A lot goes into ensuring business success: managing business finances, handling employees, keeping the stockpile full, marketing your products, and the list goes on. It is even more challenging when your business’s consumer aspect is being discussed, especially when product competition gets stiffer each day. In Marketing Week (2019), it was found that 61% of consumers shift brands at least once a year because of luring new opportunities brought by other competing brands. When many factors can easily influence consumers, how can you ensure that they stay within your walls and be true loyalists in this day and age? Here are ten ways:

1. Make them feel involved.
   Gather your potential and current customers on your social media platforms by posting helpful content and poll questions. Through this, you can forge their involvement and elicit active participation from their end. Not only will such activities create a social presence and a sense of community, but they will also foster emotional connections towards your brand and make your social media marketing strategy even more effective.
2. Attend to their needs exclusively.
   You want to segment your customers based on their loyalty and make an exclusive approach to them. This will seem as if they have a front-row ticket or a backstage pass on a concert. Customers love when their loyalty is reciprocated with privileges, and one way to demonstrate that is to assist them with priority and exclusivity. You can make two sets of communication lines for your priority and regular customers, respectively. In this way, you have two channels that you can finetune based on the approach that their needs and profiles demand.
3. Take note of their birthdays and other special occasions.
   Customers love surprises on their birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Utilize your email platform to get such a list and jumpstart the giving. These do not always have to be physical presents in form. A simple digital coupon or an item they can claim along with any prevailing discount can work just the same. Remember, it is always the thought that counts. Even a newsletter that greets them on their special day can already brighten it up.
4. Let their first purchase be worth remembering.
   First impressions last, and for customers, it will always be their first purchase that makes or breaks their loyalty. A good idea to win a first-time customer and ensure returns would be to provide them with a practical gift such as a reusable bag. This goes best with your go green advocacy and reduces your overheads for plastic and unnecessary packaging bags if you can encourage them to bring it on their next purchase. It will also be sort of a walking advertisement for you.
5. Provide them with loyalty cards.
   Loyalty cards help make the loyal community official. They can be in the form of a physical card or a cloud-based digital card to earn stamps for every visit. On their fifth visit, they can be offered a free drink. A ten percent discount can also be availed on their 10th purchase. Loyalty card stamping provides a sense of continuity in their frequency of visits.
6. Gift them for being in your social circle.
   Of course, if you have designed a loyalty program for them, it should have its unique benefits. It will be a pleasing experience for them if being in your community can provide them access to the first dibs of your new products or discounts coupons. Because of such an advantage, they will also be waiting for and wanting more.
7. Ask them for feedback.
   Customer feedback is fundamental in making informed decisions about any innovations and changes you wish to perform on your products or services. Additionally, it can serve as a springboard for knowing how satisfied your customers are with their purchases and or your brand. Getting to know more of what they have to say can make them feel their voice is essential to the growth and success of your company — this is a form of engagement beyond compare.
8. Participate in advocacy.
   Environmental, gender, human rights, and other non-political advocacies can help put your brand in a good light. Customers regard these advocacies, and knowing that you support causes and take social responsibility can bring you closer to them. While it does not necessarily mean you should go out of your establishment and be in these events on foot, you can indeed find small but meaningful ways to let them know you belong.
9. Walk the extra mile.
   Have a proactive approach to every aspect of your service. Perhaps you may want to clean each cart and hand it to your customers personally, ensure a product delivery even before a time promised, or simply staying true to an available live support 24 hours a day. There are so many ways where we can offer help and assistance to our customers. All we need is to act on it and keep our promises.
10. Train your front liners for engagement.
    Your employees reflect your brand. They are at the forefront of every service, so you must train them in such a way that responds to what your brand projects. When they are equipped with the appropriate techniques and strategies to build relationships with your customers, they are more likely to improve customer experience, their loyalty and contribute to solid brand reputation management.