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If you aren’t looking for ways to gain repeat business in 2023, you’re missing out on a proven opportunity to make more money. That’s because studies show that customers spend an average of 67% more within the next three years with you if they keep returning, according to Bain & Company research. Additionally, many new customers will come as referrals from your current repeat customers.
Customer loyalty isn’t a complex thing to attract. However, once you show that you offer something beyond the competition through an easy, personalized shopping experience, you’re much more likely to earn that loyalty fast. You can then use their positive feedback to attract even more customers through search-engine-optimized (SEO) reviews. Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Upgrade to Streamlined Merchant Services
Let’s take a minute to talk about your B2C merchant services and how the right ones can keep your payment processing system streamlined. For example, giving customers an easy way to pay by credit card or debit card, both in person and online, shows that you tailor your business to meet the client’s needs through every stage of the sales funnel.
If you need to process an in-house chargeback or run a check verification, having the right merchant services will be just one added thing that makes a satisfied customer want to return. The right payment gateway should also give you access to 24/7 merchant services, so if anything goes wrong with the transaction, you can make it right quickly. For example, if you choose to partner with Western Alliance Bank, the company’s merchant services are handled through its vendor, Heartland, which is one of the nation’s leading providers. Choosing a trusted expert in the industry can ensure that your payment and point-of-sale solutions are streamlined and that your customers have a positive and productive experience with you.
2. Create a Personal Experience
All marketers know that personalization is the key to retaining customers. It can be done in different ways, but the result is always the same—the customer is likely to return. Consider research conducted by Epsilon that shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences.
These numbers are so high because offering customers a personal experience does something very important: it makes your customer feel like an individual. It shows them that you appreciate their business enough to go out of your way to acknowledge them by name. They’re not just a faceless customer making a transaction. That’s huge when competing against Amazon and other marketplaces that might be cheaper but can’t offer what you can as a smaller or medium-sized business.
3. Ask for Reviews
As marketplaces move increasingly into a digital space, it’s no surprise that consumers read online reviews before doing business with a company or individual. And reading positive reviews online often makes them more likely to buy a product or service.
Not only will this strategy help bring in new customers, but it will also help them trust you as a professional service and make them more likely to purchase from you again. As an added benefit, it will help boost your SEO ranking since Google’s algorithm likely looks at online reviews as a factor when determining where to rank a business in the local pack.
The Secret to Business Success
Finding business success requires a lot of hard work and great effort put into building and maintaining relationships. You’ll find that satisfied customers will be the ones who carry your business through an economic downturn and will be most likely to shop with you in the future despite competitors seeking their attention (and money). Good luck!
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