How To Get Loyal Customers On Small Business?

Want to increase the ROI of your small business at the fastest pace? Focus on making loyal customers. In a low-budget business, you don’t have enough capital for inventory and marketing. Existing customers are the biggest assets that can turn your table! But how to get loyal customers for small businesses?

In big business, you have a large budget for advertising/marketing and branding. This is not the case in small businesses. You will have limitations here, so a strategy is essential to hold your customers. Firstly, emphasis should be placed on your product development and services.

If your items are good, customers will surely purchase. However, a loyalty program is what you need to hold the customers to your business.

Besides, you should build good relationships with loyal customers, offer discounts, and 24/7 support. This way, they will be loyal to your business and be a regular customer. In this guide, we will share with you details about getting loyal customers for small businesses. So, let’s begin-

What Do You Mean By Loyal Customer?

Loyal customers are those who purchase from you on a regular basis. They are satisfied with your services and return to you for further purchases. The main reason for such loyalty is a good shopping experience.

Whether it's a small or big business, online or offline business, loyal customers are a crucial asset in growing. It is normal for a customer to make two or three consecutive purchases from you. But you need to make efforts to make them loyal and prevent them from going to your competitors.

This is why you must come up with strategies like discounts, rewards, sales, etc. When customers remain loyal to your business for years, you can add them to your VIP membership and offer them exceptional services.

For this, you can charge a fee and earn revenue. This way, you can grow your small business to a big one.

Why Is Customer Loyalty Important For Small Business?

Unlike big industrial-grade businesses, you don’t have a high budget and product inventory in a small business. These low-budget businesses are not fortunate enough to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising their product.

So, customer loyalty matters the most for small businesses to grow. Instead of marketing in the deep sea, the best thing that works here is making the existing customers loyal. The conversion rate of the existing customers is around 60%-70% in contrast to 5%-10% of the new customers.

Thus, you can boost your profit margin many times if the customer that you have at present becomes loyal and reportedly purchases from you.

A 5% increase in customer retention can increase your profit margin by 25%-95%! This is why loyal customers are so important for small businesses. Here are how loyal customers help small businesses to grow:

• Frequently spends on your store and increases your sales.
• Suggests friends, family, and known ones to shop from you.
• Enjoys the discounts for their loyalty and encourages others to join the membership.
• Don’t go to your competitors to shop; instead, give your business priority.
• Trusts and have reliability in your business, so they are ready to pay more for better services.
• If something goes wrong with your business, loyal customers are ready to forgive.

Apart from this, recurring new customers is five times more expensive than keeping loyal customers. For small businesses, each penny of the investment matters. So, loyal customers allow them to have better visuals of their business and work on further investment wisely. 

Top 13 Ways To Get Loyal Customers On Small Business

There is no alternative to loyal customers for any kind of business, whether small or big. This is why successful stores like Sephora, Starbucks, Amazon, and many more focus on loyal customers.

They are your ladders to make your small business a lot bigger. To make this possible, we are sharing 13 tips to implement in your business to capture loyal customers: 

Focus on The First Experience of The Customer

A customer will be loyal to your business only if they are satisfied with your services on their first try. If their first experience is poor, they will never return to your store for further purchases. That is why you should give the best treatment to new customers.

Make sure they are happy with your services and will get back to you with future deals. If you are running a physical store, keep their shopping experience smooth. Have a well-decorated store to provide a comfortable shopping experience.

You should also appoint experienced sales representatives to address the customers with respect. If you can make the customers feel special, they will surely become loyal to your business. In the case of online business, prioritize the UX and UI of your website.

The speed of the website also plays a crucial role in user experience. Besides, focus on the design, layout, and theme of your store. This will impress your visitor and make a place in their mind.

Also, focus on smooth checkout and fast delivery. While running an online business, impressive shipment is a great tool to grab loyal customers. You can consider fulfillment services for hassle-free shipments.

Build A Strong Online Presence

In this digital era, your business must have a solid online presence to build trust and reliability. The ranking of your website or the followers on your Facebook defines how popular and active your brand is.

