How To Build Customer Loyalty In Your Online Business

Recently, I published a hub entitled, How To Ensure Customer Loyalty. While some of the tips and techniques could be used for internet businesses, they were most applicable to the offline variety. As online businesses can have an even tougher time developing a loyal customer base, there is a strong need for a complimentary version for internet entrepreneurs. This hub was suggested by DrRichard as a way to remedy that.

DrRichard, I hope How To Build Customer Loyalty In Your Online Business doesn't let you down.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the online experience lacks the personal touch of a brick and mortar business. Whereas a customer may visit a physical store once or twice before making a purchase, webpreneurs wait an average of 7 or 8 visits to their site by the same person before that person decides to part with their hard earned cash. That means your site had better be good enough to draw a customer back that many times.

Tips

• Make sure that your site is user-friendly, easy to navigate for the average person. Give customers a reason to stay awhile instead of presenting something that they'll give up on in frustration.
• When developing your site, forget all the fancy stuff! No flash, no butterflies that follow your mouse, no bells, no whistles. All those things distract your customer away from your product or service. They'll forget about you, but remember how irritating that butterfly was.
• Clearly display your contact info. This establishes a certain amount of trust. A potential customer will feel that they can contact you with questions or problems, and that once they give their credit card number they won't be abandoned and helpless with no one to consult. No contact information can make people wonder if you are a "fly by night" operation.
• Beware of what you promise on your site! There is a saying in offline sales that I feel should also apply online: Under Promise and Over Deliver! I cannot stress this point enough. If you do it the other way around, it won't take long for people to figure out that they've been duped.
• Infuse your ethics with a little Karmic perspective to reap some gratifying rewards in the customer loyalty arena. Stand by your customer (you loyal to them) and they will stand by you (them loyal to you). See how nicely that works? Post any guarantees that you are seriously willing to honour in plain sight. If you make claims that you won't back up just to get sales, you will seriously harm your reputation and business. Don't forget that people talk about dealings gone sour.

Everyone these days knows who and what Travelocity is, there's not much point in me explaining it, except to say that it is a large and publicly recognized company that found the most incredibly expensive way to gain customer loyalty.

The story goes something like this:

It seems that Travelocity had a poor customer loyalty rating. They were missing out on a lot of repeat business because travellers did not associate their site with real people, considered it some automated thing. People buy from people, not companies or automated things.

One day, there was the accidental sale of $2,000,000 worth of airline tickets to Fiji - for $7.50 each. Yes folks, that's 7 dollars and 50 cents. The fares were worth $2,000 a piece!

If it was your company, would you panic and send out an announcement that you couldn't possibly honour that ridiculously low price? I'm sure it probably crossed the minds of the people at Travelocity. The company didn't do that, however. Instead, they HONOURED THE PRICE for each and every person who purchased. Yes, it cost them a ton financially, but what it did to boost their ratings with customers was priceless. The fact that they stood behind their sales did more to increase the loyalty factor with their customers than anything else they'd done to that point.

If you'd like to read more about how Travelocity increased their customer loyalty, go here.

The amount of money involved in this accidental 'campaign' can make your head reel, but it isn't the cash value that scored the company so many brownie points. It's the fact that Travelocity stuck by their word and their customers. That is exactly the type of behaviour that carries weight with your clients, too. Just please, choose cheaper ways to do it.

After that whole incident was taken care of, Travelocity developed a Customer Bill of Rights, complete with guarantees of customer satisfaction and good treatment. That is something everyone can do, and it doesn't cost a cent.

It really is quite a simple matter to develop a customer following, especially if you mean everything you say to them. Planning ahead to decide the best treatment and value you can offer before you publish your site will make things go smoothly.

To summarize:

• Design a customer-friendly website that will encourage repeat visits
• Under promise and over deliver - every time!
• Put guarantees and contact information in plain sight
• Stand by your word, service and product.

The only thing I can think to add is to avoid spamming and pestering your list with a constant barrage of emails. That is one of the quickest ways to lose business. Contact them enough to let them know you're there and offering some good stuff, but no more than that.

Be there for your clients and they'll be there for you. Try it and see if you notice a difference.