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Building B2B loyalty is a golden goose of modern business and can have a major positive impact on your company. With a customer-centric approach, your business aligns itself with one that cares and makes efforts to ensure client needs are met. But how is this done? Most companies take care and put a lot of effort into building loyalty with customers. From exploring a narrative that resonates with clients to personalized services, here are some ideal examples.
Stay Consistent with Branding
The key to successful branding is cultivating long-term relationships. Emails, prompt delivery and even packaging contribute to consistent branding that a customer comes to appreciate and trust. Something as simple as custom boxes for your business can make a huge difference, and can make a lasting impression. As a core part of branding, consistent packaging alone is robust, especially when it resonates with the customer, such as using recycled materials.
Building B2B Loyalty with a Narrative
A narrative might not be something you think from a business perspective. However, 62% of marketers are convinced that a strong narrative is compelling for sales. Some of the world’s biggest companies present a narrative and use it to exploit nostalgia. Here’s how to begin:
- State the mission and vision through what the company wants to achieve and how.
- Storytelling connects with customers on an emotional level for powerful branding.
- Ensure a narrative engages customers and differentiates your brand from others.
- Encourage a sense of community with a focus on a specific segment or niche.
- Maintain consistency with the narrative in terms of story, value, and even tone.
Using a narrative offers many benefits, such as helping your company relay relevant information to customers. It also provides a steady framework from which to work moving forward, that keeps company values, and the vision on track and in-line with the purpose for engagement.
Focus on the Customer
Think about how much people complain about customer service and how they are treated as a number by the companies they use. Now, think about how beneficial it could be for your company to step in and offer services with a caring attitude. Do you think those customers would remain with a faceless organization that treats them like nothing, or would they consider switching to you? The customer isn’t always right, but they are always a number one priority.
Exceed Client Expectations
Further to offering excellent customer service, you can take it to another level. So many services today overpromise and underdeliver. So, what if you did the opposite? The best way to get ahead is to assess what others are doing wrong and fill the gap. When meeting with clients and coming to an arrangement, stay within safe limits of operation and never promise something you can’t deliver. Instead, make it your mission to go above and beyond what customers expect.
Make Contact Easy
One of the biggest complaints modern customers have is just getting through to a service to resolve an issue. How hard is it really to pick up the phone, answer an email, or check a ticketed item? The truth is that it does become challenging with large volumes of customers. However, contact can be outsourced to a third party that uses AI chatbots, online chats, and ticket requests. As a small business, a dedicated email for customer service is recommended.
Offer Engaging Loyalty Programs
Loyalty has to be earned, but it can also be semi-bought too! Loyalty programs are a powerful way to get people on board with what you are offering. This could be as simple as offering a discount for first-time customers. However, it doesn’t pay to leave out existing customers either. Perhaps you can offer money off for every x amount of orders. The goal is to make customers feel appreciated while also benefiting the company with offers that don’t break the bank.
Building B2B Loyalty with a USP
Loyalty has to be earned in business, but loyal customers spend on average 43% more on brands that they feel connected to. A unique selling point (USP) can be communicated in various ways, even as a part of an effective SEO strategy, through your branding efforts.
How do you come up with a unique selling point?
More than an enticing tagline, a USP must mean something. Think about customer needs and how they relate to your mission statement and company vision, and work from there.
How do you present a USP?
A good USP is one-of-a-kind and never generic. If everyone else is offering the same, you will drown in a sea of mediocrity. A USP is memorable, fills a need, and resonates with customers.
What is a good example of a USP?
Take a pizza company, for example. There are tons, but an example of a USP is hot pizza in 20 minutes. This simple offer demonstrates a company’s commitment to speed and convenience.
Integrate the USP into loyalty programs
If you offer any kind of loyalty scheme, a built-in USP can be powerful. A points program is a good example, where earned points can be redeemed for perks such as priority support.
Segment the audience
A single USP may not appeal to every customer. However, multiple USPs can be applied across various audience segments. This helps you to tailor services and marketing with greater impact.
It is something of a challenge, but offering a USP will help you stand out from others. It also helps define market position and attract customers. Of course, it relies on effective communication to have an impact on loyalty, which can be assisted by strong brand recognition.
Anticipate Customer Needs and Act
One of the biggest challenges of modern business is understanding customer needs, but it is critical. You can command loyalty when you consistently meet the needs of clients and fulfill their expectations. A consistent and reliable service greatly increases the chances that a customer will retain your services. Leveraging data and analyzing the current market are two effective methods of anticipating problems, so you can work on solutions from there.
Create an Information Hub
Providing a service is only a small part of modern business. Today, customers want a little more for their money. However, this isn’t as challenging as you might think and doesn’t cost much. With minimal investment, you can set up an information hub through a blog or YouTube channel. This provides information that a customer might need, establishing grounds for trust. However, it is also a golden opportunity to discreetly showcase your expertise and what you can offer.
Encourage Sharing of Experiences
Reviews are not to be shied away from, even the bad ones! Testimonials are other online reviews that are a goldmine of data. When a customer leaves a good review, they are stating your business is the right one for specific needs, which is powerful enough. However, a bad review also offers information from the horse’s mouth about what you are doing wrong. Encouraging honest reviews also demonstrates a commitment to improving your services.
Review, Refine, and Improve
What’s the point of all that data if you don’t act upon it? Data is valuable for making meaningful changes in any business and shouldn’t be ignored. From customer service calls, reviews, and testimonials, scrape all the available data you can, especially criticism. With this valuable data in hand, you can highlight areas for improvement. However, customers also love it when you take their considerations and requests into account and make changes based on their needs.
Personalize when Building B2B Loyalty
A modern and popular trend in business loyalty is personalization. 91% of companies with more than 10 employees use a CRM system to manage customers and accumulate data. You can use CRM data to segment customers and provide a more detailed and tailored experience:
- Use available customer data to understand personas, behaviors, and preferences.
- Tailor emails, website experiences, and other communication channels for the customer.
- Focus on meaningful engagement with personal interactions from friendly sales teams.
- Target specific rewards based on purchase history, specific industry, and relevancy.
- Create a tailored onboarding process for new customers with relevant offers.
Personalization in B2B marketing is critical for numerous reasons, including higher engagement, conversion rates, and customer relationships. Loyalty is increased when a business understands customer needs on an individual level and tailors experiences that resonate.
Become Part of a Community
Relationships are vital in modern business and come with huge benefits. However, it can take a long time to cultivate meaningful business relationships, even now! Today, there are more ways than ever to connect with customers and maintain a solid relationship. One of the most powerful is through like-minded communities online. Forums, social media groups, and professional organizations provide the platforms needed to work towards common industry goals.
Summary
Consistent branding is a fundamental first step towards building B2B loyalty. However, with so much competition, it helps to offer a unique selling point (USP). This should set your business apart and work towards poaching customers from competitors. While competition is good, there are also benefits to be gained through partner and customer communities of like-mindedness.