This is why you should always focus on your business website and social media engagement, even if you have a physical store. Here are some tips to build a strong online presence for your business:

• Maintain a professional website for your business. It is an online storefront, so make sure your website is well-designed and user-friendly.
• Publish blogs or articles on a regular basis to keep your website active.
• Add your business profile to your website to build reliability.
• You must have an active profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Launch a video series on your website. You can post tutorials and other educational videos related to your product. In this case, TikTok is a good platform for video marketing.

Partner With a Micro-Influencer

Influencers have a strong fan base and a huge audience. Partnering with them to promote your business can boost your sales by many times. This is the best way to reach the maximum audience in the least amount of time. This idea will undoubtedly work for you if you have a new business.

When your product is promoted via a well-known influencer, people easily rely on it. Influencers have a face value that will help you build a solid brand. If you have a good budget in hand, you can also partner with celebrities.

However, it would help if you offered discounts and loyalty facilities when advertising your product through influencers. This will be an effective strategy to grab audiences’ attention toward your brand.

Brand promotion in Facebook Live is on trend. You can offer discounts and gifts to the audience commenting or sharing your videos. This will create engagement and work as an effective marketing technique.

Offer Paid Membership

You will be shocked to know that 65% of the customers in a survey consider a subscription or paid membership. Running a subscription program can help you gain loyal customers who will always connect to your business.

As a small business owner, you will benefit from the subscription fees. This will play a great role in increasing your revenue and brand value. Costco is a great example of running a pay-to-join membership for your business. Gold membership charges $60/year.

This fee allows them to sell products at a much cheaper rate compared to the competitors. Besides, you can only shop from Costco if you are a member.

Thus, you will get loyal customers for your business who will always purchase from you. However, keep the membership flexible so they can cancel it anytime. Given such a facility, the customers won’t hesitate to pay fees for membership.

Deliver Quality Product & Exclusive Service

To have loyal customers, you need to be loyal to your services. Your products must be of good quality to satisfy customers' requirements. This will increase the chances of repeat purchases. In a small business, you have low inventory, so management is easy.

Thus, you have the scope to provide quality assurance to consumers. Besides, it becomes much easier when you are manufacturing your own product. Before handing over any product, ensure it is in the right condition and free from defects.

In this case, the product's packaging is crucial, especially for online businesses. You have handed over the product to the fulfillment service in good condition. But is there any guarantee that the buyer will receive the parcel in the same condition? There always remains a risk while shipping.

So, keep your packaging top-notch. If your product is prone to break, use paper or bubble wrap to protect it. Customization of your packaging can also help to market your small business. For instance, you can send cards, memos, vouchers, coupons, or gifts with packaging.

Run Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are an effective way for small businesses to make their store engaging and boost sales. In such a program, customers are offered to join a reward system free of cost. Usually, this process goes through tires or levels.

As the members spend more, they upgrade to higher tires. And with upper tires, they get better discounts and better facilities. Whether it's a small or big business, loyalty programs are a great strategy to hold customers. This encourages the members to repeat purchases.

Points are added to their account as they spend a fixed amount in your store. Later, using these points, they can redeem cash or get discounts, coupons, or vouchers.

Popular brands like Starbucks and Shepora run successful loyalty programs. Below, we are adding some effective categories of loyalty programs that you can implement in your small business:

• Point & Discount Programs

Point and discount programs are the most popular and widely used category of loyalty programs. In this strategy, your customer will get points for spending on your store. And when you have a good amount of points, you can redeem them for discounts.

For example- for every $1 spent, you can give 10 points. And for every 100 points, they will get $1 off. By implementing this strategy, you can boost your business's sales.

• Reward Programs

Reward-based loyalty programs offer benefits or special deals to members. For instance, if they purchase three pieces of any item, they will get the 4th one for free.

Besides, you can also offer discount vouchers, free gifts, concert tickets, trips, or any event, etc. This type of program is common in the festive season. However, you can frequently launch reward programs to keep your store engaging throughout the year.

