one simple, but neglected, key for building loyal customers

Today I am going to teach you not only why customer retention is so important, but how to do it. I’m going to give you my #1 very simple tip for creating super fans or, in other words, retaining high-quality customers that are willing to purchase from you again and again.

Why you should focus on your existing customers

According to small business trends, new customers cost five times more than an existing customer. What that means is you’ll spend five times the money trying to get someone who has not yet purchased from you to purchase something than you will to get someone who has already purchased from you to purchase something.

If it takes $10 for you to get an existing customer to purchase something from you, it would take you $50 to get a new customer. Yet so many of us focus all of our efforts on new customers. We’re constantly trying to drive new traffic and get new email subscribers, and we put so much of our focus there while there is a lot to be done with those who are already our customers.

I’ve got another statistic for you. This one is from Marketing Metrics, and they have found that you will sell anywhere between 5% to 20% of those people who are not yet your customers. So if 100 people join your email list, it’s likely that at some point in the future, anywhere between 5-20 of those people will eventually purchase something from you.

But if you have 100 current customers, around 60-70 of those hundred current customers are going to purchase from you a second time. So same thing here, I’m not saying don’t focus on getting new customers, we absolutely should spend time in that area. But why do we forget to focus on our existing customers?

Creating Super Fans

When you focus on those people who have already purchased from you, you build a very loyal fan base. One of my favorite teachers, Pat Flynn calls these people super fans. They are the people who will buy from you again and again and again. They are the people who will stand up for you online when somebody leaves a mean comment.  They are the people who will tell everyone about your new products without you even asking.

How do we create this type of customer loyalty? We want our customers to be sticky within our business. How do we get there? Well, one of my very favorite books is an old one.  It was written by my mission president, actually. It’s by Michael J. Glauser, Glorious Accidents: How Everyday Americans Create Thriving Companies. He was a very successful entrepreneur. He decided he really wanted to dig deep and figure out what makes someone successful as an entrepreneur, and he found a lot of things.

He traveled all over the country.  He interviewed huge corporations down to tiny little mom and pop shops. The book was published in 1998, the year I graduated from high school, and I read it when I got home from my mission. One of the things that stood out to me most about this book and the findings is that every single one of those entrepreneurs he interviewed found a way to exceed expectations.

An example of exceeding expectations

I want to give you a real-life example of what it means to exceed expectations.  I used to use Walmart grocery pickup service. I would place my order then I would go to pick up my order a day or two or three later. I would pull in, I would wait for 5, maybe 10 minutes. Once, I waited for 45 minutes. That was not meeting my expectations, but 5 to 10 minutes was okay. That’s meeting my expectations. They would bring out my food. Most of the time they had most of what I had ordered. There might have been an item or two missing. There may have been a few times where there were multiple items missing. They were kind about it and they generally met my expectations. But they never exceeded them.

A few years back we got a new Smith’s marketplace where I live and I decided to give their grocery pick up a try. I placed my order online.  I pull up and I call them on the phone, I say, “Hey, I’m here for my pickup.” Within 30 seconds, no kidding, they had my food out to me. Whoa! Expectations exceeded. Absolutely exceeded.

When they did not have something I wanted, they would go above and beyond to replace it. I’m not talking about going from a 12 egg to 18 egg count, although that happens. I am talking about huge upgrades, even with meat. Say I ordered a one pack roast and they give me a two-pack for the same price as one. I mean, we’re talking like a $15 difference here, a $20 roast for the price of one because they didn’t have the one pack. They would go way above and beyond. 

One time I got home and I was unpacking my groceries and I got a phone call and they said, “This is Smiths, we have your laundry detergent here. We missed it, We didn’t get it in your car for you. We’re so sorry. We’re going to run it over to your house. They drove my laundry detergent to my house!” I am absolutely, beyond loyal to Smith’s grocery pickup now because they have exceeded my expectations.

When you as a business, meet someone’s expectations, you don’t necessarily drive customers away. They don’t hate you. I don’t hate anything about Walmart’s grocery pickup, but am I going to go rave about it to my friends? Nope. Am I going to stay 100% loyal and shop there every single week? Nope. 

But I tell everybody I know about Smith’s grocery pickup and I shop there every single week, even though they charge me $5 and Walmart does it for free. I want you to find ways to exceed your customer’s expectations from the day they learn about you all the way through their entire journey with you.

The #1 tip for building loyal customers with content marketing

Today I’m going to give you my #1 tip for doing so: video.

I’m not talking about just going live to a large group of people, to your Facebook group or on Instagram stories. I am talking about one on one videos. Now you might say is that’s not really scalable. You’re right, it’s not. It absolutely is not.

Right now at the point my business is at, I can use this strategy with almost everybody. But my last business was far larger than my current business is. I was not able to use this strategy with every person, but I could still use it on occasion. I could still use it once a day.

You are looking to delight your customers. And when you delight one, they will tell other people about you. They will rave about you. They will advertise for you for free.

Here’s what I mean by personal, one-on-one videos. Someone joined your Facebook group, hop on Facebook messenger and send them a 30-second welcome. It’s not hard. You can do it anywhere you are. You can do it while you’re walking in the grocery store –  even better because then they will see you as a real person.

You can do it while you’re at the park with your kids. They’re off playing and you pick up the phone for 20 seconds and just say, “Hey, welcome to my community, my tribe. I am so happy you’re here. How can I help?”

You can do this for thank you videos. Somebody purchases a product, send them a thank you video. You can do that through email, through something like Bonjoro . You can go right back to Facebook messenger. You can go to Instagram messenger. You can send them a video and say, “thank you so much for trusting me enough to purchase something from me. How can I help?”

You can answer a question. If you have a Facebook group and somebody asks a question there and it’s a little bit complicated, why don’t you hop on Facebook messenger and send them a reply? Or you could create a live video right there in the Facebook group answering their question. Take a minute, two minutes, and do that for them. 

I have found one way to scale this one-on-one video idea. I have created a community called the Ask Me Anything Group, you can ask me anything and I will answer it. Any question you have about your business! 

Your assignment for today is to find a way to use one-on-one video in your business every working day. So if you work Monday, Wednesday, Friday, use it Monday, Wednesday, Friday. If you work Monday through Friday, use it Monday through Friday. If you only work Saturdays, use it every Saturday. But I want you to send one one-to-one video every working day for the next week.

I am so excited to hear how it goes. 

Coming Up

In the next episode, I am going to be giving you another of my favorite tips for creating super fans, highly loyal customers, that advertise for you and purchase from you again and again.