier to recommend than an outstanding product or service. At the same time, no amount of excellent customer service or marketing can deal with a poor product. As much focus as you put into customer satisfaction, you must simultaneously be searching for approaches to build your core offerings tempting.

Your most loyal customers also are your SMB’s main advocates. They’re people who will endorse your services, join your newsletter, make online reviews and tweet about you (and not just with their complaints). Everything you do to preserve these customers and keep them satisfied is an important investment in your company’s longevity.