Customer loyalty tends to come from two things:
1) Your product/service is currently the best available on the market.
2) You’ve developed a strong relationship with your clientele.
From a marketing standpoint, there isn’t much to be said or done about the first scenario. If your product/service is the best, you kind of have to let it speak for itself. You can make graphs and tables of different statistics to show your superiority, but going beyond that comes off as obnoxious: “They’re not the best. We’re the best. Look at how we’re the best.”
A customer can appreciate confidence in a product/service, but it gets old if that’s all you’re pitching.
The second scenario is the real Holy Grail. If you somehow manage to tap into the human side of business interactions, a world of possibilities begins to take shape for the future of your company.
The Social Realm
The greatest thing about social media is access. Nowadays, nearly every business has those little Facebook/Twitter stickers smack dab on the front window. The stickers are an invitation to engage the customer outside of the simple transaction that takes place.
Having social media accounts will give your irrigation business the opportunity to be relevant wherever your clients or employees go, whether it’s an update on their smartphone, computer screen, or even on their smart TV. These devices have the capability to bring your product/service directly to your potential and current customers in a lot of sophisticated ways.
However, thanks to filters and other blockers that exist on these social media platforms, it’s not enough to just get a ‘like’ or ‘follow’. You now must bear the burden of providing content.
Engage and Enlighten
People put a lot of stock into being relevant online, or to be ‘trending’. True, this would be a great way to get your name out to potential clients, but it’s not exactly a benefit if you want to keep customers loyal.
The trick isn’t to have the spotlight on you, but to put the spotlight on us. Keeping a strong connection means maintaining near-constant contact with your base. Stay current with what’s going on around your area. Ask questions. Go the extra mile by exploring the character of the type of people you’re selling services/products to.
Everyone has stories and so does your company. Tap into the background and history of how you came to be and how that relates to your customers. It would be nice to be able to just sit and talk with clients, but that’s not always as feasible as a quick Facebook post, Tweet,pin or even an email chain.
You don’t have to tell your life story, just highlight the little intricacies and cool tid-bits that make your field service company interesting. Sometimes people prefer reading factoids to reading straight facts. It’s great having a reliable client base with a reliable source of business. You just have to keep that relationship from stagnating. The best way to do that is to develop your own persona (as a business) and engage with your clients.
When done right, customers will see your business more and more as part of their community, rather than a company. You’ll start to see your client base expand on its own accord, thanks to these strong ties you’ve sewn over time. It’s hard to lose business when you keep giving people reasons to like you.
