3 Important Ways To Maintain Brand Loyalty
How can you get a customer and keep that customer, irrespective of the market situation?
During one of my scouts for sales, I met this brand loyalist of a product and pitched our product to her in a juicy way that she was very tempted to yield.
I made a nice presentation of the benefits and cost-effectiveness of our new product as against our competitors. We had spent quite a long moment talking about my product and the need to switch to my product.
Then she said to me, I wish I could switch to your brand but am already loyal to another brand and that it will be impossible for her to switch brands despite the good picture I painted of our brand. I was taken aback and I went home. I began to think about how the attention of this brand loyalist was captured, cultivated, and consistently attracted.
You see, the labor market is a very competitive one and requires a lot of wisdom to keep customers/clients consistently coming your way if not, you will run out of the market in a short while due to a lack of loyalists.
In this era of Digi-competitive marketing, the quest for brand loyalists cannot be undermined especially with the presence of the Covid 19 pandemic which almost shut down the economy of most countries.
I did a mini-study using Chinmark Group as a case study to find out how brands sustain their loyalists.
Chinmark Group is a leading global conglomerate made up of subsidiaries that provide an opportunity to lighten the burden of living and touch lives via the services it provides. They are interested in delivering excellence, quality, and speedy service for customer satisfaction while consistently being transparent, expanding our client base and international legacy.
Chinmark Group was founded and established in Nigeria with corporate offices in Africa, New York, and Asia. They are a pace-setting institution to build a dynamic system of administration, committed to creating exceptional transparency, clarity, and dedication in the business environment.
Chinmark Group as a parent company was established with a strong focus to provide services that exceed clients’ expectations. With that in mind, they have grown and expanded into major subsidiaries which comprise: Chinmark Homes and Shelter (Construction), Chinmark Partnership and Loans, Chinmark Farms (Agriculture), Chinmark Rides (Executive Transportation) and Logistics, Chinmark Restaurant & Foods services, Chinmark Medicals, Chinmark Consultancy, and General Contracts.
After the mini-study, I found these three important ways to maintain brands loyalty.
1) PHILANTHROPIC ACTS:
Engaging in philanthropic acts is a way to win the hearts of your customers. Nothing wins more loyalty than when customers know you care about their wellbeing and not your profit only. When you go out of your way to meet the personal needs of your customers, then you are on the step to creating and maintaining brand loyalist.
I know work can be stressful and you are busy but once in a while you should share gifts, do promos, slash prices once in a while, give to the people on the streets, affect lives outside your business, sponsor events, etc. Giving back to society attracts this special love from people for your brand and when people love you, they will go out of their way to keep patronage.
To understand this concept, try and put yourself in the shoe of your client. I mean imagine you are a client to a brand then ask yourself these questions:
Will I be happy if a brand removes the price of its commodity?
Will that act of kindness make you come back?
Will you be happy to keep patronizing and advertise a brand that sponsored your event?
This will not only create loyalists for your brand but also massive advertisements. When you do good for people, they disseminate your good news everywhere thereby giving you credibility. It is okay to also have a system that shares in the joy and sorrows of your brand loyalists, this strikes a different chord in their hearts over your brand.
Decide to put smiles on the face of your customers outside the business context. Decide to motivate and be philanthropic to your workforce because they are your number one loyalists and if they do not believe in the brand, it will affect the brand.
2)QUICK RESPONSE TO FEEDBACKS
It is not enough to get feedback from customers or clients, you have to create a system of quick responses to this feedback whether positive or negative. Make the people feel close with the product and don’t hesitate to reply peoples complaints and compliments. This means that you value them and their presence in your brand. As small and insignificant as those emoji replies may seem, it says a lot to your loyalists.
More so, people feel secured with a brand that can communicate with at any time, they feel more protected and confident when they know that they can lay complaints and it will be attended to quickly.
To achieve this implies, that you will need a good customer care system, that can attend to the feedbacks of your loyalists. Drop a line for calls or text messages and make your brand’s customer care accessible over all the social media.
It is dangerous to snub, people, feedback especially when it is a complaint.
The funny truth is that if a loyalist opts out of your brand, there is every tendency that such a loyalist will cause you to lose customers and even another loyalist.
3) EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE
Personally, this keeps me with a brand. Loyalists are attracted by excellent services and products. Nobody wants to identify with mediocrity, incompetence, and inefficiency. Make your products consistently the best among the rest and trust me, your brand loyalist will stick with you.
Never stop at a level of excellence because excellence is infinite. Do not stop improving, because your competitors are improving and people want to identify with the best.
The craving for excellence will induce your brand to come up with creative strategies to keep the clients coming.
Concepts like personalizing or customizing a brand for clients or even attracting loyalists of a celebrity by making him/her your brand ambassador could go a long way in exuding your level of excellence.
If you found this helpful, feel free to share and connect me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-wisdom-5bb564212
