Relationship Marketing: 5 Ways to Create Long-Lasting Customers

Customer relationships are an aspect of marketing that can make or break your business. Research shows that 89% of customers have discontinued business with a company after a bad customer service experience. This is mainly due to the consumers loss of trust or respect for the company, lessening the chances that buyers want to support your success moving forward.

Businesses focus on customer lifetime value to ensure that buyers stick around for years to come and consistently feel cared for by your business. If your service is poor, there is a greater chance customers will go to competitors, regardless of the quality or price of the product/service.

In this article, we will highlight five ways to create long-lasting customers that continuously buy your products/services and recommend you to their friends and family.

#1. Engage With Customers in a Personalized, Time-Specific Way

Nearly every business has a strategy to stay connected with its customers, whether it’s through email, text, or social media. However, what’s more important than engagement alone, is ensuring you are reaching out at the right time with the right information.

For example, consider sending an email a few days after purchase to inform customers about how to use the product or service. Follow up in a few weeks to check up on their results or see if they had any issues.

By sending targeted and specific messages, you will receive higher engagement and respect from customers. They will feel secure knowing you care about the quality of your product/service, as well as customer support.

#2. Build a Strategy to Continuously Provide Customer Value

When you are just getting started, you might be focused on a one-off purchase from customers. However, as you continue to grow, it becomes more pertinent to create a long-term strategy for customers. Consider how and why you will keep customers coming back for years to come. A great way to do this is to continuously release new products, events, or rewards for VIP customers. Rewards programs are an incredible way to take care of the customers who have been loyal to you. Nearly all large corporations have accepted some type of rewards program – here are a few examples of programs and can be referenced when structuring yours:

Chipotle:

Starbucks:

Sephora

#3. Keep Track of Customer Behavior

It’s essential to track the customer journey in real time so you can understand how your customers interact with your product or service. This will look different depending on your industry or unique offerings, however, there are plenty of ways to keep track of analytics. A few tools worth mentioning are MonsterInsights, Analytify, Google Analytics 4, Hubspot, Jetpack, and Intercom.

If you notice common patterns or realize what your customers want/need, you can make changes to better the user experience. When customers notice that you act on their feedback in a timely manner, they will be encouraged to become loyal customers.

#4. Prioritize Responding to Messages and Emails Quickly

The fast-moving digital age has created many impatient consumers. In fact, research shows that most customers expect a social media response in 60 minutes or less. The larger you grow as a business, the harder it becomes to manage inboxes, order issues, and resolve customer problems.

Every customer support team needs to keep track of which customers need urgent attention, as well as who is the most engaged and ready to move forward with the company.

Most of the time, customers that have placed an order take precedence because they have their hard-earned money on the line. If your business takes too long to respond, you risk losing a buyer’s trust in your ability to manage disputes and customer communication.

We recommend utilizing a live chat feature on your site like Drift, Intercom, or Zendesk. These AI bots can be programed to provide answers to a lot of common FAQ and provide your site visitor the option to talk to a real person (if you have that option setup). We have seen tremendous results from utilizing AI and live chat in e-commerce sites across many industries, the personal touch is appreciated by many consumers. In our rapidly changing world, it seems to be more and more difficult to ask a real person question. We sit on hold, answer several questions where an AI interprets our speech, and then get directed to a FAQ section of a website. If you’re lucky you get sent to a customer support representative. These live chat plugins can also streamline your direct messages from your website, social media, whatsapp, and other communication applications. It brings all of your messages into one place so instead of keeping track of 6 or 7 applications you monitor one, streamlining the response process.

#5. Always Exceed Expectations

When you treat customers like family, they will enjoy being a part of your business community. Brainstorm ways to exceed expectations for your customers. Some ideas are offering a gift or promotion on their birthday. Consider creating a VIP program that rewards high-paying customers.

Create a bulletproof customer support team that resolves customer problems quickly. If a customer wants a refund, or to cancel a subscription, consider giving them a discount for a few months or letting them keep the product. All these ideas are best practices to exceed expectations and cultivate long-lasting customers. Never Underestimate the Importance of Putting The Customer First
If you want to create valuable customer relationships, think of them as production partners that deserve your utmost respect. There is so much that you can learn from your customers, especially after you grow enough to have a consistent consumer base.

Look to customers for ways to improve your messaging, business, offerings, online presence, service, products or more. Engaging customers will likely share their opinion and respect that you take their recommendations into account. At the end of the day, always remember, the best marketing strategy will never harbor success if you have poor customer service.