Want more customers?

Before you go out on a rampage finding new customers, it is important to nurture and care for the
customers that you already have. Why is this important?

By nurturing your existing customers and strengthening those relationships, you can naturally create
more revenue, more referrals, and higher profits.

In fact, by building upon the customers you already have it can naturally and organically help you to
bring in more customers.

Existing customers are likely to spend more and promote your services and products to their family
and friends, making them invaluable to your business.

While finding new customers is always good and tempting at times if you are looking to rapidly grow
your brand, there is no point finding new customers if you haven’t established a rapport with your
existing ones.

Many businesses make the mistake of churning through customer after customer and wonder why
they can’t get their revenue and profits to stick.

If you want a lasting business, if you want consistent business, if you truly want to grow your
business, you need to turn your attention to your customers.

When you nurture your existing customers and take the time to build genuine, thoughtful, and
meaningful relationships with them, your business can truly soar and grow even faster.

While it may take some time and effort, nurturing your customers will help your business to-

Earn a loyal following

Grow by word of mouth

Increase your revenues

Maximize your profits

Enhance your reputation

Build your network

Increase engagement

Develop trust

By taking the time to connect with your existing customers and genuinely care about their
experience and interaction with your brand, it can speak volumes for your business and put you on
the fast track to success.

Here is how to get started with strengthening your customer relationships-

Strategy #1: Be Genuine Through Your Tone

There is nothing worse than receiving a generic or phony sounding email from a company that
pretends to care about your experience and your questions.

While writing personalized responses or even picking up the phone and taking the time to chat with
your clients is ideal, it may not always be possible depending on the size of your business.

If you can’t personalize every point of contact with your customers, try instead to craft emails that
reflect your brands overall tone.

Think about your tone and the tone of your brand, and then work to craft a message or email that
reflects this tone and makes your customers feel welcomed, supported, and valued.

Personalizing your emails and copy as much as possible is also recommended. This includes using the
name of your customer and tailoring the email to include more specifics about what they ordered or
what services or products you provided.

While this may seem small, it can make a huge difference in how your customers relate to your brand
and their overall experience of working with you.

When you take the time to think about your tone and craft an email that reflects that, customers will
also feel more trusting towards your brand.

Strategy #2: The Power of Authenticity

To truly be authentic, you need to craft a tone and then stick with it. Your tone should be reflected in
all areas of your business from how you write your website copy to your blogs and emails.

Your tone is most likely going to be aligned with your true nature and the mission statement of your
brand, so if you are struggling to find your tone, these are both great places to begin.

Research shows us that 63 percent of people buy from authentic brands, compared to brands that
are inauthentic and hide their true selves.

By being open and honest with your customers and transparent about your practices, it can also go a
long way to build authenticity.

Strategy #3: Critical Connection Moments

just connect with your customers randomly, connect with them at the most pivotal moments during
the buying process.

This will not only help you to maximize your time more efficiently, but it will also help you to connect
with your customers when it matters the most, which will instantly strengthen the relationship and
help to build life-long trust.

There are 3 main critical connection points that you need to observe-

Critical Connection Point #1: Right after purchasing

Right after a customer purchases a product or service from your website, they should be sent a thank
you email and further instructions on how their order will be processed or any next steps.
This email ideally should be sent immediately after the purchase has gone through, and for extra
brownie points, a thank you call should be made within 24 hours.

Now you gain a new customer, you should instantly be thinking about ways to nurture and support
that customer, so they feel good about their purchase and excited about working with your brand.

Critical Connection Point #2: When Making a Query

If a potential customer has a query about any of your products or services, it is important to respond
in a timely manner with a personalized and detail response to their question.

You may even want to consider having an autoresponder that emails them instantly to let them
know that their query was received and will be replied to shortly.

When answering customer queries, keep true to the tone of your brand and point them in the right
direction so they feel that their question was answered.

If you have issues with customers asking too many questions or if you find that the same question is
being asked repeatedly by different people, it may be an indication that you need to update your
product or services page to include more information or create a FAQ section.

Critical Connection Point #3: Customer Complaints

This is the number one time when your communication skills really need to shine. If you have done
all your work in the beginning, your customers should feel comfortable reaching out to you in a
friendly and calm manner.

