Industry tips: How to get raving fans for your brand

19 April 2024

What do your customers say about your brand when you’re not looking?

Often, too many businesses fall under the trap of overt focus on optimizing sales funnels but not so much on customer care or experience. The result: short-term business goals are achieved but long-lasting relationships—which often lead to repeat purchases from a loyal customer base—are not sustained.

How then can you turn customers into your brand’s raving fans?

Proactively ask for feedback from your customers

Do your routine checks and automate the process. Create several touchpoints throughout your buyer’s user journey. For instance, you can start by sending a How are we doing or Tell us how we can improve our product/service email a few days after a purchase has been delivered or a service has been rendered.

It’s time to ditch the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality.

Address negative reviews with utmost care

Did you know that on average, complaints about a company’s customer care service have twice as much reach as positive feedback? This is not to say that your brand can be immune to bashers or frustrated customers. It’s all about handling it personally and promptly.

As much as possible, reach out to detractors via personal message. You can also opt to address them by name when addressing public feedback. Remember to not retaliate. Be empathetic and resolve issues as quickly as possible.

Engage with your customers regularly

Don’t see your customers only as one-off transactions. Engage in meaningful after-sales care and get the connection going to generate repeat business. For one, you can build and nurture social media community groups where you can post polls pertaining to a new product/service (which can later be used as points of improvement), get a wealth of testimonials for your brand’s social proof, host giveaways, and more.

Whatever platform you choose, make sure that your customers’ thoughts are seen, heard, and acknowledged.

Create a robust loyalty program

Remember that it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Loyalty could be points-based, value-based, tiered, or subscription-based. It all boils down to a keen understanding of what makes your customer tick.

For instance, Sephora’s Beauty Insider Program allows members to test out trial-sized products for free depending on the points they get from each purchase. This works well for their brand because experimentation is a fundamental building block for beauty products.

Incentivize referrals and reviews

Word of mouth is free advertising for your business. Give your customers a little nudge to tell people about your products and services through incentivization.

Airbnb made use of this strategy to increase sign-ups to their site. Through this program, users can get a coupon for future accommodation bookings when their referrals use their unique code upon booking. For extra measure, reward customers who share positive reviews on public databases like Yelp or Google.

Get raving fans for your brand with Pluxee Gift

Pluxee, previously Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services, lets you create a world of opportunities when it comes to consumer rewards.

With Pluxee Gift code, you can simplify the gifting experience with a web portal that lets you easily distribute your vouchers to your recipients’ SMS or email. Whether it’s used for increasing referrals, incentivizing reviews, creating a robust loyalty program, nurturing your social media community groups, or an unexpected personal touch to amp up customer delight, you’re bound to have fans for your brand in no time.