It is crucial to bear in mind that errors can occur to anyone, regardless of their field of expertise or occupation.
Sometimes, these mistakes can be very low-impact, but in other instances, they can be extremely time-consuming and costly to rectify, especially if they involve running a business.
Thankfully, you can learn from making mistakes or through others that have made them. If you run or own a business and want to create a loyal customer base, here are several top mistakes you should avoid.
Not Having A Memorable Brand
Customers and clients all love familiarity and recognizability regarding the businesses they visit, shop with and spend their money at. If you create a reasonably unrecognizable brand or one that blends into the sea of similar companies within your industry, you will have difficulty making loyal customers. If you look at some of the biggest and most well-known brands, they all share several things. Most will have a strong logo, a famous brand name, and a color scheme. There are plenty of other factors to consider, such as a slogan or motto, but to start with, if you want to become recognizable and create a loyal customer base, you should focus on creating a memorable brand name, a recognizable logo, and settling on a color scheme that fits your brand aesthetic. If you do not do this, it would be a mistake; you will likely be less recognizable and, therefore, miss out on customers returning to you.
Not Having Accessible Support
If one of your goals as a business is to create a loyal customer base, then a section you will need to focus on is creating accessible customer support. This means creating several different ways in which people can contact you or your business for queries, questions, advice, sales, complaints, and everything else. One of how Amazon succeeded was by creating a solid and accessible customer support system. So, before making a mistake and only having one way for customers to contact you, think about implementing a contact email address, having a dedicated phone line, using social media platforms for your customers to get you through, and creating a website with forms to fill out, even creating an online web chat or a frequently asked questions page. All these things will help attract and, more importantly, keep customers coming back to you. If you make things as easy as possible for your customers, they will likely not even look at your competition.
Not Rewarding Customers
A mistake that many businesses make is to forget about and not reward their customers, especially existing ones. Instead, much focus is pushed towards attracting new customers rather than retaining the ones they already have. While some effort should be put towards finding new customers, you should not forget about your existing ones and ensure you provide them with worthwhile rewards. Something many businesses implement when they are looking to reward both new and old customers, which you could consider, is some form of customer loyalty program. This is when a customer signs up with you and, for example, has to visit several times a week or spend a specific amount with your business over a month to unlock a reward. These rewards can be anything from free trials and products to money off and discounts. The prize is ultimately up to you; however, ensure that what you offer your customers and clients as a reward is worth what you ask them in return, or you could be seen as cheap and money-grabbing. You could also consider running monthly or quarterly giveaways, raffles, or events to help entice and retain customers. Make sure you don’t make the mistake of neglecting your customers when it comes to rewarding them for their loyalty.
Not Training Your Staff Properly
The customer experience and journey is an important aspect to consider when creating a loyal customer base. A mistake you could make, and an easy way to push customers away, is by employing underqualified members of staff or by not adequately training them. If you have employees who cannot perform tasks that they are set, your customers will likely experience a poor quality of product or service from your business. This will make them less likely to return and could push them to visit your competitors, meaning you lose them as a customer. To avoid this, ensure a robust hiring process and a system to train all employees to a competent level. This way, when your customers shop or visit you, they will have a pleasant experience every time and will be far more likely to continue returning.
Not Conducting Regular Market Research
If you make the mistake of not conducting regular market research, you may find that you lose your edge as a business and become less relevant. If this happens, you could lose your customer base to a company more in tune with what the consumers want and need. Not only will market research help you to retain a loyal customer base, but it can also help you to reach out and find new potential customers and clients. So, set aside time to regularly conduct this critical research for your business growth and sustainability in your chosen industry.
Not Developing New Products And Services
Don’t make the mistake of never expanding your product and service horizons because although customers like familiarity, many people also like new products and services. You don’t have to remove any customer favorite products or services, but consider bringing in an exclusive product or service every now and then or adding a new line. You can even get your customers to vote on their favorite limited-time product or service and implement it full-time. This way, your customers will stay interested in your business and be happy you ask for their opinions.
There are, of course, many other considerations to consider when creating a loyal customer base. However, make sure to avoid these top mistakes.
