Clientele Kingdom: The Coming of Age of Brand – Customer Relationships
Your attention span exceeds a goldfish’s just by a second- revealed a 2015 Microsoft study. Consumers are spoilt for choice & spare only 8 seconds of memory, with digital marketing, every brand has gained visibility. What incentive do they have to shop from your brand when there could be cheaper, fancier, or more popular brands available?
The market is moving towards a relationship-based approach rather than “a quid pro quo” pattern. The less transactional a purchase feels, the more the consumer feels valued. Here are some ways you can build a stronger hold over your habitué.
Communication is Currency
Create surveys that pop up to collect data about choices, opinions, preferences. Opinion polls on Instagram, answering direct messages, and replying actively on your portal and posts can help consumers directly engage with you. They feel heard and it helps them feel comfortable approaching you, preventing a social media outrage over a deficient service. They will seek correction instead of ranting and maligning your brand.
You can also use Artificial Intelligence-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Softwares to track data efficiently. The more you display consumer testimonials and reviews on your page, the more trustworthy and reliable you appear.
Pixie dust of Personalization
Every time they purchase something off of your site or hire you to render a service, remember their birthdays, emails, phone numbers, and send them wishes and gifts during every festivity or personal celebration. Remember to mail them during launches & key milestones for your brand to ensure you are fresh in their minds and they feel special.
Making them a part of your PR will create warmth, they would start preferring you over other alternatives. Always value their time and customer executives engaging with them should be trained to remember their personal details to ensure familiarity. Personalized invites, packages, and thank you letters are recommended too!
Brand Identity Bonus
Chips or Lays? Mineral water or Bisleri? Noodles or Maggi? Some brands did such a good job at marketing themselves that the good itself became synonymous with the brand. Foster a strong brand identity by marketing with catchy hashtags or taglines.
Establish a strong presence in the lives of potential customers and frequent customers by nomination challenges, online giveaways, and contests. This attracts traffic to your portal but also makes your brand look involved and engaging.
This is a simple and free marketing gimmick that can instantly make you popular. Creating generic and brand-specific & exclusive content on YouTube and other digital platforms help too.
Surprise some more!
Exceed your previous benchmark. Keep delivering before the expected time, improvise the experience by constantly collecting feedback after every transaction. Release posts asking for your clients’ preferences and then released their preferred products or packaging, this not only ensures a fixed market because it was technically a demand but also sells the idea of you conforming to their needs and wants.
Loyalty gets the Lion’s Share
Always reward loyal customers with additional discounts, loyalty credit, and reward points. This incentivizes them to rush to you because psychologically they are not just purchasing a product but also banking some future premium. If I were to get a 5% off when I went back to the same grocery store, I would make it a point to go there. It is an accrued reward that I still have to redeem, so I will look forward to going back.
Offering VIP Lounge days, prelaunch offers, additional services, and exceptional treatment has proven to instill a sense of community building, making the consumer feel like they are a part of your company, they would never want to go back!
