Every buisness owner is aware that customers are the life support of a buisness. With this in mind, it is essential that businesses take care of thier customers as they create not only revenue but, a culture of raving fans that will promote your business.
One prime example, of this raving fan customer base is Apple Inc., which has through the years been able to create a culture of customers that helped grow the company into an innovator of its industry making billions in revenue.
Here are 8 simple techniques that help grow a solid customer base that can be developed into a raving culture.
1. Emotional Connections, make them and keep them.
The basics of sales go into the psychology of people, with first purchasing on emotion, then leading to logic on validating the purchase. The same principal applies to developing an ongoing relationship with customers and can be accomplished with foundational principals in customer service from the begining of the first purchase through ongoing relationships.
To develop more engagment with customers, introduce yourself to the cusotmer from the first engagement either through an email, text, or phone call that has a peronalized message for your customer.
Leverage your team with upadating images of the team which displays the business being a group of people and not just a logo or trademark with an unknown humanity behind the business. This is also transferred into the team responding to the customer on social media platforms for further engagements.
Present bios on your business website. This will allow your customers to get to know you, your team, and begins building relationships prior to your customers getting the first engagement.
Have a brand ambassador, select someone on your team, it could even be you, that is the face of the community.
2. Create a Community or Forum
An online community or forum will allow customers to engage with each other and with the oraganization’s team. With the online communities questions can be answered, updates can be posted, and any additional information for the benefit of the community can be sharred here.
Some known platforms that are common and have thier own specific beneifts are Facebook groups, Linkedin groups, and other social media platforms.
3. Host a Contest
Offer free stuff, everybody loves free stuff. Present a challenge for your cusotmers that rewards them for participation and for winning the challenge. This grabs attention to your customers and creates constant engagment through the challenge and beyond.
For example, you can offer a reward to your customers to provide testimonals on your service and product both the good and bad, and for the one used on soical media or helped improved the business the most will be rewarded. This also, allows your business to recieve customer feedback to help improve your company.
4. Leverage Technology to your Benefit
Use technology with social media to help understand your market and turly find out what the customer wants. Understanding this perspective can also create an innovative perpsective to always be ahead of the demand of the market to provide for your customers.
Being able to truly understand the demands of your customers, enables your business to continue to grow and be adapative to the changes in your industry, establishing your business as a top competitor in the industry.
5. Invovle Your Customers as part of a Team
Create belongingness with your customer by encouraging them to contribute to the business as a team member with feedback on products or services, and promoting new products and services.
Highlight the successes of customers in the community page, and empahasis loyal customers with rewards of being part of the team for x amount of years.
When celebrating anniversaries in the business, celebrate with the customers by offering discounts or coupons, and even helping to co-create a chapter or blog for the business.
6. Have Exclusive Offers or Content
Give content to your customers, for example, a newsletter on health and fitness for a business in the health industry that customers can benefit from the information learned, this can be cone through paid memberships or loyal customers.
Provide coupons on products or services for customers who exceed a certain purchase value to help customer buy more products or services that would benefit them.
7. Develop a Product Tour
Do a virtual product tour of how the business or services are done within the organization, to allows customers to undestanding what goes on behind the scences and how the company focuses on the customer.
8. Be a Host or Sponser an Event
Events help create a community and culture that customers can become in alignment with through connecting with other people regardless of customer or being an employee of the company.
This can be accomplished from both online platforms and offline public meet ups. The key is for everyone to connnect exchange information and grow as a community.
If you are unable to host or sponser an event, seek out ways to join events to help create networking opportunities. Being able to connect with not only potential customers but also with business partners can help create partnerships towards developing a large customer fan base.
Therefore, a simple model of creating a fan base community of loyal customers entails the process of attracting prospects through services and marketing, who then become customers through marketing and sales engagments, however, become promoters through the pleasureable experience of the sales and service leading to the promoters attracting more prospects.
If you would like to find out more ways on how we can help you and your customer culture, please feel free to reach out to us or book a free consultation.
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