(English - 4 min reading)
You will have many more happy and satisfied clients if you create valuable and memorable experiences for them.
It is for this reason that you can turn loyal customers into advocates.
This is due to the fact that brand advocacy has always been about attracting, gaining, and retaining new customers.
A brand advocate is more than just a fan. It is your secret marketing team that helps you spread the word about your business. As a result, they influence their own network to become customers.
But, how do you do this?
By nurturing your brand and making sure that everything is spot on, while maintaining a certain level of flexibility in order to adapt to your customers' changing needs. In this way, you can be more competitive, as you will remain relevant to your customers.
Making sure the company's culture aligns with its mission, vision, values, and purpose, and that all of this is communicated to your team so that they understand and buy into it, will help you in having a more cohesive brand.
Treat your company’s brand as if it was you. Think of the good things you would like people to say about you when you exit a room. How would you like to be remembered? How would you present yourself for a job interview? What type of personality would you have?
Focus on building a reputation as a thought leader in your field, by demonstrating that you are a trusted provider who understands the customers needs and has the solution for it.
Keep in mind that the goal should be to stay top of mind for your customers during their awareness stage, once they are ready to make a decision, you are their obvious choice.
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do”
- Henry Ford
- Henry Ford
I’ve compiled a list of proven key actions to achieve this:
1. Provide a Quality Product - You should always work on offering your best to your customers and this should be an ongoing process. No one wants to buy a product that doesn't even look good.
2. Use an Omnichannel Approach - Allow your customers to engage with your brand on their own terms, leading to a better customer experience overall. Make sure you offer different ways for your customers to communicate with you.
3. Streamline Your Customer Service - Eliminate unnecessary customer-related tasks or steps to improve the user experience. The sooner the problem is resolved the better the experience will be.
4. Offer a Personalized Service - Deliver a customized service that caters to the exact needs and wants of your customer. They will feel more connected to your brand. The more you know your customer, the deeper the connection will be.
5. Offer Appealing Loyalty Programs - By introducing a loyalty program, you can demonstrate your value for your customers and begin building a stronger relationship with them. You are not only expected to provide excellent service, but also to demonstrate that you value your customers by rewarding their loyalty towards your brand.
6. Find Your Advocates - Find those satisfied customers that are willing and ready to spread brand awareness for you. Build a community around your brand by keeping an active voice, but more importantly by paying attention to what your customers do.
7. Ask for Feedback and Use Testimonials - You should always be in communication with your customers. Your customers appreciate it when you ask for their feedback, and you can use that insight to strengthen your relationship and build loyalty.
8. Utilize User-Generated Content Through Social Media Engagement - Take time to create content generated through social engagement from your different social media channels as this can help you increase exponentially your brand engagement with your online community.
9. Build a Supportive Community - Your customers should feel supported, helped and heard by you. If a customer needs help with a product or service from you, you should be their first option.
10. Develop Strong Referral Programs - Create programs that understand your community, build referral programs that are appealing to your customers, so that they take action when needed.
11. Employ a User-Engagement Strategy - Build a plan to increase customer satisfaction by creating more positive interactions with them. Customer experience is one of the most important reasons people choose to do business with a company.
Overall, it is important to always be looking for ways to improve, to keep a customer-centric service, to better your communication with customers on a regular basis, and implement customers' feedback as soon as possible.
Specially now that it is so easy for customers to have options, to gather information and that they are exposed to hundreds of brands for a single product or service.
There are no magic tricks to succeed. Just remember that you must be willing to change, adapt and help your customers more than anything.
Ask yourself if what you are doing today will be remembered by your clients tomorrow?
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