Building brand loyalty is critical to business success, particularly during times of economic uncertainty and dipping revenues (62.7% of small business owners say their profits have declined due to this inflation and an uncertain market) – which is why it’s now more important than ever to invest in top notch customer experiences across every step of the customer journey.

While this process doesn’t happen overnight, there are immediate actions that can be taken to start companies on the right path. Here are four strategies for businesses to start implementing today to build brand loyalty and ultimately stand out against competitors in times of economic uncertainty:

Customer service is king

First impressions matter. From the initial call with a customer, businesses should be putting their best foot forward – meaning everyone on the team should be trained in how to speak to the consumer. To help achieve this, businesses can implement solutions like call recording to review each phone call, note areas for growth and help train their staff to have better conversations with customers from the get go.

Businesses can even take it a step further by adopting tools with built in AI capabilities to listen for relevant keywords – positive or negative – to help identify conversation trends. Businesses can cut through the weeds to find key words and phrases that indicate how employees are communicating with customers, and where there’s room for growth.

But quality service shouldn’t just be prioritized on the phone – it should be extended to every channel a business uses to communicate with customers. By utilizing conversation intelligence, for example, businesses can also gain insight into exactly what content resonates best with each customer on an individual basis. And with this data, businesses are able to tailor content across multiple channels thus creating exceptional, one-of-a-kind experiences for customers across both owned and paid channels like social media.

Leverage personalized customer interactions

Clever slogans and creative ad campaigns alone aren’t cutting it anymore. With so much noise and so many brands vying for attention, consumers are turning numb to it all. And who could blame them — 70% of customers reportedly receive irrelevant ads at least once a month.

Customers want to feel like they matter – even when they are one of hundreds you may have spoken with in the past week. In fact, recent McKinsey research shows that a whopping 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. Having a modern business communications solution like Lead Center in hand makes it easy to ensure every lead and customer feels like a VIP.

Equipped with specific data points for each customer interaction – why they are calling, how they found you, and who they spoke with previously – customers will be wowed by the level of personalization you’re able to deliver no matter the channel through which they’re contacting you.

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Offer real time insight into ROI

While reporting may be viewed as administrative, it’s a necessity to understand which marketing tactics and campaigns result in the valuable calls and form submissions that affect the bottom line. Brand loyalty can take years to build, but mere minutes to tear down. If consumers encounter glitches or bad customer experiences, it erodes that loyalty – often before the business even realizes.

Real-time reporting guarantees businesses can spot (and solve) a problem long before that erosion ebbs away a customer. What’s more, having this data in hand informs what resonates with customers, enabling companies to make marketing decisions with surgical precision and ultimately invest in more of what customers like.

Listen to customer feedback

One of the biggest keys to retaining customers and boosting brand loyalty is to know how they feel and act on it. When you understand customer sentiment and what they like/dislike, you can refine your approach and better meet their needs. Feedback forms can give your business valuable insights into the customer experience that your existing customer data fails to address.

Businesses should even take it a step further and make it known when customer feedback is implemented. Oftentimes, brands shy away from making a splash about a fix that resulted from getting tough feedback. But remember: authenticity breeds trust and loyalty.

By owning mistakes, companies are casted as the hero of the story! And when customers feel their voice was heard, they will be less likely to run away after one negative interaction.

At the end of the day, customers have the final vote on which businesses succeed and which ones fail. If they are going to spend money and remain loyal to a brand, they need to feel good about the relationship – which only comes with transparency.

By implementing the strategies shared above, businesses are empowered to build lasting relationships with their customers and ultimately boost the brand loyalty that is crucial for success right now and long into the future.

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