As a small business owner concerned with getting your company off the ground, you’re probably extremely worried about financial management and revenue growth. This is a critical time for you to thoroughly promote your products and services to acquire new customers. It’s also the perfect opportunity to convert these customers into long-term, loyal patrons of your business.

Because acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer, focusing on long-term customers is a cost-effective choice for small businesses. Let’s examine four best practices for securing loyal customers and boosting your business’s revenue.

Understand your customers’ needs

To secure loyal customers for your small business, research and fully understand their needs and how your business meets them. This is the baseline your business should meet to encourage customers to make repeat purchases. After all, if your products or services don’t satisfy your customers, they might not make a second purchase.

Then, develop detailed customer personas to help you meet those needs. Use these questions as a starting point:

  • What are the characteristics of your ideal customer?
  • What are their goals or needs?
  • What are their values and interests?
  • What challenges or obstacles do they face in relation to products or services like yours?
  • What do their purchasing behaviors look like?
  • What motivates their purchasing decisions?
  • Is there anything else your customers want from you?

For example, let’s say you run a yarn-selling business with a brick-and-mortar store. Based on your customer research, you discover that your customers are generally sustainability-minded individuals who prefer to spend their money on high-quality, eco-friendly products, even if they come at a greater price. In that case, you know that you should source environmentally friendly yarn products for your store. You might also consider partnering with local sustainability-focused nonprofits to further demonstrate that you’re aligned with your customers’ expectations.

Strengthen your relationships with customers

After ensuring that your products and services meet the baseline standards for your customers’ needs, you can focus on strengthening your relationships with them. This is a crucial step that can transform customers from being merely satisfied with your offerings to being excited about making a future purchase.

Here are a few things you should offer to strengthen your customer relationships:

  • Consistent product and service quality. Provide customers with reliable, good-quality products and services to demonstrate that you have their interests at heart. Think back to the last time you bought a defective product. Did it make you feel confident in purchasing from that company again? Probably not!
  • Great customer service. Provide top-notch service to make customers feel good about purchasing from your small business. If you run a brick-and-mortar store, be attentive to any questions customers might have and help them out when they have any needs. If your store is run through an e-commerce platform, include thorough descriptions of your products and your contact information so customers can reach out.
  • Frequent communication. This means keeping your business top of mind by keeping in contact with customers through various marketing channels, including text messages, email, social media, and more. Introduce new products, announce upcoming sales, and invite customers to events to keep them connected and coming back to your business.

Let’s consider how these strategies would apply to a massage business:

  • Product and service quality: The therapists might take SOAP notes to improve the quality of their care. This allows them to make notes about their customers, such as if they prefer a certain level of pressure or a specific scent for aromatherapy.
  • Customer service: Massage businesses might improve customer service by having therapists greet customers warmly and remain receptive to feedback during a massage. Additionally, they might offer water or a small snack after each massage to make the experience more pleasant.
  • Communication: The practice might send biweekly emails featuring new services, sales, and therapist specialties to attract attention and help clients familiarize themselves with the business’s offerings.

Consider how your small business can improve in these areas—and don’t be afraid to think out of the box or get creative!

Incentivize repeat purchases

Every business knows the value of a good discount or sale—these tools incentivize customers to make a purchase. There are even referral programs specifically designed to leverage existing customer networks to acquire new customers. However, if you’re looking to secure long-term customers, then you’ll want to create programs that incentivize repeat purchases.

MassageBook recommends these two strategies to increase sales and bookings:

  • Membership Programs. Just like nonprofits secure sustainable revenue through recurring giving programs, membership programs allow small businesses to provide their products and services for a monthly fee. Clients will pay you monthly for a set amount of products or services (typically at a slightly discounted price), allowing you to grow your number of regular customers and provide a reliable revenue stream for you to count on.
  • Rewards Programs. Rewards programs take various forms, but the most popular is one where customers accrue a set number of points per purchase they make at your business. They can then redeem points for perks like a discount on their next purchase. This incentivizes customers to continue patronizing your small business!

To take these strategies further, follow Sneakers4Good’s advice and create tiered and customizable programs that fulfill each customer’s needs and expectations.

If you run a gym, for instance, don’t just offer a monthly membership that provides community members unlimited access to your facilities and group classes. Some of your customers may be interested in a cheaper membership that allows them to attend only group fitness classes, and others may be uninterested in classes and only want solo gym time.

The same principle applies to rewards programs. Allow customers to redeem their rewards points for various perks and benefits—aside from discounts, you can offer them free items and services, gift cards, and more. Don’t limit them to just one type of benefit!

Assess data and ask for feedback

To gauge whether the steps you’ve taken are effective in securing long-term customers for your small business, track key metrics such as:

  • Customer retention rate
  • Customer lifetime value
  • Repeat purchase rate
  • Average purchase value
  • Average purchase frequency
  • Marketing engagement rate

Ideally, you should be using a comprehensive solution that caters to your specific industry and allows for robust reporting. For instance, a massage business would use massage therapy software with data and analytics features. This will ensure that your data is relevant to your goals and easily accessible for actionable insights.

Aside from analyzing key metrics, you can also go straight to the source and seek your customers’ opinions. Just as nonprofits ask their donors and volunteers for feedback on their programs and activities, your business can ask clients about their purchasing experience. This also gives you access to other key data points, such as a customer satisfaction score. Be sure to implement the feedback you receive to improve your relationship with customers and boost loyalty.

Long-term customers provide enormous value for small businesses trying to get off the ground. Use the tips in this guide to help you build relationships with new customers, convert them into loyal patrons, and grow your small business’s revenue.