When dealing with conflicts or complaints, the most important rule is understanding. By showing
that you understand their point of view it can often help to diffuse the situation.

Providing a solution is also important, however if a solution is not always possible other alternatives
that you may want to consider include- offering a refund, offering a coupon or discount for
subsequent purchases, or providing a replacement product.

It has been estimated that poor customer service costs businesses in the US an estimated $83 billion
a year and this number is increasing thanks to the power of social media.

Disgruntled customers are often disgruntled over a period, so by nurturing and building the
relationship from the beginning, you are more likely to have happy customers who will speak
positively about your brand.

It may also be worth remembering that you can’t please everyone all the time. There are going to be
upset or angry customers that just want to be angry and upset no matter what solution you provide.
If you are ever faced with this situation, just remember to stay calm and try your best to diffuse the
situation.

Strategy #4: Ask for Customer Feedback

One of the best ways to understand your customers is to ask for feedback after they have worked or
ordered from your business. By asking for feedback, it helps to create an open relationship between
you and your customers.
Often customers who were unhappy or indifferent about working with your brand will fail to speak
up or let you know. By asking for feedback however, it gives these customers and voice and helps you
to improve your business.

It has also been shown that customers who are asked for feedback are more likely to do repeat
business with your brand and are more likely to remain loyal to your brand over time.

This is especially true if you respond to their feedback or make changes based on their suggestions.

Of course, no matter the quality of feedback you receive, it is always important to thank your
customers for any suggestions or notes that they do leave.

You may also want to provide an incentive or a gift as a thank you to your customers for taking the
time to leave their feedback. Brands who adopt this protocol often receive more feedback and more
customer suggestions, which can be invaluable to helping grow your brand.

Strategy #5: Update Your Customers Regularly

Reaching out to your customers during critical moments in the buying process is important, however
it is also important to regularly connect with your customers on an ongoing basis.

This not only helps to build a solid relationship with your customers, but it also allows you to stay
fresh and in the forefront of their mind.

By staying present in your customers mind, they are more likely to think of you when they need a
service or product that your business provides.

To help connect with your customers and update them on any new products or services that your
business may be offering, the best solution is to send a weekly newsletter or email.

Having updates on social media or YouTube is also a great idea, but emails tend to feel more
personalized.

Another way to keep your customers engaged with your brand is through your company blog.

By offering valuable information and updates, it helps your customers to feel like they are part of
your business and not just simply another number.

Strategy #6: Build a community

Establishing a loyal following of customers is about creating a community and making your customers
feel like they are part of something bigger.

Brands that go viral often do because they tap into this element and create a marketing and
advertising campaign that helps to foster a sense of community.

One brand that has used this strategy particularly well is Apple. When they re-launched under the
direction of Steve Jobs, they instantly positioned their product as being anti-PC. By doing so, they
were able to create a community of people who were looking for something different to the typical
PC.

Today, Apple fans are some of the most loyal in the world and this is mainly because the company
was able to build a feeling of community around their advertising and marketing campaigns.
While Apple may have had a huge budget to throw around to create this effect, there are some
affordable ways that you can create a sense of community. This includes

Establishing your brands mission

Being very clear on who your target audience is

Having a clear marketing message and tone

Hosting webinars or live chats with customers

Sharing personal and professional content on social media

Replying to social media comments and tagging followers

Aligning your brand with an established influencer or philosophy

By creating a community, it further helps to support this idea of making your customer feel part of
something bigger and not just a number.

Depending on the type of business that you run, you can also consider offering mastermind groups,
weekly or monthly group phone calls or even retreats to help establish and foster a sense of
community.

For local brick and mortar businesses, getting out there and being part of your local community is
also a great way to help your customers connect to your brand. Strategies with this could include,
setting up a stall at a local farmers market, volunteering for local events and promoting local
community events.

Strategy #7: Get Face to Face with Your Customers

So many things are automated and done online these days, that it can be easy to forget about
showing your face to your customers.

If you really want to improve the relationships that you have with your customers, you need to be a
face that they can recognize.

The most successful thought leaders and businesses, put a face to their brand so customers can see
who is behind it all. They also host live or online events that both customers and visitors can take
part in.

By hosting events such as webinars, seminars, e-courses and more, it allows your customers to put a
face to your brand and gives them a more personalized and tailored experience.

