The way consumers shop online has evolved hugely over the last 20 years, these days it takes a lot to impress a customer. With online shopping so readily available and delivery becoming quicker than ever, businesses need to be ahead of the game when it comes to offering effective customer service, as well as growing their customer base.
Most business owners dream of having a customer base as loyal as those of Apple, Coca Cola or Google and while this is possible, it can be incredibly difficult.
If you’re serious about building your customer base and encouraging brand loyalty, it’s time to stop looking at your customers as just customers and instead think about your customers as your brand ambassadors. As people who talk about your brand in a positive light, telling others about your brand and who regularly use and trust your brand.
But how do you transform your customers into brand ambassadors?
While there’s no definite way for gaining more brand ambassadors, there are a few practices that can help your business motivate customers and encourage them to not only stick to your brand but also encourage them to recommend your business to others.
Deliver A Great Service
In the age of social media if you fail to offer exceptional customer service it’s something your customers can and will easily share with their friends, family and social media followers, which won’t look good on you. Do you treat your customers as individuals? Do you try and offer them the best you can? Are you readily available if they have any concerns?
These are just a few of the questions you should ask yourself when creating your customer service strategy. Make sure you have a team fully prepared to deal with customer service through email, phone and most importantly your social media channels! Remember, if you don’t treat customers like they matter, your brand won’t matter to your audience.
Offer A Loyalty Programme
Hundred’s of brands now offer loyalty programmes or schemes and with good reason! Rewarding your most loyal customers is a perfect way to not only encourage customers to return but can be an effective way of creating brand ambassadors. From offering coupons, discount codes or special sales there are plenty of ways you can offer rewards to your customers.
By offering your customers something that is worth their while, or something that will benefit them, you can show your customers that you care about them too and you care about offering them a better deal. Not only this but it allows you to thank long-term customers by presenting them with a reward for their dedication to your brand.
Create Shareable Content
From your video promotions to your blog content to your social media posts, by creating content that is easily shareable you can encourage your customers to share what you’ve been up to with a much wider audience. This can beneficial for a number of reasons, most importantly, if your customer is sharing content with audiences that are similar ages, or have the same interests, it’s possible that they’ll take an interest in your products or services.
Even if your customers aren’t sharing content with similar audiences, the fact they’re sharing your content helps create brand awareness. Sharing your content gets your name out there, helping build recognition, meaning people are much more likely to notice your brand logo or name when they next see it.
Involve Your Customers
Interacting with your customers is one of the most significant moves a business or organisation can make and something which many brands fail to do. The more you engage with your audience, the more you’ll make them feel included in your brand! While it may seem like a tricky concept, with so many social media platforms available, engaging with customers has never been easier.
From inviting selected customers to try new products to showing your followers the behind the scenes of your business on Snapchat or Instagram, by involving customers with your brand, you’re creating a network of people involved and invested in your business.
It takes a lot of time and commitment when it comes to transforming your customers into brand ambassadors, however, once you’ve proven yourself as a reliable brand and encouraged customer loyalty you’ve done the hard part! Think about how you want to be treated by brands and what you’d expect from others, by following your own advice, along with the information above you’ll achieve results in no time!
