Build Customer Loyalty Through These 3 Easy Steps

"I’ve always believed that the road to customer loyalty derives from an incredible customer experience."

As I’m building my startup, Confetti - I’m constantly asking myself - Am I doing everything in my powers to make sure my customer has a great experience?

Even before I built my startup, I looked up to companies likes GoDaddy, Amazon and Google - because of their outstanding dedication to a high level of customer service.

I promised myself that no matter what happens, my startup will be known for a great customer experience.

We take happiness seriously here at Confetti.

We made it our mission to inspire happiness at work and that starts with the customers we reach out to that give us a chance.

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Here are my findings, thus far:

#1- Customer loyalty doesn’t start with swag.‍

Yes - people love gifts, but customer loyalty doesn’t necessarily need to cost your business money.

So what does it take?

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Well, it starts from a simple concept of mine that I credit to sales guru Damian Thompson. H2H.

Human to Human.

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It might seem a bit childish, but the saying “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a quote I think about throughout every process of my interaction with clients.

In what way/how would I want to be contacted?
How would I want next steps to unfold?
How would I want to be treated if something went wrong?
What kind of relationship would I want to have with the person helping me on the phone?
What kind of person would I want them to be?
What would make the experience spectacular?

The ultimate tip for customer loyalty is to remember your customer is a human - just like you. If you want to really understand your customer, you need to constantly put yourself in their shoes.

You need to understand that you are not much different from the person sitting on the other side of that phone.

You need to understand that they too might come across bad days and try to trickle it onto you.

You need to understand they’re a father, mother, sister, brother, etc.

This process of humanizing your customer will not only make you a better sales person overall, but it will lead you to become a better manager for your employees, a better product developer for your end user, a better customer service representative etc.

#2 Customer Loyalty starts when things go wrong

[The large majority of] Customers are normal humans, just like you and me. They know that not everything you’ll do as a company will go perfectly without a hitch - but their ultimate test to you will start when things go wrong.

It's like dating.

You go on a date with a guy or girl for a few weeks. Everything is perfect for a while until - dun dun DUNN!!! - theres that first fight.

Something went wrong - you were supposed to call at this time, but you didn’t.

Or, they clicked on something and it deleted the information they worked on all day.

It happens.

And if it hasn’t happened yet to your business.

It will happen.

This is your first real test of loyalty with a customer and you have many options:

You can ignore them
You can tell them they’re wrong
You can not give a shit
You can give the problem to some guy in Bangladesh who is trying his hardest, but his accent is just too thick for your customer to understand
etc

OR you can help them. There are so many ways you can do that too:

You can listen (sometimes thats all that it takes)
You can provide them with a fast and easy solution
You can agree with them (and take feedback to the team and follow up when there is a change)
You can give them something (a gift, a coupon, a thank you note, a funny gif)

Which one are you going to choose?

Which one are you going to encourage your employees to choose?

#3 When shit hits the fan, go outside and breathe some fresh air. (Wait, how is this a tip to build customer loyalty…?)

I’ve screwed up many times with less-than-happy clients or prospective clients.

Running a start up isn’t easy and sometimes when the stress has us in a choke hold we genuinely feel like “No, YOU [Mr. Customer] are WRONG and I will NOT help you."

Guess where that attitude gets us?

Nowhere.

Actually - It gets us at -1 Customer.

When you run a startup your customers are practically your life. They’re your bread and butter. They’re your golden ticket.

Treat them that way.

Treat them like each one will be THE contributing factor to your exit/next valuation.

Because they are.

And if you’re mad - Go take a walk.

Let someone else handle the situation who’s calm.

Wait till the next day to answer.

Write down your feelings and thoughts and jump on a call.

Remember tip #1 - they’re human too.

Do whatever it is that you need to do - but do not email them back or jump on a call with them and be angry, disrespectful or not helpful.

Because they will leave.

And while they’re leaving - they’ll tell the world about it too.

So to recap:

Remember your clients are human, just like you.
Be there for them when thing go wrong.
Never talk to them while you’re angry at them.

Check out series 2 of this blog “The Exact Email That Boosted Our Customer Retention by 30%”.

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Written by Lee Rubin

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