Many brands shy away from hosting an event because they think it will be too much work, but tools
like LinkedIn Live, Facebook Live, Instagram, TikTok and Google Hangouts make it easy.

Hosting an event like this also helps to boost your brands engagement levels on social media and can
help keep your brand fresh in your customers minds.

Hosting exclusive events are also a great way to help your customers to feel important and valued.
Strategy #8: Reward Customer Loyalty

When a customer stays true and loyal to your brand, it is important to acknowledge and thank them
for this. It is also important to offer them some sort of incentive or reward for staying loyal.

When you reward repeat customers in this way, they are more likely to feel valued and therefore,
more likely to return to your business in the future.

Rewarding customer loyalty also gives your customers more incentive to return to your business and
use your services again and again.

There are so many ways you can reward customer loyalty, but here are just a few to get you started-

Offering a stamp card where after 10 purchases you get something free (this works great for coffee
shops or brick and mortar stores)

Discount coupons for repeat purchases

Discounts on monthly or yearly subscriptions

Free gifts or thank you notes

By honoring customer loyalty, your business can also experience a huge increase in growth.

In fact, research has shown that 82 percent of small business owners believe that loyal customers are
the key to growth.

For B2B brands, sending a complimentary bottle of wine, box of chocolates or gift card is also a great
way to show your appreciation and is perfect for clients that give your brand a lot of business.

The bottom line is this- there are so many brands out there competing for your customers attention,
but they decided to choose you. Honor this choice and celebrate it by making your customers feel
good about doing business with your brand.

Strategy #9: Treat Everyone Equally and Fairly

One of the most important things to remember when it comes to crafting a successful customer care
program is consistency.

You must aim to treat all your customers the same and handle customer issues in the same way.
When it comes to running a business, you can’t play favorites. This means that if you bend your
refund policy for Customer A, you must do the same for Customer B.

While this can get complicated, it is important, as much as possible, to keep your methods and
approach consistent.

This not only helps to build respect in the eyes of your customers, but it also helps you to run a more
efficient business. When your business has rules or policies in place, customers are also more likely to
be understanding.
Being consistent with your customer care approach also comes down to regularly engaging and
offering events to your customers.

There is no point offering new customers a A session with you and then forgetting all about them one
week later. For best results, you must stay consistent and keep your customers as part of your
community for as long as possible.

Conclusion

Nurturing and looking after your existing customers are so important for your brand. Not only can it
help you to grow your revenues and profits, but it can also help you to foster brand loyalty.

Research shows that customers who are respected and valued by businesses not only spend more,
but they are also more likely to promote your business to their friends and family.

Word of mouth marketing is extremely powerful and is one of the best ways to get new clients
walking through your door.

To summarize the points made in this article, here is a checklist to help you build solid and trusted
relationship with all your clients-

Create your tone and stick to it- this helps your brand to appear more trustworthy

Ensure your emails, website copy and ad copy are all reflective of your tone

Reach out to customers at critical times- after purchasing, when they have a question and when they
make a complaint

Send a thank you note, email, or make a thank you phone call after any customer order

Inform your customers of the next steps after purchasing or orderingwith your company- keep them
clued in

Deal with customer complaints by showing that you understand and provide actionable solutions

Have a refund or return policy in place that clearly outlines the rules and regulations of your business

Be transparent will all of your terms and conditions

Regularly connect with customers through sending emails, being active on social media, blog posts or
hosting events

Make your customers feel part of a community by offering regular events and exclusives- ie. live
chats, conferences etc.

Ask for customer feedback and act on any beneficial feedback that you receive

Align your brand with a message or philosophy that your target audience can relate to

Reward customer loyalty by offering discounts and incentives for repeat purchases

Add personal touches whenever connecting with customers

Be consistent when it comes to connecting with your customers, play favorites

At the end of the day, showing your customers that you care is simple. It all comes down to genuinely
caring and as a business owner, you should.

When you genuinely care for your customers, they will genuinely care for you, and stay loyal to your
brand time and time again.

So, instead of dreaming about scoring hundreds of new customers, why not instead work on
nurturing the customers that you already have.

By doing so, you will eventually create an army of loyal followers who are excited about your brand
and more than grateful to buy all your new products, send you referrals and leave glowing reviews.