We spend a lot of our time trying to find and attract new customers but we must never forget the customers who have already bought from us! This group of people are like good friends to us… they know us, probably like us, have had some personal contact with us and some good experience of using our products (hopefully)… they should be looked after very well indeed!
How can you build customer loyalty for your beauty brand?
It’s essential that you do something every week to connect with your existing customers, build customer loyalty and keep them coming back for more. They have bought from you before and it is likely they will buy from you again!
Here are some top tips to help you do that.
1. Be a good friend and build customer loyalty
Your best friends are always there for you! Your best friends listen to you, care for you, love you and want to be around you. Your best friends are also in touch with you on a regular basis. Your best friends have a lot in common with you. Your best friends are loyal.
Be a good friend, be loyal, stay in touch regularly, build a connection and trust and be someone that your customers can rely on.
- How can you be a good friend to your customer?
- How can you be loyal?
- How can you build a good connection and trust?
- How can you be reliable?
2. Make everything easy and keep them coming back for more
Think for a moment. In your business, what do you want your customers to do? Here are a few suggestions, but perhaps you can think of some more.
- Shop and buy something from you.
- Contact you.
- Give you their email address.
- Sign up to receive something.
- Download a free gift.
- Receive emails from you.
- Reply to your emails.
- Like and follow you on social media.
Make it so easy for people to do all and any of these things at all times and you will remove a lot of frustration amongst your customer base – current and potential. Frustration will stop people from buying from you, connecting with you and following you… in short, you will lose customers if you make it hard for them.
Always ask yourself “is it easy for my customers to do this?”
Be honest with yourself and ask other people (friends, family, colleagues) to see what they think.
3. Go the extra mile and build customer loyalty quickly!
You get what you give is the old adage and it is absolutely true but it doesn’t mean you have to give things away, lose something important or devalue your offering. On the contrary, come up with ideas that add extra value, meaning and purpose to your business and your customers.
Challenge yourself to come up with ideas that add value to your customers, feel authentic to you and enable you to move your audience to buy from you.
For example, free shipping or the most sensational reply when they sign up to your mailing list or a surprise free small gift with a purchase over a certain amount, or a personal email, or a postcard or Christmas card. Something that touches your customer, makes them smile and helps them to feel welcome and important.
4. Have a great product/offer and customers will keep coming back
I signed up to receive a free download from someone recently and was so excited about what I was about to receive because I’d heard such amazing things. The website looked good, the information inspiring, the story resonated with me and I really needed some help with this particular topic. I received the email and downloaded my free PDF…
It was so rubbish, so pathetic and awful that I was left so disappointed. I couldn’t believe it, put it straight into trash and never went back. I am still on the mailing list because some really good emails come through from time to time but that experience has stuck with me and gave me a negative impression of what the other products might be like.
They key to customer loyalty is not only to become a good friend, to stay in touch with your customers on a regular basis, to make everything easy and to go the extra mile, but it is also absolutely essential that you have a good product – no matter what it is – free, discounted, on offer or full price! If the product is not good, they might buy it once and if you are lucky, twice, but they are unlikely to come back to you again.
What can you do if you notice someone hasn’t come back to buy from you in a while?
Go the extra mile. Contact them? Send them a personal note, email, card, or postcard? Give them a call if you have their number? Ask for feedback and their input? Send them a free gift with a note enclosed?
What experience have you had where other companies, brands and businesses have done the following?
- Been a good and loyal friend.
- Made everything easy.
- Gone the extra mile for you.
- Delivered a great product.
How did they do it? Can you think of examples where the opposite has happened?
How can you learn from these lessons and what could you implement in your business to build customer loyalty and encourage your customers to come back for more?
And if you haven’t started your business yet but are in the planning stages, even better! Start to build a bank of ideas, make some notes, and keep an eye open for what other people are doing. If you like it, copy it and if you don’t, consider how you would either prefer to do it, or how you would just do it better!
