Without customers and clients, being in business is pointless. To grow the bottom line and have business longevity, having loyal and happy people buying your products and services is vital.

But it is becoming more challenging to build brand loyalty and connection with those who need your products and services. The market is flooded with multiple options for people to choose from, so finding a way to stand out starts and ends with how much love you can throw the way of your prospective customers and clients. Not only to attract them to do business with you but to come back for more, over and over and over again.

Regardless of your industry, niche, product or service, there are some basic client love strategies you can implement today to build raving fans of all you do.

1. Put people at the heart of all you do

this is an aspect of business many, especially those just starting out, overlook. We apply ‘design thinking’; it is a process that helps teams understand their customers/clients and design tailored solutions. By knowing whom you are servicing, what’s important to them, their likes and dislikes, and conducting a deep dive into their lifestyle, how they interact with consumer brands online and offline, what their goals are and other important insights about them, you are better able to connect with them. This connection builds relationships. Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation and many of the world’s leading brands such as Apple, Google, Nike and Samsung have adopted design thinking. Collect data about your current and target clients/ customers, and analyse it. By having a deep interest in developing an understanding of who you are servicing, you develop empathy and understanding of your client/customer. Remember the people who you are working with are people first and foremost.

2. Go above and beyond

sometimes you have to give to get. What is something you can do to add value to your service or product offering? We run a real estate agency and found many of our property investment clients had no real strategies in place – everything was reactive. So when they purchased a property, there was no plan on how to maximise tax savings from it and when a tenant moved out, there was no plan for upgrading the property to grow the rental income. We created a 10-year rolling Maintenance and Growth Plan as a complimentary value-add service; it takes us a lot of time, and it’s worth it; our clients love it because we save and make them thousands of dollars, while we improve our client retention and referrals.

3. Keep improving your service

it is important to map out your client/customer touch points, so you can plan, measure and track how you are interacting with them. At each of these touch points, it is good to ask ‘How am I wowing my client? How satisfied are they by my services? What are we doing well or could do better?’ If you are unsure how you are impacting your audience, ask them or look at businesses that are excelling at customer service. Being client-centric means you are always tweaking and adapting your systems and processes, so you can continuously improve across the board. Customer experience should be a systemic approach.

4. Engage with them often

continuous communication is important to build relationships. This means having communication channels that enable your clients/customers to connect with you on a regular basis. Depending on your products or services, this could include digital/ online, phone and face-to-face engagement – make it as personalised and integrated as possible. Think about what interests your client/ customer. By connecting regularly and meaningfully, trust is built as you get to know each other. This is important for brand loyalty, and builds emotional capital for when you have to deliver less than stellar news.

5. Be true to your values

our values are at the heart of all we do. They are integral to every interaction we have with our clients – our values communicate what is important to us. We clearly showcase them on our website and when a new client is researching an agent to work with, our clearly communicated values stand out. The prospective client gets a sneak peak into who we are and what we stand for. Every time we make a decision or try something new, we go back to our values.

By being client-centric, you build a culture of doing business that focuses on creating the best experience for the customer/client, building trust and brand loyalty…and that is good for everyone.

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