6 Tips for Keeping Your Online Customers Loyal

1. Use customer reviews

  Online reviews are as essential now as word-of-mouth recommendations were in the past. Anyone visiting your site should see some social proof - recommendations that your products or services are worth buying. Positive reviews build trust in increasingly skeptical and distrusting consumers. Basically, without trust, you have no long-term success as a business.

  So, make sure your customers can leave a review post-purchase. This also goes a long way to establishing trust in your business.

2. Keep content up-to-date

  As mentioned before, shoppers are skeptical. They're also fickle and flighty, easily tempted away from your site to someone else's. It's just like window-shopping in a mall, browsing before deciding to step inside a store. So that's why you need to make your site more tempting and interesting than your competitors'.
Just as bricks-and-mortar stores regularly change their window displays, you need to keep your content fresh and up-to-date. This means new blog posts, new products and images. It also means keeping your social media updated. A languishing Twitter or Facebook account will make your customers wonder if you're still in business.

3. Stay in touch regularly

  It's vital to stay in touch with your customers. You don't need to go overboard and contact them too often, but a bi-weekly or monthly message letting them know about new products is effective, as it keeps your company in their minds.

  You might also want to be more specific and personalized and offer them discounts on products they bought in the past or tell them about new ones they might be interested in. Just make sure you don't bombard them too often with messages. That can be a turn off.

4. Be flexible

  As stated before, customers can be fickle and flighty and that means they change their minds sometimes. If you need to offer a refund or exchange products, ensure this can be done as easily and as quickly as possible for your customer.

  If you give them a smooth and hassle-free experience, you're more likely to retain their custom.

5. Find out how they found you

  This is essential for your future marketing analysis. It could include a simple contact form at the end of the check-out process asking how the customer found you, listing various options (search engines, Facebook, recommendation, other, etc.).

  With this valuable information, you can work out the best ways to advertise your business. If lots of customers discover your business through Facebook, for example, you could choose to invest more time in posting updates and offers there.

6. Ask for their feedback

  This links to point number 1. You obviously want great feedback, but even feedback that suggests the contrary is valuable. It gives you vital insight into your customer's experience and shows what you're doing well and what needs to be improved.

  So, include a "Rate our service" button in the email you send to customers confirming the order has been processed and also offer a comments box. Re-send this email once delivery is completed. You can then use the positive recommendations as customer reviews on your site. Any less-than-positive comments can be used to improve your service. Either way, you benefit!

  Kay Hutchings-Olsson is a direct-response copywriter at KHO Copywriting. She specializes in writing copy for the self-help and natural health markets, and believes the best way to help others is to help yourself too. To find out more about how she can help your business, visit her website at http://www.khocopywriting.com

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