GUEST BLOG: TOP TIPS ON GAINING CUSTOMER LOYALTY FOR TRADIES

04 Sep GUEST BLOG: TOP TIPS ON GAINING CUSTOMER LOYALTY FOR TRADIES

Gaining (and maintaining) customer loyalty in the trades doesn’t have to be difficult, and it’s a great way to ensure your business is always ticking over. So how do you go about it?

To get you started, we’ve come up with some tips, tools and strategies that not only help you build customer loyalty but contribute to the health of your business overall.

1. Stay on top of your online presence

As the loyalty journey starts well before you’ve even met the customer, it’s essential that your online presence is up-to-date, professional and consistent. This means maintaining your Google Business Profile and other online listings and making sure your website is optimised for local search.

2. Keep track of customer data
   Once you’ve got a customer, keep track of their data with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. This helps you streamline your business and enables you to grow your customers’ loyalty through automated follow-up texts or emails, or promotions of new products or services.
   
   
3. Add the personal touch

Be creative about the way you do business. For example, a roofer could send a text or email after a big storm, offering to check for any damage. A plumber might notice a broken toilet seat while on the job and offer to replace it for a nominal amount. Adding personal touches like these will help you stay top-of-mind and drive customer loyalty.

4. Request and manage reviews
   Ensuring that you have reviews, and you use them to your advantage, is key to growing customer loyalty and your Trades business. Ask for a review in a follow-up text or email when you’ve finished a job, manage them as they come in and watch your business grow online.
   
   
5. Stay connected on social
   Maintaining and growing your social media presence is a great way to stay connected with your customers, promote new products or services and build on customer loyalty. While this might seem time-consuming, a CRM tool can help you automate your social media posts, scheduling them and posting to your different platforms all from the one place.

So, once you’ve gained your customers’ loyalty, how do you maintain it?

The best way is to make them feel special. Reward their loyalty with dedicated promotions – a discount on their next product or service, a package deal for customers only, or a free upgrade or install. Again, be creative. The more your Trades business stands out from the crowd, the more likely you are to keep your current customers and reach new ones.

Want more tips and strategies for gaining customer loyalty? Read the full article here.