• Referrals

Word of mouth always works to build trust in any brand. And to take this task to the next level, a referral program will be an excellent strategy for your business. With this, you can encourage your existing customers to invite their friends, families, and known ones to shop from your store.

To appreciate their contribution to growing your business, offer discounts, gifts, and coupons to the customer. If you are running a Shopify store, there are some amazing referral apps that can assist you.

Integrating these apps into your store will automate the referral system. For every successful referral, the customer will receive their rewards automatically. Thus, you do not need to deal with the hassle of manual referral maintenance.

• Birthday Rewards

Birthday rewards are often overlooked, but they can be a great way to get loyal customers. This can be a part of resting your business's brand awareness. On your customers' birthday, you can send them greeting messages and offer discounts.

This can be a free gift, shopping voucher, or a free meal, etc. Starbucks uses this strategy for its business. On their customers' birthdays, they offer them a free drink from their expensive list of menu items. Thus, the customers feel special and become loyal to the brand.

You can also start this strategy for your small business. This trend will pass from mouth to mouth and will do great marketing for your business. Besides, there are several apps available to automate the loyalty program for online storefronts. This will make your loyalty campaign much more convenient.

Effective Marketing

Only loyalty programs will not be effective if you don’t promote it. For this, you will need to invest your time in marketing. Big brands have marketing teams that prompt their business to grow sales.

As a small business owner, it is very natural that you will not want to invest in appointing marketing experts. But there is nothing to worry about; you can do this on your own without expertise. Here are some areas to focus on:

• Email Marketing

Do you know business earns 138% more when they do email marketing? It is 40 more effective than social media marketing. Store the data of your customers when they shop from your store. Then, use this information for email marketing.

You can inform your customers about upcoming collections, discounts/offers/sales, or special deals. But doesn’t it seem a hassle to send all customers emails? No worries; you can automate this process. Shopify store owners can integrate their store into apps that make email marketing much more convenient.

Shopify has its own app, Shopify Email, which has pre-built automation templates to send emails to the right customer. You can also personalize your emails.

Moreover, there is an option to allow the receiver to buy products directly via email. However, for more advanced emailing options, Shopify offers third-party app integration. You can get them directly from the Shopify app store.

• Social Media

Whether your business is based on physical stores or online, you must have a solid presence on social media. This plays a great role in upgrading your brand value and reliability. The popular platforms for social media marketing are- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

You must post regularly and keep your audience engaged on these platforms. You can also post your product and business portfolio videos to YouTube to build reliability. Tutorial videos are on trend and work great in boosting sales.

• SMS Marketing

Though SMS is not popular now, you can use this direct marketing method to reach your potential customers. It notifies your customer on their phone in unconventional ways.

So, even if they are not using the internet, your message will help them. Thus, you can promote special offers and discounts or share your achievements with your loyal customers.

• Run Ads

Running ad campaigns on Google and social media platforms is a good strategy for all types of businesses. If your small business has budget issues, you can run low-budget campaigns. Thus, you can reach your target audience faster.

• Wi-Fi Marketing

If you have a physical store, this strategy will work for you. By providing free Wi-Fi facilities, you can grab customers' attention toward your store.

This works best for restaurants, hotels, salons, gyms, spas, and other similar businesses. The customer thus can enjoy their service with a strong internet connection. This enhances their user experience and encourages them to spend more time on your store.

Offer Personalized Services

Personalization is an effective strategy to get loyal customers. For this, you should group your customers into different categories based on where they live, their occupation, shopping habits, etc. This will help you to offer tailored services for each group.

For online businesses, grouping will assist you in sending tailored ads to the customer based on their needs. Thus, they will always get the item that they are looking for. This way, you can get loyal customers who will frequently purchase from your store.

Selling On Multiple Channels

It's great to have a full-fledged e-commerce store. But selling on multiple channels will widen your reach. The one issue that you may face while running an online store is SERP ranking and online presence. Thus, selling on multiple channels like the marketplace and social media will boost your visibility.

