Your ultimate guide to building customer loyalty in 10 easy ways

Let's face it — you must have felt the sting when a loyal customer left. You've invested time, energy and money into advertising and served them with top-notch products or services, but still, they drift away. Why?

It's not just you; a lot of businesses are grappling with this challenge. Here's the unsettling truth: Building customer loyalty isn't just about selling a good product anymore. It requires consistent effort and investment. It could be those little extras or the human touch that's missing.

But here’s the silver lining. There’s a path to mend this gap and keep your customers loyal to your brand. In this guide on building customer loyalty, we list ten easy yet effective ways to turn those fleeting encounters into lifelong customer relationships. Let’s ensure your story doesn’t just end with a twist but leaves an imprint.

What is customer loyalty?

Customer loyalty is the consistent preference and repeat business a customer gives to a particular company over its competitors. 

Picture this: a company renews its software subscription year after year, not just because it's convenient but because it genuinely believes in the product, trusts its reliability and appreciates the service it receives.

Instead of worrying about what your competitors are doing, your business should zero in on the best customer experience that it itself can provide. This means listening to your employees for insights and ideas on how to improve your CX.

Shep Hyken

That's customer loyalty. It's more than just making a purchase; it's building a bond over time based on trust, satisfaction and mutual value.

Why is building customer loyalty crucial?

Customer loyalty is a crucial pillar for businesses today, especially in high-stakes businesses, where the market is saturated and customers have several options.

Studies from industry giants like Gartner indicate that acquiring a new customer is relatively more expensive than retaining an existing one.

Rapidly increasing customer acquisition costs is just one of the reasons why building customer loyalty and retaining existing customers is mission-critical for your business. Here are the other reasons:

• Reduced churn rate: Loyal customers stick around, ensuring consistent revenue and minimizing the revenue drain associated with high customer churn.

• Higher customer lifetime value: Loyal customers don't just stick around; they tend to buy more often, increasing the revenue from each retained account.

• Word-of-mouth referrals: Satisfied, loyal customers are more likely to refer others, serving as organic brand ambassadors and reducing the need for extensive advertising campaigns.

• Cost efficiency: With efficient customer retention, companies spend less on customer acquisition strategies, optimizing their operational costs and improving their bottom line.

Now, without much ado, let's dive into the best ways to foster customer loyalty for your business.

How to build customer loyalty in 10 simple ways

Customer loyalty is not built overnight. It's an arduous process of a million things that takes years to fructify. But we have distilled all those into 10 quick-return ways below. Take a look.

1. Understand your customers’ needs

Understanding your customers' needs and wants is the first step to building customer loyalty. At its core, it's about empathy — stepping into your client's shoes, grasping their challenges and proactively offering solutions. Such understanding is amplified by sophisticated marketing analytics, providing a holistic view of campaign performance across multiple digital platforms, from social to email.

But how would you understand your customers’ needs and act upon them? Take inspiration from Airbnb. According to HBR, the company continuously engages with the hosts and guests, refining its platform based on feedback and needs. By understanding and empathizing with its user community, Airbnb has crafted a peer-to-peer service that addresses real-world pain points and aspirations.

2. Offer exceptional customer service

In 2020, 40% of customers in the US stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer service. This implies that customer service is the bridge that connects businesses to lasting customer loyalty. 

When customers feel valued, heard and assisted promptly, their trust deepens, compelling them to return.

By leveraging state-of-the-art customer service solutions, companies can streamline communication, ensure prompt issue resolution and ultimately elevate the customer experience. The result? Unwavering loyalty and lasting business relationships.

Also read: 11 Proven customer service tips to master

3. Implement a robust loyalty program

Let's say, every time you grab a coffee from your local café, you receive a stamp; after collecting ten, your next coffee is on the house. Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? This is a loyalty program in its most basic form.

These programs come under customer-first marketing strategies that are designed to inspire customers to stick around and keep coming back.

McKinsey's research shows that three out of four individuals involved in high-performing loyalty schemes actively modify their behavior to increase the value they bring to businesses. While a striking 64% reported an uptick in their purchasing frequency, 31% conveyed a readiness to pay more, valuing their bond with the brand.

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Modern loyalty program trends extend beyond traditional rewards. Gamification introduces elements like scores and badges to make user engagement competitive and fun. Meanwhile, personalization takes it a notch higher by tailoring rewards to individual needs. 

Sprinklr Tip: If you're uncertain about the needs and interests of your regional or local audiences, an approach like Sprinklr Local Social can help. It analyzes customer behaviors across different geographies and helps with localizing content and offers, ensuring your loyalty program speaks directly to the user's unique preferences.

Also read: 4 ways financial brands can build loyalty in the digital age

4. Personalize customer experiences

Did you know that 40% of software buyers want personalized product demos? This percentage indicates that buyers are no longer satisfied with one-size-fits-all solutions; they yearn for experiences explicitly tailored to their unique needs and challenges.

When you curate experiences aligned with individual preferences, they showcase your product's adaptability as well as a deep understanding of a client's pain points and aspirations. This personal touch goes beyond just improving user satisfaction — it fosters trust and helps build lasting relationships.

Do it like a pro: Gather actionable data by leveraging Sprinklr's AI-powered product insights, gauging real-time sentiment on how customers perceive their offerings. This intelligence not only informs product iterations but also enables businesses to craft experiences that resonate deeply with their customers.

