After the zipper broke on a pair of Uggs she bought, Beth decided to call Zappos’ customer service.

Over two months, Zappos covered four shipments, messy logistics, and saved Beth $60, ensuring she got great boots along with the world’s best customer service. She later received a handwritten thank-you card from the team. Seems over-the-top? Think again. Not only did Zappos gain a loyal customer, but Beth also blogged about the amazing experience she had.

Two birds, one stone.

WHY IS CUSTOMER LOYALTY SO VALUABLE?

For marketers, recent customers are a gold mine.

Many will instead direct their attention towards getting customers in the door and pay no heed to the line by the exit. Yet, unless your customers had a bad experience, there is no reason why they wouldn’t buy from you again.

Except one: You don’t ask them.

Getting high-quality leads is an issue for many marketing teams. So, reach out to your current customers. It’s 25 times cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one. And when your customers trust you, they’ll market for you. Nothing can compete with praise from a friend.

When customers purchase habitually and love your brand, marketing becomes effortless. This is your goal. So, let’s build your brand a following.

INCREASING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Brand announcements, events, and stories are great ways to communicate with your customers. When you send a handwritten letter without pushing a sale, it cultivates trust. Invest in the relationship now; the purchases will come.

Abandoned cart emails and follow-up texts are commonplace to your customers. A handwritten note immediately stands out. Time your letters to customer actions, your typical churn, or follow Wayfair, Pureplates, and Vuori. They use custom actions of a prospect to time their marketing. Combine an outstanding medium with a feeling of importance and perfect timing, and incredible ROI awaits you.

Send handwritten thank-you cards to new customers to welcome them to your brand and secure loyalty. You can later ask for a review or a referral to strengthen loyalty and social proof or send upsells and cross-sells. When your customer reads a handwritten recommendation, they’ll see it in an honest light and find it hard to ignore.

Personalized offers will make 4 in 5 of your customers stay loyal. They want you to appreciate their loyalty. Uber, Nordstrom, and Starbucks all implement this through individual loyalty programs. Customers feel motivated to use their discounts, so they buy more, get more discounts, and purchases quickly become a habit.

HANDWRITTEN NOTES: THE ACE UP YOUR SLEEVE

Handwritten notes have a knack for building customer loyalty. Why are they so effective?

The key is perceived value: how much your customers think something is worth.

When your customer sees an email, they see mass production and little effort. In a handwritten note, your customer sees more than just the message. Along with the value of the card itself, they see your company’s time and effort, written into the ink.

Saving Beth time and money was all Zappos needed to secure loyalty. When they decided to send a handwritten thank-you note on top of everything else, they made the difference between Beth liking and truly loving Zappos.

At IgnitePost, we believe all your customers should fall into the latter.

Traditionally, handwritten notes have a full-time commitment attached. With IgnitePost, we’ll do all the work for you. Our notes appear exactly the same as human writing, so the perceived value sticks around with a mere fraction of the effort. At scale.

Wouldn’t your team love a fast-track to higher retention rates and organic growth?

Our customers do.

LEARN MORE

OR, READ ON ABOUT HOW SCORES OF FELLOW MARKETERS ARE

Using IgnitePost to Thank Customers

Using IgnitePost to Ask for Reviews

Using IgnitePost to Ask for Referrals

Capitalizing on the Relationship-Centric Era

REFERENCES

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/05/14/1501640/0/en/New-Survey-Reveals-Consumer-Conflict-between-Privacy-and-Personalization.html

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