One of the toughest parts of running a small business is building customer loyalty. Unlike big companies, you may not have the requisite infrastructure or funds to invest in big banner ads or give out freebies and discount coupons. How then, do you ensure that the customer comes back to your establishment? If you run a home-based business, then you probably know that it takes time to break even. You need to concentrate on building customer loyalty just as much as you need to attract new customers.

How to Build Customer Loyalty A scheme of rewards, incentives, and discussion of customer profiles is one way. However, there are many other ways to build customer loyalty. Some of these ways are listed below.

1.Customer Loyalty Programs: Discounts and incentives are a great attraction for customers. You can make loyalty programs that reward the customer for consistent purchases from your company.

2.Maintain Customer Profiles: In order to reward your past customers, you must know their preferences and keep track of what they have bought from you in the past.

3.Up-to-Date Information: Offer your customers information about your latest products through newsletters and emails. In addition, always maintain a lot on stock, because running out of stock means that the customers will switch to another company with something similar in stock.

4.Personalized Service: Personalized service makes customers feel special, and increases customer loyalty. You should be polite and courteous to customers, and they should feel that there is someone to listen to their complaints, if any.

If the customer has a complaint about your product and wants to return it, then it should be easy for them to do so. Most home-based businesses working through an online store do not have a satisfactory system in place, in case the customers want to return what they bought.

5.Feedback: In order to keep improving your products and services, you should encourage feedback from customers. If your customers feel their opinion is important, they will come back to buy products from your establishment.

The Importance Of Customer Loyalty Building customer loyalty is not as difficult as some people think. However, you need a little experience before you can make the sales pitch or plan great customer loyalty programs. Small business consultants can help you with your customer loyalty programs. Happy customers are a sound investment. Not only will they do more business with you, they will also bring other customers to you.


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About the Author

David Gass is President of Business Credit Services, Inc. His company publishes a free weekly e-newsletter on Small Business Consulting at their web site http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com