Critical Steps for Building Customer Loyalty
Critical Steps for Building Customer Loyalty in a World Where It Has Ceased to Exist
Customer loyalty is dead and gone. It’s a concept from a world that no longer exists. Today’s consumers are brand agnostic and will happily jump ship from one company to the next if they feel that their needs are not being met. While that means you’ve got more work to do when building customer relationships, there is some good news.
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Customer loyalty really hasn’t vanished. It’s just become harder to win (and rightfully so, some might add). No longer are customers happy to remain loyal to companies that treat them like transactions instead of people. In order to avoid losing your most important assets, you need to take steps to build customer loyalty.
BE RELEVANT
One of the first considerations when building customer loyalty is whether or not you’re relevant to them. This goes so much deeper than whether or not you have an ATV or jet ski in their price point & in your inventory. It requires that you get to know them and their situation. What are their pain points and challenges? What problems are they trying to solve? Once you know this, you can determine what it is that you can do to help them. Ultimately, you need to look at it as finding solutions to customer problems, rather than just making a sale.
PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATION
Today’s consumers expect the businesses they work with to know them. Your communications with them should be personalized to the greatest degree possible. Again, this requires more than just inserting “Dear X” at the top of your email. All communications should be personalized to the greatest degree possible. Choosing a Powersports CRM that offers this is key. Rather than just adding a customer to your email list and then sending out automatic marketing messages, go further by:
- Asking how their purchase is working out for them
- Offering coupons for accessories specific to their purchase
- Following up with questions about service needs
DELIVER A GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Customer experience, or CX, has become one of the most critical elements in forging a successful customer relationship. If you can deliver a great experience, consistently, your customers are very likely to come back time and time again. In a world where products are widely available, it really requires differentiating your dealership to cement customer loyalty. Remember, they can buy powersports equipment anywhere, but they cannot get the same experience with all dealerships. How will you make your dealership stand out when it comes to the experience customers enjoy?
ESTABLISH A STRONG RELATIONSHIP
Ultimately, today’s consumers don’t want to be just another transaction in your ledger. They want a relationship with your company. They want to look at their ATV or what you have in your inventory and remember fondly the experience of buying it and they want to come back to your dealership because you know them and like them, just as much as because you’ve got the products they want at a price they can afford.
IN CONCLUSION
While customer loyalty might not be dead, it is more difficult to earn than ever before. The good news is that for dealerships willing to try, it can pay off very well.
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