One of the most important reasons you want to build a brand is to build brand loyalty. You want your customers/clients to stick around and continue to buy your products or services. Think about this: nearly everyone has a preference between Pepsi and Coke and with that, typically comes an active dislike for the other brand. My mother, for example, has had a Pepsi every day for as long as I can remember. I have never seen her touch any other cola beverage. Does this mean that Coca-Cola has wronged her in some way? Not that I know of, she just prefers the taste of Pepsi. It’s alright if everyone doesn’t love your brand the most, you just want to build a rapport of loyal clients that keep coming back to you, and we are going to tell you how!
Quality of Products
Your products and services are a big deal. Your brand should be built around your offerings. If you are not sure whether you or your business have a brand, check out this article first! Following your own guidelines, you will be able to find your dream clients and then what? You need to make sure your products and services follow suit! The word “quality” is subjective; it means different things to different people. In this case, quality of products really means that your products should match your brand. If you have a luxury bakery called “Billion Dollar Dough” but sell frozen pizza and day-old bread, your customers will probably be disappointed and not return. However, if your brand is called “Dollar Dough”, your customers will feel like they are getting a good deal and continue to come back! The quality of your products and your price points will help build your brand.
Customer Service
You want to make sure that you are available to your clients, but do not be afraid to set boundaries when necessary. You probably don’t need to give out your home phone number, but it’s a good idea to answer emails in a timely fashion so that your clients feel well taken care of.
Being an active listener is an unbelievably valuable skill to have. Some people are natural listeners and feel they can understand what someone needs or wants before they even finish the sentence. If you allow your clients time to finish speaking about their wants/needs/concerns and then you reiterate to them that you understand what they are asking, it will make them feel valued and important.
The popular saying goes, “the customer is always right!” but I beg to differ. The customer is important, of course, but treating people with respect is top priority. It is vital to listen to your customers and be able to address any concerns or problems with professionalism, but I would expect the same from my customers.
Demographics
You would have discussed your target demographics or “dream clients” with your graphic designer/brand strategist. They would have taken this into consideration while building your brand concepts and guidelines.
The world is constantly changing around us, so you will have to revisit your demographics from time to time and make sure you are still reaching them. One of my personal favourite branding strategies is Wendy’s Twitter page; they like to be funny and high energy and it always makes me want to order there!
Consistency
You could probably tell the difference between an Apple product vs any of their competitors just by looking at them because, even though they sell several different products, they are consistent with how their products look and how they are branded. It is also the biggest reason why fast-food chains are so popular and so successful. You always get the same thing whether it’s from across the city or across the country. Being able to deliver consistency builds trust with your clients and even has them excited to return to you.
Now that you have these tools under your belt, you can use them to improve brand loyalty amongst your customers/clients. Take a look in each area and see how you could improve. If you feel stuck or need some guidance, please reach out to us!
If you are new to these concepts, you can get your FREE Brand Audit right on our homepage, here!