5. Focus on quality, not just price

It's a common misconception that price is the sole driver of loyalty. While competitive pricing can be enticing, building customer loyalty often hinges on the quality of a product or service that creates lasting relationships.

Consider a B2B SaaS company offering cybersecurity solutions. If they focus only on being the cheapest option in the market, they might initially attract cost-conscious businesses. However, if a higher-priced competitor offers a robust, state-of-the-art security suite with top-tier customer support, companies will likely gravitate toward them, recognizing the long-term value and protection they provide. 

Hence, it's imperative to emphasize your solutions' intrinsic value, reliability and advanced features, ensuring clients recognize that they're not just buying a product but investing in prolonged quality and security.

6. Engage regularly through multiple channels

The evolution of customer engagement has given birth to omnichannel marketing, where you can interact with clients seamlessly across diverse platforms. To ensure a uniform and consistent experience, you need:

• Unified messaging: Ensure brand voice and content are consistent across channels.

• Centralized data: Use integrated tools to track customer interactions, ensuring you pick up where the last conversation left off.

• Adaptive content: Tailor content based on the specific platform while keeping the core message intact.

A prime example of omnichannel success is Nike. According to Forbes, the company skillfully engages its audience, offering a seamless experience from mobile apps to in-store interactions. This cohesive approach boosts customer satisfaction, showcasing how strategic omnichannel engagement can drive loyalty. 

Drawing from their playbook, it's evident that just being present on multiple channels isn't enough; the real magic lies in weaving them together skillfully, a strategy integral to building customer loyalty.

Here are the chief learnings for your business:

• Prioritize understanding your customer's journey.

• Recognize the channels they frequent and the type of interactions they prefer.

• Then, strive to create smooth transitions between these touchpoints.

Customers who feel you're genuinely understanding and anticipating their needs across channels are more likely to stick around. The fine balance between presence and seamless integration truly fosters loyalty.

Also read: Build a unified, strategic vision with powerful omnichannel marketing

7. Seek feedback and act on it

In today's digital-first environment, especially in the software business, reviews and ratings have become the modern word-of-mouth, pivotal in building customer loyalty.

They wield immense power over buying decisions. A study shows that 95% of consumers read online reviews before they shop, and a significant 58% admit they'd pay more for products from a brand with positive reviews.

Here’s why feedback is vital for customer retention:

• Trust and credibility: Positive reviews bolster brand reputation.

• Constructive critique: Negative feedback, when acted upon, can lead to product or service enhancements.

For companies, it's not just about collecting reviews but managing them adeptly. Tapping into a ratings and reviews management solution can be a game-changer. Why? Because such platforms facilitate:

• Efficient monitoring of feedback

• Swift responses that amplify the sentiment of being heard

• Strategic insights to refine offerings and bolster loyalty

Keen to dig deeper? Listen to this podcast on How to Get More Value from B2B Review Sites, with Yoli Chisholm

8. Cultivate a strong brand identity

A strong brand identity goes beyond just a recognizable logo or catchy tagline.

Building customer loyalty often starts with a brand's unique values and the mission it commits to. Customers gravitate towards, and more importantly, stick with brands that echo their beliefs and consistently deliver on their promises.

Brand consistency is pivotal to creating a strong brand identity. 68% of business leaders attribute anywhere from 10% to over 20% of their revenue growth to the power of consistent branding. Maintaining this consistency involves several strategic moves:

• Uniform visual identity: Whether it's emails, software interfaces or marketing materials, a consistent visual language strengthens recognition.

• Quality control: Regularly auditing products, services and customer touchpoints ensures that quality remains undiluted across the board.

• Employee training: Ensuring every team member, from sales to support, echoes the brand values in their interactions can significantly enhance consistency.

9. Educate your customers

An informed customer is often a loyal one. When businesses take the time to educate their customers, they're not just sharing information. They're building trust and laying the foundation for building customer loyalty. You can enlighten your customer base by organizing workshops and webinars and even leveraging an effective content marketing tool.

By providing resources and knowledge, companies grant their customers the autonomy to make informed decisions. This sense of self-reliance breeds confidence in the product and the brand behind it. Your customers are more likely to trust the brand that empowered them in the first place.

Also read: How to connect with customers and create a more human customer experience

10. Go the extra mile

Going the extra mile isn't just about doing more. It's about creating memorable experiences that linger in customers' minds long after the interaction is over. In a world of ever-growing competition, exceeding expectations and building customer loyalty can be the fine line between a one-time customer and a loyal advocate.

For example, in the early days of Dropbox, they didn't just offer a cloud storage solution; they provided seamless collaboration tools and integrations, often before users even realized they needed them. By anticipating and then meeting needs in this proactive way, they cultivated strong customer loyalty.

However, there's a delicate balance to strike. Overdelivering consistently without evaluating returns can strain resources. The key is listening, understanding customer expectations and then taking thoughtful steps to exceed them, creating impactful moments that customers cherish and associate with your brand.

Winding it up!

Fleeting interactions rarely create lasting imprints. True customer loyalty is nurtured over time and emerges from consistent, authentic and value-driven experiences.

As we've traversed these ten pathways, it's evident that building customer loyalty requires a long-term, holistic approach to foster and sustain genuine loyalty. But how do you bridge the gap between your current strategies and the ultimate unified customer experience? 

Through Sprinklr's Unified CXM platform. This single-platform approach seamlessly integrates your organization's cognitive and operational aspects, ensuring all customer-facing teams collaborate cohesively. Try it out today.