Customer loyalty matters, because selling more to current customers is easier and cheaper than finding and selling to new ones. Loyal customers tend to buy more, more regularly. And they will frequently recommend your business to others.
Public Relations, by definition, is how people think and feel about you. So if your PR activities are up to scratch, by default you’re going to have loyal customers.
Here are my PR tips for customer loyalty:
Understand the true purpose of PR. Effective PR is in large part about building trust and developing relationships. You want to create and maintain a strong feeling with customers so they are continually choose and recommend you.
Use PR to enhance your brand. I’m not talking logos and snazzy tag lines here. Branding that builds customer loyalty goes beyond what the eye can see. Great public relations builds brand at the emotional, gut-feeling, sensory and intuitive level.
Understand what your customers are paying for
You may think it’s your expertise. Yet the only way a customer can evaluate your expertise is through your credentials. What they can assess is positive outcomes. Did I feel good using this business? Did I feel valued? Just like the client I mentioned. He felt he could trust me – as his PR sat nav – to get him to where he needed to go.
Outcomes matter
Feeling valued and appreciated will only take you so far with customer loyalty. They need to see results and learn something from you to make it worth their while to continue as a customer. Here your PR activities need to involve showcasing the outcomes, or, if there’s a lag on results, being honest, explaining what you’re doing to get the right outcome, and reminding them what you’ve achieved for similar customers to maintain trust.