We’ve all heard it before, but it’s now nine times more costly to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer. Therefore, you need to stand out by exceeding your customers’ needs and expectations and increase brand loyalty by giving your visitors a great customer experience. Here are some considerations for optimizing spend and boosting your customer retention rate.

Influencer community

According to McKinsey Research, only 13% of customers are loyalists. Those loyal customers are willing to spend more money with their favorite brands; however, studies also show that customers will retract that loyalty more quickly than ever. One way to continue to harness the power of that loyalty from your customer relationships is through a community of users or influencers. By using that community platform to share content, ideas, and access to thought leaders, your brand boosts the customer experience and becomes more deeply entrenched with each consumer.

Data-driven experiences

According to IBM, 52% of Gen Z consumers will transfer loyalty to another brand if the quality is not up to par. That’s not just the quality of the product or service, but the quality of the experience provided to each individual customer.

That means highly personalized experiences, timely and relevant offers, and meaningful communication that lets each customer know that you know who they are and what they care about. These experiences should transcend the marketer’s tech stack because customers will continue to engage on their own terms and their expectations are at an all-time high. These seamlessly engineered experiences tell the customer that you value their time enough to create an efficient experience that feels like a custom fit just for them.

Customer training

Accenture found that 26% of U.S. consumers believe brands should do everything possible to earn their loyalty. Many companies out there, including Adobe, recognized that the pandemic had affected a lot of their current customers and partners. They also realized that any available time that someone had on their hands would be wisely used to sharpen their existing skills or add new skills. Ultimately enabled customers are better brand advocates who contribute to influencer communities and word-of-mouth referrals. Follow this lead by enabling your customers to better use your product or service through customer education tactics such as free training, access to product guides, and certification challenges. Not only will this boost customer satisfaction, but it will also serve as a loyalty program.

Wrapping up

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve when it comes to harnessing customer loyalty? I’d love to hear your thoughts at [email protected] or drop me a note on LinkedIn.