Loyalty: The Ultimate Reward of Quality Customer Service

Building loyalty - Treat your clients the way they want to be treated.

1.      Use personalized treatment - People have particular needs. It's in your best interest to make them feel special and respected. They will certainly stay with you on the long run.

2.      Be reliable - Keep your promises and deliver on time to build trust.

3.      Be flexible - Lose the phrase "company policy" from your vocabulary. Be ready to make changes to your schedule and business approach to accommodate clients. Don't turn yourself into a corporate entity.

4.      Be consistent in your approach - Treat customers with respect and always be truthful. There's no better way to build trust. 

5.      Get personal - Make your customer your friend. Ask about their family, important events in their lives and follow up on this information.

6.      Set yourself up for the long run - Be sure to tell them you intend to be of service after the sale has been made if they need you, whenever they need you. Treat them like people, not like deals and they'll be sure to come back. 

Maintaining loyalty - The basis of maintaining loyalty is continued, consistent communication. Focus the majority of your marketing efforts on your current clients, because they are more likely to use your services than new ones.

1.      Make all forms of communication and contact personal. For this, you need their names as well as personal data about important things and events in their lives: hobbies, birth date, birth dates of family members, marriages, and funerals.

2.      Thank you notes - This should be a given step but so many forget to thank their clients for bringing their business to them. Don't be that kind of person.

3.      Phone - Give them a call now and then either to congratulate them on their birthdays, or to wish them happy holidays, and don't forget to inquire whether they need your services.

4.      Newsletter - Keep in constant contact by sending them newsletters chockfull of interesting and useful articles.

5.      Direct mail - Make sure to include all of your old clients on your mailing list for promotional material and offers.

6.      Holiday greetings - People love to be called upon on holidays. Send them beautiful postcards at Christmas and Easter, or any other date you feel it's appropriate.

7.      Incentives - Reward your old clients for sticking with you. Send them freebies, small gifts and services, either on special occasion or as a part of a campaign especially focused on maintaining their loyalty.

8.      Keep your service standard up - Or even raise it if possible. Don't slack off just because you know them.

9.      Ask for feed-back - Old clients are a very valuable source of feed-back. Even more so, asking for feed-back let's them know you are sensitive to their needs. Also, very likely, the next time they bring their business to you, your services will be even better than the last time.

10.  Throw a party for your old customers - This is a great way to maintain relationships. Who doesn't love parties?

11.  Get together every now and then - Meet for lunch or coffee, it will be a good opportunity to find out if they still need you.

Taking care of the client is about making sure that their needs are met.  A client who feels they have been well taken care of will be a happy client.  A happy client will feel more loyalty to the company who takes care of them.  And loyalty is what quality customer service is all about.