For instance, if a customer purchases an item from Amazon, he will look for your brand for the next purchase. Here, Amazon introduces your business to the new customer. And now, with the quality you provide, you can turn them into loyal customers.

However, keep payment flexibility in mind when selling products on multiple channels. You will enjoy the added benefit here if you are running a Shopify store. Shopify has its own gateway Shopify Payments, which saves you from transaction fees.

This way, your customers will have a smooth checkout experience, and this will be an additional cause to keep them loyal. Besides, it also allows 100 other third-party payment options, such as Stripe, PayPal, etc. However, you will need to pay transaction fees to use these options.

Use Customers Data Effectively

Customer data is a great asset for small businesses. You can use these in several ways to enhance the customers' shopping experience. For instance, using Shopify Shop Pay, you can save customers' checkout details. This includes their bank details, address, etc.

So the next time they purchase from your store, they do not need to input this information repeatedly. The software already saves the data and offers them a one-click checkout solution. This way shopping becomes smooth, fast and easy.

Apart from this, you can also use customer data for marketing. For instance, the email address and phone number can be used to keep them updated on your business. You can notify them about the new arrivals, discounts, festive sales, etc. This will also keep your store engaging.

Full-Time Customer Service

If you want to get loyal customers, focus on building good relationships with them. This is why you give your 100% to satisfy them with your services. If they face any issues, address them politely and give a solution. This will build trust and a good bond between the customer and the business.

Late response is a major issue for customers when they have any queries or want to contact the authority. This loses their interest in your business, and they look for alternative options. Having a 24/7 response will keep them connected.

As a small business, you may not arrange a help team for all-day-long support. But a chatbot will help you in this case. Save all the common queries that you are often asked and launch the bot to answer their queries.

Monitor Feedback & Track Performance

Always keep in check the performance of your business and customer interaction. It is essential for both online and offline business. Go through the sales number, conversion rate, and profit margin to track your business growth. You should also analyze customer interaction and feedback.

If you are selling online, review your product's reviews and comments. See if they are satisfied with your service or not. If you find any improvement requirements, take action ASAP. Besides, when any customer companies about your services, handle that with care.

Your behavior and professionalism must impress them to continue further relationships. The Shopify store owners get additional benefits in this regard. Shopify is integrated with advanced analytical tools and reporting systems.

This allows you to track sales performance directly from your dashboard. As you go from low-tire to high-tire plans, the analytical tool gets advanced with more features. Apart from these, the Shopify app store has 400+ third-party apps to assist you with analytics.

Show Gratitude

You have yet to build a brand reputation as a small business owner. So treat your customers well and get them involved in your business. You must offer them special discounts at the beginning and add them to the loyalty program.

Besides, celebrate your milestone and success with your loyal customers. Make them feel they are a valuable part of your business. This way, you can grow your business and build brand awareness.

Best Shopify Apps To Get Loyal Customers On Small Business

 To get loyal customers, you must implement a solid strategy. To do so, you need to focus on some basic aspects. These include- marketing, search engine optimization, fast delivery, and running loyalty programs. To assist you with all these, here are some amazing apps for Shopify users.

Using these apps, you can automate many functions of your store and enhance the customer's user experience. You will get more than 8000 apps on the Shopify app store. Simply go to the store, search for categories, and pick the best apps for your store.

Related Shopify Apps For Your Store:

The Bottom Line

You need to focus on your services to get loyal customers in small businesses. First, experience plays a crucial role in influencing the customer to spend more. Besides, a solid online presence is essential for all types of business, whether commerce or physical stores.

Target social media and other marketplaces to sell your product. Your business website should be well organized and active to build trust. Above all, a successful loyalty program will aid you in holding the customers.

You can also go for paid membership and analyze your business model. Doing so will increase revenue and help you gain loyal customers. If you run a Shopify store, alternative options exist to make money rather than just selling products.

All these will help you grow your business. Besides, if you need financial support, Shopify Capital's loaning facility is a great relief. However, this facility is not available for all Shopify users. You must be a US-based merchant and fulfill other requirements to get the loan facility.

Frequently Asked Questions